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Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Exmouth
December 11th 2008
Published: January 20th 2009
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After a bit of a debate about where to go, we settled on Exmouth which was slightly out of our way on a peninsula. There were two potential settlements that provided a gateway to the Ningaloo Reef Marine Park and this was the largest of the two, so there were more tours running from there, plus it gave us access to a national park with lots of stunning scenery and wildlife. The other option had been Coral Bay, but we figured that we could spend a night there afterwards if we liked the look of it as it was on the way south.

We filled up with fuel and got set for another epic drive. Initially we saw plenty of traffic, but as we went further into the desert, it was just us again.

It was a long drive. Our sat nav kept proudly saying ‘go straight for the next’ so many hundred km, every now and again just to show us that it hadn’t gone to sleep.

The landscape slowly changed before our eyes as we drove further south. The soil had been an intense red when we landed in Broome, but it had now started to fade to to a burnt orange. The ground had been covered in plumes of blonde grass, but the patches were now looking more green in places. One thing stayed the same; there were still plenty of massive termite mounds everywhere. Some were only a few cm in height, but others were taller than Matt. At one point we had to stop so that he could have his picture taken standing next to one.

As we got back into the van and carried on, I realised that I felt a connection with Western Australia. The east coast felt a long way away - it was as though we were in a different continent. It felt like more of an adventure travelling this part of the country. We’d seen more wildlife in a few days here than we had in weeks on the east coast. However, even though I was loving it, I also realised at the same time I was missing the lush green hills of NZ.

We got quite excited as we approached the turn off to the Exmouth peninsula. We’d travelled a good hundred kms looking longingly at the map on the sat nav screen which showed us there was a turning coming. At one point it felt like it would never come, but suddenly the GPS voice proudly announced that it was time to turn.

We expected the road up to Exmouth to be busier, shorter and less desert like than it turned out to be. In actual fact we didn’t pass a single car until we were on the outskirts of town and driving up felt like we were on an endless road to nowhere. Out of all the roads we’d driven, this was the one where I wouldn’t want to break down!

As we approached the edge of town, we spotted a family of emus wandering by the side of the road. There were more outside the visitors centre, where we called in to pick up some tour leaflets.

By the time we left the visitors centre we’d selected a day safari tour for the following day. After checking into the Exmouth Cape campsite across the road, we headed to the few shops that made up the town centre to go to the supermarket. By the time we pulled into our pitch the sun was already going down and by the time we‘d finished dinner, it was time to go to bed.



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