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Published: August 8th 2007
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On from the dolphins in Monkey Mia we headed to the famous Coral Bay which is along the Ningaloo Marine Park. Coral Bay is unique (as this part of the world is) because just off the beach was the coral reef. The aqua blue waters were nice and warm and provided excellent snorkelling just a few metres into the water. After a day of snorkelling and lounging in the sun, we decided to pay for the most expensive experience of a lifetime and basically the main attraction of the Coral Bay and Exmouth area, and that is to swim with the whale sharks. They are the worlds largest species of fish and come into the area every year for a couple of months.
So the next day we headed onto a boat which waits for a sighting from the plane above. After four hours on the boat with nothing, feeling quite hopeless and sea sick at that, we got the call! The shouting and rushing about for our gear was quite intense, everyone was so excited after the long wait. Our boat got their first so we got the first drop. It was a little scary to be honest because
the waters are dark and then all of a sudden there it is..coming right towards us. It was a small one, only about 2.5 metres, but still very impressive with its large horizontal mouth and spots covering it all over. Needless to say there were grins all around! After our exciting encounter we went for a snorkel in the deeper waters where we saw a shark as soon as we jumped into the water. Reef shark, among all the coral and schools of fish.
We went fishing in Coral Bay to which was fun, Clay caught this funny looking bottom feeder which was sharp to touch, so that was an effort removing it from the hook. Other than that we caught rocks...
From Coral Bay we did a supply run to the quaint little town of Exmouth, then into Cape Range National Park. The park was gorgeous with some lovely greenery (although no trees high enough to provide shade). We camped for four days in the park which was visited frequently by curious kangaroos trying to get into our garbage. We did the most amazing snorkelling in the park. Again part of Ningaloo Marine Park, there are various
Ningaloo Reef
big Sting Ray places just off the beach riddled with bright corals and various fish. Our most exciting sights include a big brown sting ray, a gorgeous blue spotted ray, a green sea turtle (which we swam with for who knows how long, watching eat chunks of coral), another shark, oysters with pyschadelic flesh, long narrow flute fish, and a spotted eel. The list of beautiful coloured fish is endless, we were spoiled. By the time we bought an underwater camera there were huge winds and the water got pretty disturbed so we weren't so lucky with that. Along with snorkelling we lounged at the quiet Sandy Bay where we fished, again with no luck, but good fun anyway.
On our way back to the camp after fishing is when out jumped a roo from behind a bush...and we hit it. I gasped as it happened so fast and couldn't muster up any other sort of response, and Clay just tried not to veer off the road. I think we clipped the end of him pretty good, (as I thought it actually went under the tires) but he hopped away...so we're not too sure what came of the poor fella.
After
a couple days in Exmouth we made the big trip to Karijini National Park about 730km, a fair effort in the blazing sun..no we don't have air conditioning. So we sweat to the oldies and get a bit of heat exhaustion by the time we reach our destination, but at least the road is now lined with grass and trees which is nicer to look at. Karijini NP has at least six different gorges which are very impressive. We first visited Dales Gorge where waterfalls form massive pools of fresh water which we took a nice swim in. Among the rock walls you can see the layers of iron ore and sicilica, so it's quite colourful. There are eucalypts which line the walls occasionally and the roots just stream down the wall. The next gorge walk we did was the most dangerous thing I think we've done without helmets and ropes..therefore I'd say it was my favourite. Weano Gorge included some rock climbing skills as we climb these little shelves which are too smooth for our shoes. We did some spiderwalking, (which I don't think my limbs are actually long enough for) over running water, my heart was bloody racing
to say
the least. Once we got successfully spider walked we entered a green pool adequetly named Kermits Pool. Through yet another eerily narrow passage, over the stream again we reach an udderly dangerous handrail where a rope leads you down into a huge pool surrounded by the gorge walls. It was almost the worst waterslide ever as Clay slipped and almost took us both out. Lucky he held onto to that handrail. So we carefully lowered ourselved to another lovely swimming hole.
Absolutely amazing time in the park, the flies weren't even that bad this time, although we had our protective head nets just in case. Camping in Karijini provided us with some new wildlife, or feral dogs I should say. Yup, our first dingo encounter. They have the most disturbing howl throughout the night, it's long sort of high pitched and eery. And we had a couple come through our site in the middle of the night looking for garbage. As I woke up I hit Clay who coincidentally was dreaming of dingos, and awoke with a kind of growl (which I'm sure was intended to scare away the dingo in his dream..lol) but freaked me out
Whale Shark
swimming with the whale shark - the biggest fish in the ocean instead.
After three nights in the park and using our camp shower for the first time, we headed out for another 700km + long journey to Broome, where we are currently camping in what can only be described as a shanti town, but we like to call it Sunnyvale Trailer Park. The caged area of tents where we are is always bumpin with boozers. We had a pissed up 46 yr old drop in on our card game and fall on the ground in the fetal position after our other freaky middle aged neighbour wanted to fight him. We then left our site to join some other Canadians and ended up going through our 2 litres of goon (bag wine) So haven't seen too much of Broome just yet as we hardly moved yesterday except to go to Cable Beach where there have been jelly fish stings recently and therefore makes for a nervous swim. Broome was our goal, so we're not too sure what we're doing from here...time will tell!
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Eveline Gerdung
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WoW!
What a trip! Will have a long talk about this when you get home! Love, Granny