Day 89

30 April 2013

Coral Bay would have to be our favourite place in WA this far. Incredible place, so relaxing, would come back here for a holiday in a heartbeat and the snorkelling and water temperature as well as clarity is fantastic!

Anyway we couldn't stay forever, today we got a call from the job Joel had applied for and he got it! So we have to be in Broome by Monday! We really wanted to go to Cape Range National Park in Exmouth so we had to keep moving north! Exmouth is approx 150km from Coral Bay and the national park is another 40km around the tip and back down the other side. We were determined to head straight to the NP as we had been told that people line up here waiting to get a camp spot and the earlier you get there the better. Now you can book 3 out of the 7 camp sites here but we hadn't been that organised and we decided to just wing it and hope for the best. All along the road to Exmouth is these big termite mounds.

There is a national park entrance where you have to stop and pay your money to enter the park (unless you have a park pass, like us and then it's free!) and organise camping here too. When we arrived at 10.30 there was a couple of spots free, so we asked which is best for snorkelling and we were told Lakeside so we headed there. At each campground is a camp host which you report to on arrival and pay your money too and they tell you which site is yours. This spot only has 7 sites so nice and quiet (apart from in the day when every man and his dog comes here to snorkel!) and we just happened to be lucky enough to score the site right next to the water, water views, cleanest drop toilet i have ever seen, even lots of shade (which is rare over here) and all for $14 a night!

Set up, lunch and check out the snorkelling here. Saw huge amounts of fish out here, different ones to Coral Bay which was good. At one stage there would have been like 50 x 40cm+ fish swimming around coral in a school, it was amazing! Saw huge sting ray which had a big scary barb thing on the end of its tail so swam around that! Then you get all the little fish that swim in schools of hundreds and you almost swim through them, looks like glitter in the water. While there was great things to see, the current here is also a lot stronger and you have to swim out a lot further than you did at Coral Bay.

Did a quick drive around at dusk tonight and people weren't lying when they say this is when animals come out to play! My god it was scary there was roos everywhere!

Since we got rid of the boat we have been able to access things a lot easier including a little gas burner which we decided to cook dinner on instead of Weber. We have noticed too that the gas burns up pretty quick using the burners inside the van so this may be a good alternative.

Beautiful sunsets here too over the water, can't complain at all....livin the dream.

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 88

29 April 2013

Today we woke up and what better way to start the morning than with a snorkel. We headed over to the beach and walked up the beach for 1 km or so and then jumped in the water so we could drift back over the coral, back to where we had left all our stuff. Nearly took out an elderly couple today because you are just looking down at the coral, not directly in front of you, all of a sudden I did look up and just about banged heads with the poor guys! They were doing the same thing so it was all in good snorkelling fun! Hehe

After snorkelling we decided to hire a SUP (stand up paddleboard) from a little hire place, you can also hire glass bottom canoes and these cool boogie board type things that have a viewing bit for you to stick ya head into to look down at the coral. That is not a good explanation but that's the best I have! Anyway got our board, decided just to share as we weren't sure if it was really for us. Joel puts it in the water, steps on and without even a flinch or awkward balancing he was off like he had been paddle boarding for years. A lady on the beach that I was chatting to said "looks like he's done this a few times" and I was like nope he has never tried it before he is just one of those assy people who can do it no worries! By the time I finished talking to her, Joel was half way to exmouth! So I lay down on the beach waiting for him to come back. After he returned I had a crack at it, I was not as graceful as Joel, I wobbled around and fell off but at one stage I stayed up for a short period and paddled at least once! Haha need bit more practice!

We were originally leaving today but as the guy wanted the boat we decided to stay tonight too. We had to meet him at a roadhouse at 1pm so paddle board back and on the road. His wife drove from Carnarvon and was waiting at the roadhouse when we arrived, pretty much transferred the boat from ute to her trailer and it was goodbye boat, hello weird looking ute with no hat on! Looks so different without the boat.

Back to the bay for another snorkelling session, gas bottle refilled ready for our next destination - Cape Range National Park in Exmouth.

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 87

28 April 2013

Today we were off on our tour on the glass bottom boat. Beautiful weather yet again (we could really get used to this)!

The glass bottom is pretty cool, you can see so much and within our first few minutes there was a little turtle! As well as all the amazing coral and fish that are around too. There are 250 species of coral here which is more than is found anywhere in the world. They also have two types that are not found anywhere else but here. The coral only has a 4-6% die off rate which is really good apparantly cuz that is just old coral dying off. Where up north and in qld etc they have much higher rates due to more population of people and mining pollutants in the water etc.

