Saturday 27.8.2011: 20 degrees - 30 degrees, sunny. At Exmouth. Packed up bus and went into the shopping area for supplies. Booked a Whale Shark tour for Tuesday, then walked out of the shop and along past a few other shops and literaly bumped into Paul Westcott who looked at us and blinked, he recognized Lloyd but his head was not in gear as to who Lloyd was, then it fell into place. Paul is the son of Lloyd’s fathers mate from WW2 days and had spent the last four months sailing from Pittwater to Exmouth with eight different crews. Lloyd knew that Paul was sailing around Australia but did not expect to see him. We were invited to have a look at his yacht called Gweneveive, at the marina. We packed our supplies in their places and went for a drive up to Vlamingh Head Lighthouse, watched the humpback whales playing, the water is beautiful and you can see a long way even the off shore gas and oil rigs.
Lighthouse and Nigaloo Reef
On the way back we called into the marina and called on Paul, his yacht is just beautiful, white with lots of polished wood and white leather upholstery and had all the modern bits and pieces, had a cuppa with him, then back to the camp ground and went for a walk to the beach before dinner.
Sunday 28.8.2011: 20 degrees - 30 degrees - sunny. Went to church to catch up with Lachlan Edwards our church youth leader at St Pauls about twenty years ago and who is now the Anglican Minister in Exmouth, who unfortunately, was in Manly for a conference this week, but we did catch up with his wife Bec and met his son who is 13 years old and is very much like Lachlan with Bec’s colouring and their daughter is about 9 or 10 years old and beautiful. We enjoyed the church service and seeing Lachlan’s family and his church.
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Sunday afternoon we walked to the Visitors Information Centre and checked on our booking for Monday, then we caught up with the trip diary.
Monday 29.8.2011: 20 degrees - 30 degrees - sunny. Our early morning start, we were picked up at 6.45 am by Neil McGregor (Macca) who runs West Trek Safaris. He picked us up in his Toyota Land Cruiser which is a six seater, we had a couple from Victoria, Lynette and Peter and a Spanish girl called Amalee, he drove us 14 kilometers south of Exmouth, then turned onto a dirt road and meandered over dry creek beds along the Shothole Creek gorge floor with colorful rock layers and sheer canyon walls. The canyon was named after the shot holes left by seismographic explosions during oil searches in the l950s.
Macca then took us back to the sealed road and continued south for 7 kilometers then turned onto a mostly gravel road and traveled 11 kilometers, the road follows the razor-backed ridge of the Charles Knife Road Canyons and we enjoyed the downward views into the stark multicolored gorges. Macca loved the area and was very knowledgeable about the wildflowers, animals, birds and even the little lizards, stopping to pick up a little orange and white striped mountain devil, which looked very prickly but he assured us it would not hurt us and he placed it on our hands. We stopped for morning tea on the top of the ridge and then back in the Land Cruiser we returned to the highway and drove further south then turned onto a station track .We bumped,and then rattled and rolled along the four wheel drive road which had not had any work on it since the 1950’s. The track took us up and over the Cape Range through different types of vegetation and then we bumped slowly over the top admiring the beautiful turquoise colored water of Ningaloo Reef. We finally inched our way down the steep hillside after 3 ½ hours 4 wheel driving, to Cape Range National Park and Yardie Creek where we had a boat trip up the spectacular multi-colored Yardie gorge with permanent water fed from a spring. We saw black-footed rock wallabies, lots of birdlife and there were lots of fish in the creek.
After the boat ride Macca had our picnic lunch ready and waiting for us, we then drove along the flat sandy country heading north to Turquoise Bay and Macca stopped for us to experience snorkeling in the bay, it was really beautiful, we saw all sorts of fish, large, small, black and white, yellow, green and all sorts of coral which was colored here and there, an amazing sight. After snorkeling we were back in the four wheel drive seeing emus, euros (small kangaroos), and horses, Macca drove us up to Vlamingh Head Lighthouse where we watched the humpback whales playing in the late afternoon sun. After a full on day Macca dropped us back at the Camping Ground at 6 pm, we had a great day and learnt a lot from Macca.
