24 August – 27 August 2013 – Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range National Park

We were up early this morning (which wasn’t too difficult considering all the noise from the trucks) and left having the slightest hope that we might get into a campground of Cape Range National Park.  It was to take us a few hours from our stopover to get to Exmouth, then a bit further again to the entrance of the N.P.  We stopped in at Exmouth on the way through to fill up with fuel and in doing so got to see a lot of variety bash cars leaving the town.  It was around 10am that we arrived at the entrance gate and there were no available sites – this is what we expected.  We have heard that cars begin to line up the night before or as early as 5am for a spot, even though the entrance gates don’t open for campsites until 8am.  I think once people get a spot, staying on the Ningaloo Reef is so lovely that they simply don’t want to leave this place.  We enquired about the Woods family and they had checked into a site very early this morning so we headed in to find them anyway.  We knew they were at the Mesa Campground and although they weren’t there, we hung about at their campsite and had a look around.  We headed down onto the beach and viewed the stunning water, reefs and white sand.  We were only there for 20 minutes before the Woods turned up so we stayed for a cuppa and caught up with them, then had a bite for lunch before all deciding it was time to hit the crystal clear turquoise water.  We grabbed our snorkelling gear out of the van and were ready to go.  As we snorkelled out towards the reef, we saw quite a few colourful fish but there was also many jellyfish.  Although these were not dangerous it was funny to hear the squeals of all the kids when they came near.  I was snorkelling around with Zoe and at one point we seemed to be surrounded by them and every time we turned about she would let out a squeal.  We saw that most of the others had gone in and decided to follow them in.  The kids had a play on the sand, but it wasn’t long before Sami and Josh were scratching from the sand flies.  There were so many that I was constantly squishing them off Sami’s back.  That was our queue to leave the beach and get dried off – we still needed to get out of the N.P. and find a spot in a caravan park.  Just outside the national park is a caravan park called Yardie Homestead so we pulled in and grabbed a site.  After quite a bit of discussion between Josh and I, we decided that we would simply stay here (where we had power instead of worrying about using the generator) for the week instead of along the beach with the sandflies – I couldn’t bear to hear Josh scratch at himself all day and night from the bighties.  As we were setting up the van, Peter and Karen pulled in and their set-up was just around the corner from us so after everyone had cleaned up for the night, Peter and Karen came around for a couple of drinks and a bite to eat.  We should never say goodbye to anyone as we always seem to see them again on the road which is great.

The following morning we were back in the national park having a bit of a look around at some of the bays before we then went to the Visitor Centre.  We had pulled into the carpark and there was the Woods family.  We had a look about and bought the kids hat pins and asked for some snorkelling information about the nearby Oyster Stacks which you can only snorkel at high tide.  We left there heading straight to the Oyster Stacks – upon pulling up with the Woods family, the Harveys then turned up followed closely by Peter and Karen (very funny).  We all quickly geared up and jumped in the water and the snorkelling here was amazing.  There were so many different varieties of beautiful colourful fish and large formations of coral that I could have spent many hours out here.  After at least half an hour of fun, Zoe’s mask was leaking a bit so we headed to a sand bottomed area near the shore to try and fix these.  We were about to go back out but as I pulled my mask on the strap snapped.  That was the end of my snorkel for the day L.  Zoe and I hopped out and I just lapped up a bit of sunshine on the sand while Josh took both the girls out for another snorkel.  Thankfully Josh should be able to fix the mask for future days.  Upon leaving this pretty place, we pulled in at Turquoise Bay for a swim but majority of people were out of the water staring in the direction of something large and dark moving through the water.  A nearby snorkeller mentioned there was a shark in the water but nobody was able to determine what kind of shark it was.  For everyone’s safety, all moved out of the water and just watched this lovely creature glide around near the ocean’s edge until it swam into the deeper waters.  We watched for a while and then decided to leave without a swim seeing as though it was getting a little cool.  We decided to head back to Mesa for a few drinks late this afternoon but first Josh and I headed to the visitor centre to enquire about doing a whale shark cruise.  We gave the tour operators a call and, as the fees had been heavily discounted, we booked the four of us on a boat for Wednesday.  Back at Mesa we all grabbed our wine and beer and sat chatting for ages.  The kids joined up with another three children from the camp next door to the Woods and went down to the beach to play and make sand castles.  Thankfully it was quite windy and therefore keeping the sandflies at bay.  Just before sunset we headed to the beach to check on the kids who were having a great time.  Us ladies, got some pretty pictures of the sun setting and when we turned back it looked like the fellows had told the kids to go and wash off in the ocean.  They were having a ball, some even still in their clothes.  All the kids were getting along so well…  We packed up and headed back to our camp slowly as there were many, many kangaroos about.  A nice hot shower was just what we needed to complete our fun day.