They took us to a spot for snorkelling that was a bit swelly and we are no experienced snorkellers so it was a little hard for us to keep up! We saw some great things in and around the boat and I managed to catch up to the group when they saw a turtle! It was so cool, someone even touched it and it just kept swimming alongside all of us.

We were so buggered when we had to get back onto the boat! The people aboard the boat feed the fish with these pellets too so all at the back of the boat when you try and get on are all these fish which look pretty cool underwater!

Off to another snorkelling place...this was a lot calmer and a lot more enjoyable to check out the surrounds. It's one of those things that you can't describe in words and really pictures won't do it justice so you will just have to come see for yourself!

They also have a claim to fame here which they call Ayers Rock, it is basically a huge rock like formation of coral and I was so in awe I forgot to take a picture.

Headed back into the bay and back to camp for some lunch. If we had our time again we probably would have picked the ATV 4 wheeler tour instead as we find snorkelling off the beach a bit more enjoyable! Mainly because when you are buggered you can just swim to the beach and beech there for a while! But it was still good...

As if we hadn't had enough snorkelling for today we headed back out after lunch and checked out a bit more of the beach. There was a strong current so we walked up the beach and then let the current float us back down over all the great coral.

Oh and guess who rang us today? The boat guy, he's back in town! Haha so he is going to meet us to pick it up from here!

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 86

27 April 2013

Unfortunately we haven't been able to get in contact with the guy who was meant to be buying the boat. We assume he has gone away for school holidays but we have even asked around to see if anyone knows them but haven't found anyone. We rang them about 100 times while we were here so we tried.

We were off to Coral Bay today which homes the Ningaloo Reef and we were excited. It is about 190km from Carnarvon so not too bad of a drive. We did run into a lot of wildlife on the way up there....emus are scary! You just never know which way they want to go so slow right down to let them figure it out! Their head goes one way and their body goes another, I'm not sure there is much going on up there in their little head!

Anyway made it safely to Coral Bay, there is a small little town with a backpackers and a couple of shops when you first drive in and then further towards the reef are two caravan parks and the ningaloo reef resort. We got to the first park and there was a line up of about 10 cars and vans waiting to get in! We were a bit worried that maybe we should have booked after all! Went to the next park and while it looked busy, we went in and asked if they had anything free. They did and it was right on the water! Of course you pay for it at $42 a night but it is stunning here so it's worth it. And there's nowhere cheaper!

Setup, had some lunch and then headed to the beach. We had bought a snorkel to share but after we both had a go we decided that we needed to buy another one! Reef is amazing! The beach is really flat so for about 50m the water is just ankle deep, so you have to walk out to the deeper part where the reef is. Then it drops off and there is a whole underworld to discover! Fish are in abundance here, this area is a sanctuary zone so no fishing can be done here and it's almost like the fish know to come here! So many different types of fish, big, small and the coral is amazing, hence the name coral bay. You can float for a while and see so many different things in a short period of time! Unfortunately the camera doesn't capture the amazing array of colours that you see...

At 3.30 each afternoon they do fish feeding on the beach here. They tell you a bit about the fish and then hand you pellets which you throw into the water and the fish come and swim through ya legs and round you to get the pellets. It's pretty incredible actually, they are big fish too, spangled emperors. Well worth a look, there was a lot of people there but the fish will come to wherever the pellets are so can just spread out along the beach. Was like monkey Mia except with fish! Haha

Decided to book a tour on a glass bottom boat here for tomorrow! They swim with whale sharks here too but it's like $400 pp and that is just a bit much for us atm so will have to go on the bucket list!

Did a bit more relaxing on the beach, soaked up the sun, beautiful days here, hot but not too hot. Oh and the water here is warm, like bath water almost! Perfect spot for a holiday!! And this is proven in all the families that are here for school holidays!

Spent afternoon relaxing and watching the sun go down...

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 85

26 April 2013

Today we were running out of options of things to do in Carnarvon. There is not much to this town and we had pretty much checked out everything. Just outside of the town about 40km north is the Quobba blowholes which we decided rather than sitting around the park we may as well go and have a look at.