Tuesday 30.8.2011: 19 degrees - 26 degrees - cloudy, windy and a bit of sun. Another early morning pick up at 7.15 am by Ningaloo Reef Dreaming to swim with the whale sharks. We were picked up in a Coaster bus and driven about 20 or 30 kilometers to where the boat was moored and we were ferried to the boat in a rubber duckie. The boat was a big open type of boat with seats either side and plenty of room for the 20 of us passengers mostly German tourists, one from Denmark and about 5 Aussies and the 3 crew, it had a small cabin up the front and a toilet and the captain drove the boat from the top deck. We were taken outside the Ningaloo Reef and they issued us with goggles, snorkel and fins and we were shown how to walk in fins to the end of the boat and how to get back on the boat and then we had to jump into the water to see we could all swim, I had trouble breathing as the waves were very constant and seemed to be filling up my snorkel very quickly, so it didn’t take me long to decide I would watch the whale sharks from the boat, but I was pleased I had tried, I thought I was very brave jumping into the ocean. Lloyd was also having a bit of trouble and he swallowed a lot of salt water.
The captain drove us a long way down the reef and we saw humpback whales and a female humpback feeding her calf she seemed to be just on the surface and the little one moved around a bit, they were there for a long time and the captain told us the milk is like the consistency of toothpaste and it takes the calf a good hour to feed. We had morning tea and about 10.30am the spotter plane told us he had found about 7 whale sharks, so the captain was off at full speed to the place where the whale sharks had been spotted. The first group were told to get ready with goggles, snorkel and fins and when the whale shark had been spotted one of the crew was the first in the water and would swim with her arm in the air then all the others in her team would jump in the water and swim behind her in a line with their heads to one side to view the whale shark and some would swim on the other side of the whale shark with their heads on the side, you had to be 3 meters from the sides of the whale shark and 4 meters from his tail. After about 15 to 20 minutes that team would come back to the boat and the other team would then have a turn to swim, and they would continue one team in one team out for about 1 hour. Lloyd decided he really wanted to see the whale shark so he donned his goggles, snorkel and fins and in he went with his team, he said it was amazing this really big gentle creature with a really wide mouth and lots of little fish swimming about his mouth which he did not eat as he only eats krill. The tail was just moving slowly and it was easy to keep up with the shark and get a good look - it was only a little below the surface. All I saw from the captains deck was a dark blob in the water and when the sun came out I saw the spots on the whale shark. The 2 teams swam with 2 different whale sharks one about 6 meters and the other about 7 meters long.
The crew prepared a lovely salad and fruit platter for lunch and as the captain drove us back towards the\ mooring we spotted a dugong, a humpback whale completely jump out of the water making an enormous splash and dolphins, it was a beautiful day. Back at the mooring those who wished to swim and see the coral and colored fish could snorkel. We were ferried back to the wharf in the rubber duckie and bussed back to our camp grounds, it was a great day out.
Wednesday 31.8.2001: 20 degrees - 28 degrees - sunny any cloudy. We drove 150 kilometers to Coral Bay, arriving about 1.30pm, we went straight to the Peoples Van Park which is the second Van Park, we asked for a powered site and the guy said he had just sold the last one, Lloyd said we only had a Coaster bus, and the guy said, just a moment there is a coaster down the end and he is having battery trouble, if you have a coffee I will check what he is up to, so we went to have a coffee and ran into the couple we were next to at Exmouth, the manager came back and found us and said we could move to the site the other Coaster was almost ready to go. We couldn’t believe how lucky we were, the site was the best in the park, closest to the water and lovely and grassy.
Thursday 1.9.2011: 20 degrees - 29 degrees - sunny. Had a lazy day checking out the area and walking along the beach.