The following morning the three families decided to meet at the phone booth of the visitor centre to work out whether any of the other families were going to join us on the whale shark tour.  After a few calls to the tour operators they were left to think more about it.  In the meantime, the Woods family and us were heading to Yardie Creek Gorge.  The orange cliffs with the backdrop of the ocean were very pretty.  At the top of a cliff we paused to enjoy the view and had the opportunity to witness lots of wildlife, such as the black footed rock wallabies, a manta ray, a turtle, lots of fish and a variety of birdlife.  Occasionally the ocean’s waves cross the sand bar into this body of river and the sea-life gets captured for many years in this body of water.  After completing the walk we had some lunch in the park here and then went venturing into all the different campsites and bay to see what we could find.  At Osprey Bay, Josh offered his reversing skills to some women having a bit of trouble parking their van, and then we checked out the water.  We were fortunate enough to see a turtle swimming not far from the rocks just occasionally popping his head up above the surface.  Next we called into Sandy Bay, the perfect swimming spot if it wasn’t so windy.  It was a lovely big sandy white bay which was perfect just for a stroll.  One of the other bays we pulled into, there was a man doing a spot of fishing who pointed out a bright blue tusk fish to us.  There were also a few decent sized crabs crawling around the rocks which we were trying to capture.  One of the last places we visited was a campground called Kurrajong.  We parked the car and were walking up the neat little track to the beach when we spotted a large lizard crossing the path.  Once he moved on, we noticed there was also a snake right next to him.  As this wasn’t a friendly looking python (back at camp the Woods boys looked him up and he was actually a western brown snake), we tried to throw some sticks at him to scare him off but he simply wasn’t going to budge.  We decided to play it safe and take a different path to the beach…  As we were walking back, two kangaroos hopped right across the path in front of us – cheeky buggers!  We came back to the caravan park mid-afternoon and the girls talked Josh into having a hit of tennis with him, I’m sure it was frustrating for Josh but he persisted nonetheless.  Hot showers, dinner and an early night with a movie completed our fun-filled day of wildlife.

We woke up to a sunny Tuesday morning and had previously told everyone that we would today take the boat out today, thankfully it wasn’t too breezy to change those plans.  We had an extremely lazy morning hanging around the caravan before Josh and the girls went to the boat ramp to ensure that it was a safe day for boating.  They came back all excited and we began to pack some food and drinks for our day out.  We drove into the Woods camp in the N.P. as we were putting the boat in off the beach here.  Josh and Mick took it off the roof and set it up and the kids gave it their all to push it from the sand to the water, and a good job they did!  Our little family of 4 was the first to go out and we couldn’t get over how crystal clear the water was.  From the surface we couldn’t see many fish but I’m sure there were plenty beneath us.  We did however see a large pod of dolphins swimming and playing in front of us.  We went back and Susan and the two younger boys went out, followed by Mick and Samuel, then the Harvey family and Peter (Karen was happy to just sit on the beach and watch).  While everyone else was taking their turn on the boat, the lovely Susan offered to take me back to the Oyster Stacks for another snorkel as I had only gotten a short go a few days ago due to my mask strap snapping.  Well Josh had now fixed that for me so Susan, myself, Samuel, Toby and Zoe all piled into the car and headed off for another quick snorkel at high tide.  It was absolutely stunning, the fish here are amazing and the water is just so clear.  We did two lovely loops while examining all the fish and Toby even spotted a ray beneath a rock.  By this stage it had become very shallow and we hopped out, dried off and headed back to Mesa.  Back here, the water had become quite choppy so the boys were just taking the boat out of the water.  We all still had plenty of time for a few drinks while the kids dug about in the sand again…. all having an absolutely fantastic afternoon.  After watching the sun go down, we said our farewells and brought the kids back for a hot shower to scrub all the sand off them and a quick dinner to finish off yet another great day.