On our way and we notice a car pulled to the side of the road with their bonnet up. We drive past, check out what sort of people we are dealing with here and decide they look like they genuinely may need a hand so do a quick u bolt. Ask them if they are ok, do they need a hand and the bloke explained it was something electrical with the brake system (well that's us out on the helping front) and he had called a mechanic and he had given him a few things to do. They thanked us for stopping to check and our good deed for the day was done. As we drove off I heard the lady say "there is still nice people around" which I thought damn straight we are nice people and its just the small minority of idiots that stuff it up for the rest of us!

Arrive at the blowholes to find this sign.....hmmm I think my answer would be no, though I may know a few people where the answer would be different....

There's always this if you get stuck!

You can then pretty much walk wherever you like along the cliff here but in the distance you can see the waves roll in and get bigger and bigger and eventually a big one comes and crashes into the cliff and up onto where you may be walking so take note! You can see from pools of water on the edge where the water is likely to come but we had some close moments!

Rio Tinto mine salt out here, you can see why...just in the little pools of water on the edge was full rock salt! The water is so salty here!

To the right is where the waves crash and shoot up spouts of water from holes in the rocks, looks pretty cool.

There is a campground out here too, which looked ok for $5 a night but was totally packed out for school holidays. There is also a lighthouse up on top of the hill which you can drive around and get a full view of the coastline.

Few wild goats on the way home...

Back to the van and Joel went to visit a guy that we had met down at the jetty and had a look through his motorhome. He then decided to go and have a beer with the Taiwan couple camped out next to us. He was originally asking them about fruit picking but we shouldn't assume that because they leave for work early and come back at lunch time that they must be fruit picking! Victor hates fruit picking, he picked strawberries in Albany and he said never again! Haha they clean caravan park cabins and amenities. They were nice people and even gave us their emails incase we ever want to go to Taiwan!

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 84

25 April 2013

Anzac Day - Lest we Forget.

Today we were naughty and didn't go to the local dawn service, we washed the Gold Coast one on tv. A poor effort we know but we did get up and watch something none the less. Want to go to that Gold Coast one one day, looks fantastic.

To get in the spirit of the day we started by making Anzac biscuits. Every year I make them so being in a caravan was no excuse. The main mission was how I was going to get them to cook in the Weber, that's right people, the Weber!

Decided the pizza stone was the way to go as it keeps a constant heat on the bottom so made my biccies and placed them in the weber.

Turned weber right to low and checked them after 15 mins, looked ok but still a little uncooked on top so decided to leave them in a little longer. Started doing the dishes to fill the time and smelt burning....shit forgot about the biccies, pulled them out and some were burnt on the bottom but not too bad and there was a couple that were perfect but a little too cooked for me as I like them chewy and they were crunchy. Still a good effort I believe!

After Anzac biscuit breakfast we headed for a drive to see what else we could find. Checked out the boat harbour and drove to see the Gascoyne River thought we might do some fishing...hmmm not really what We were expecting!

Out this way is all the plantations for the fruit and vegie growers so it was quite an interesting drive. Lots of bananas here!

And a sign we saw a lot of at every property....

My fruit picking aspirations are fading away...maybe it's for the best! Haha

Lamb shanks for lunch watching the AFL, so hot here, just sweating, is meant to storm tonight so hoping it does to cool it off a bit!

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 83

24 April 2013

Today we headed into town to see the One Mile Jetty and do some fishing and crabbing.

A bit of history for you....Carnarvon was the first port in WA which is where the jetty comes in. A company built the jetty and once the boats got too big and could no longer dock at the jetty the company abandoned the jetty and left it there to rot. The shire council didn't want it either and were going to get the army in to blow it up! So a group of locals came together and formed a committee and they now look after it and maintain it by charging people to use the jetty and visit the museum. However they would like a million dollars to restore it if anyone has a spare mill!?

Anyway history lesson over...there is a train ride to the end of the jetty which was great as we had a lot of fishing gear and they have conveniently equipped the train with baskets and rod holders for all your gear!

Train is slow and jetty is old with lots of big cracks in between boards and bolts etc rusting and coming loose. The ride out does feel a little like they should have a sign up saying travel at your own risk but nostalgic!

Dropped off at the end and started fishing with some of the locals. Lots of yellowfin bream around but too small to keep. Joel managed to fluke pulling a big dart in (32cm) and just so you know if you say dart in WA they have no idea what you are talking about and same with pilchards or pillies...they just give ya a blank look!

While we were fishing we had a few visitors to the jetty....couple of little sharks circling everyone's bait! Won't be jumping off jetty for a swim! Saw a few baby blue swimmers swimming around in the water but none wanted into our pot! Apparently May is the start season here for them so may be a little early.

