The journey from Tom Price to Exmouth was long (600 +kms) but not too arduous. We got on the road just after 7.30 am. Plenty of stops, change drivers regularly and listen to podcasts. That certainly has helped while away the kms on this journey. A couple of good ones have been “Dirty John” (an American one), “The Teacher’s Pet (an Australian cold case investigation), Annabelle Crabbe and Leigh Sales, “Dead Wrong” and “Australian True Crimes”.
Exmouth is another “purpose built” town. Military bases and Naval Telecommunications (by the Americans) were the origins. In the mid 1960’s, the Harold E Holt Naval Telecommunications Towers were built. The main tower is the second highest structure in Australia, about 375 m high. Eureka Tower in Melbourne is about 300m.
The town was built after the towers and completed in 1967.
The free roaming emus are a regular sight, even down the Main Street. This one, and another, were just roaming alongside the road on our way out to the lighthouse.
Exmouth is on a point that faces the East. The gulf is quite sheltered and a fisherman’s haven.
On the other side of the point, facing West is Ningaloo Reef, a world heritage listed area.
The point was also a strategic military viewpoint during WW 2. Sandbagging still remains around this weapons structure.
Looking North
Westerly view with a few gnarly waves.
The marina at Exmouth. Lots of houses have been built along the arms of the marina. Not cheap!
Exmouth Golf Course
Whale watch sunset cruise.
Plenty of whales to be seen. Hard to get the good pictures though!
Another sunset!
We had the bonus of a sunset to the west over water and a full moon rise to the east over water on the same day!
On Monday, we moved on to Yardie Homestead Caravan Park, about 30 mins from Exmouth! A big day. This place is just outside the Cape Range National Park. There are about 150 camping spots along the beach area in the NP, but they are usually booked out from April to October. This place is quite large, plenty of sites available (some drinking water available, and limited power. We chose not to have power as all you could use was the refrigerator, and lights. Anything else would over load the park’s generator. Using gas and battery power, works fine for us. This park is also a good base to visit all the accessible spots along th Ningaloo Reef.
Getting ready to snorkel off the beach at Ningaloo Reef (Lakeside).
You only have to go out about 10m and there are amazing fish swimming around you. The darker patches are the coral areas, with an abundance of fish. Russell saw a reef shark (harmless) yesterday. We did spot a turtle from the shore, but didn’t see it when we were in the water.
Oyster Stacks at hightide. It was a bit harder to access the water because of the rocks, but it was amazing marine life. I reckon I was in knee deep water when I saw the first fish this morning.
Sandy Bay for our picnic lunch.
Whilst sitting here, we spotted whales breaching into the air from a km away. It was on the other side of the reef. We were stunned that we could see them. They threw themselves that far out of the water. 3 times within a minute! If they had done that near the boat on Sunday’s cruise, we would have been swamped. (As well as dacked ourselves).
More emus.
Sandy Bay, the water colour is amazing.
Yardie Creek. Crossing for the experienced. This guy is wading through, assessing the best course of action, as they are parked on the other side. It is tidal, so care needed.
He almost got stuck on our side, but worked hard to get up the hill. Might have made it tough for the next person going through, as he spun the tyres and gouged a fair hole.
Back at Oyster Stacks after the tide has gone out, about half way. We snorkeled around those rocks this morning, now exposed, so you get an idea of how far we were out, not far!
A funny story from Monday morning, before we left Exmouth. I did another load of washing, as we don’t have power here at Yardie Homestead Caravan Park. Let’s call it my E2 moment. I loaded the machine, turned the water on, power on, select cycle, push go. E2 flashes up on the panel and beeps away. Turn off, try again, rebalance load, try again, same thing keeps happening. Back to basics, get out the instruction and troubleshoot! E2 means - close the lid! Duffus! So now if one of us does something “dumb”, it will be forever known as an “E2” moment.
Packing up tomorrow, heading to Coral Bay for a couple of nights. About 200km as we have to back track trough Exmouth.
Bye for now.
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