Friday 2.9.2011: 20 degrees - 29 degrees - rain and sun. Booked a Quad bike tour and after the torrential downpour at daybreak,(first rain in 4 months) four of us turned up for the tour, so off we went along sandy tracks up and down sand dunes we saw turtles and saw a lot of sand, traveled at up to 45 kilometers per hour and covered a lot of area, saw the area where the reef sharks have their young and the area where the manta rays are usually sighted, but I guess after the heavy rain the sharks and manta rays were not going to show themselves, but it was an experience.
Saturday 3.9.2011: 20 degrees - 28 degrees - sunny, windy and cloudy. Booked a glass bottom boat ride to view the coral as it was a bit too chilly to snorkel. It was very nice and we saw a lot of coral but I thought the snorkeling would have been better, the boat seems to put the coral in a shadow and it looks dull. Most of the coral here is green to brown colour as the coral polops don’t get enough of the right food for photosynthesis to take place to generate the bright corals seen elsewhere.
At 3.30pm we went to see the fish feeding and these very big silver Emperors just swam around your feet as well as beautiful greeny blue parrot fish.
Sunday 4.9.2011: 20 degrees - 28 degrees - sunny. Drove 234 kilometers to Carnarvon, stayed at the Wintersun Van Park and had a rest.
Monday 5.9.2011: 17 degrees - 27 degrees - very windy. Drove into the town found the refrigeration service and repair business to organise a repair of our refrigerator then shopped and went to the old 1 mile jetty, but it was too windy to go out, so we decided to come back tomorrow.
Tuesday 6.9.2011: 16 degrees - 27 degrees - windy. The refrigeration technician came out at 8am and replaced the AC power heater in our refrigerator and it’s now working properly again. The Frig repairers here are the only ones within 1000 km of where we have been. Drove to the 1 mile jetty and caught the Coffee Pot Train out to the end of the jetty, Lloyd had a go at fishing, too windy - no fish. Did a drive around tour of Carnarvon
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| Carnarvon Waterfront |
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| Main Street |
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| Wind blown trees - it sure blows here |
Wednesday 7.9.2011: 16 degrees - 27 degrees - windy and sunny. Drove about 80 kilometers north of Carnarvon to Quabba and saw the blowholes, it is amazing, the limestone rock you walk on, looks like petrified mud with small stones in it and it is all bubbly looking. Over the edge of the cliff where the blowholes are, there are quite a few small holes the size of a stone and a couple of larger holes about 30 centimeters across or a little bit bigger, and a powerful jet of water is forced with terrific pressure sometimes to a height of 20 meters. We saw the humpback whales playing in the water and throwing themselves out of the water and making a tremendous splash when they landed, also near the blowholes were turtles in the water.
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warning sign     |
We drove around the area and saw the camping area where a ranger comes around to collect your fees, it is not very expensive, but there is no fresh water. We saw lots of old fishing shacks in the bush, and were amazed they had not blown away when the cyclone hit the Gascoyne area about six months ago. There is a protected lagoon with coral growing but was too windy and cool to swim.
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| Throne room at csamp ground |
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| View from throne room |
On the way back to the Van Park, we drove down the Gascoyne Food Trail amongst the plantations where they grow all their fruit and vegetables, the area seems to be very productive with lots and lots of farms growing bananas, mangoes, citrus trees, lots of different vegetables, grapes, tomatoes and lots more. The agriculture is possible due to the river providing water for irrigation. The river is upside down in that most of the water flows beneath the sandy river bottom - only a few large pools are visible on the surface. Apparently the area produces about 80% of WA’s fruit and vegies.
We had heard the cyclone and floods earlier in the year, had caused a lot of sand build up in the river and the prawning industry were suffering as there were no prawns in the river, and we do not know what else has suffered. We decided to leave for Monkey Mia tomorrow taking two days to get there and possibly catching up with several people we have met on the way.
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