Fishing done, ring kiosk to send the train back to pick us up!

Joel got a call about a job in Broome today so fingers crossed this works out!

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 82

23 April 2013

Today we were on the road again and heading towards Carnarvon. This is about 350km from Shark Bay and let me explain that in between Carnarvon and Shark Bay is two roadhouses (not towns just roadhouses) and that is it! Nothing else on the road! We have had a few people say wow you are travelling huge distances but there is nothing in between these towns! It's incredible the size of this state and makes you realise just how populated the east coast is in comparison.

Saw a few more emus on the road, a few wild goats and even a wild cat!

Arrived in Carnarvon and there was 7 caravan parks to choose from and as this is not a touristy town there was no issue with getting into the parks. Picked a park on the outskirts of town and set up for 4 nights.

We are meant to be delivering boat to buyer in Carnarvon which was main reason for coming here but after a few phone calls we can't seem to get in contact with him and have come to conclusion he may have gone away longer than expected for school holidays. We are only here till Saturday so if we don't hear from him by then the boat will continue to be on the roof until the next town we advertise it in!

Had a bit of a look around town, not much here, I have read that Carnarvon provides fruit and veg to 80% of the state so everywhere you look are fruit trees and veggie patches and this pretty much drives the town. There is a woolies and a target country but other than that minimal shops.

Back to camp for dinner and rest and tv! And OMG everyone has died on home and away since I last saw it!

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 81

22 April 2013

Alarm set for 5am, going to see dolphins at 8am, alarm goes off, snooze button is hit! Alarm goes off again, snooze button is hit again! This was repeated over and over until it was 8.30am! Shit how are we ever going to go back to work!?

Anyway the story with the monkey mia dolphins is that they feed them three times in the morning between 8am and noon, now if the dolphins come in three times before 9am then that's it no more feeds, or they might come in at 8 and not come back till 11, I think you are getting the picture! Getting there by 8am means you will def see one feed. We missed that so decided just to pack up and head into shark bay and have a look around and we could visit the dolphins tomorrow.

From Hamilen it's another 100k into shark bay and 30k to monkey Mia from there. They have campgrounds outside of shark bay where you can stay for one night (they say its free but you have to pay a $10 booking fee when you book so it's $10!) we decided we would pull up there for the night but not really somewhere we could leave the van for the day so dragged the van behind us while we looked through shark bay and monkey Mia. Beautiful part of the country and probably the world too! Of course lots of people around but the roads are made for people towing vans or boats so plenty of room and parking to manoevour around. We decided to check out monkey Mia even though it was now 10.30. It is $8 pp to enter the marine park which is totally reasonable I think. Plenty of trailer parking. Nice information station as you walk up to the steps and straight onto the sand and water. Looked over to the water and there was a dolphin! So headed over and they had just decided to start the third feed for the day! Winning! Great timing! They get everyone into the water in a straight line about knee deep and the dolphins swim up and down along the line. Was incredible! Now not only are you in this picturesque part of aus but there are dolphins swimming at your feet. A lot of the talk they do before feeding them was interesting too! There are only 5 dolphins in the feeding program but this one dolphin comes everyday because she thinks she is in the feeding program and because her mum was in the program and she watched and came in with her everyday! Incredible the intelligence of them really. Anyway I could go on forever about these dolphins but basically when they feed them they ask everyone to get out of the water.

The noise of everyone leaving the water signals to the dolphins that it's feeding time, so you turn around and suddenly all the dolphins are there ready to be fed! The volunteers pick people at random to feed the dolphins, unfortunately we didn't get picked but some kids faces lit up when they got to feed them so that was cool! Monkey mia is a great place for lunch or a coffee too. Souvenir shop and cafe right on the water, we did try and get a spot in the resort for our van but it was all booked out. Few emus walking around, they are evil looking!

Well i didn't care what we did for the rest of the day, that was fantastic!

And we didn't do much! Haha we headed back to where we were going to camp for the night, did some beach fishing, nearly caught a seagull (the water is really shallow at the beach edge and calm so the birds could see the bait pilchard in the water so were diving in trying to get it!)

We stayed at Eage bluff which also has a boardwalk where you can walk and look down over the water and on high tide you can see sharks and dugongs and turtles and rays. Of course we got there on low tide so saw a big fat nothing! Dammit.

Bloody windy on the west coast! And you think that would stop the flys but no the little buggers love the wind! They stick to your face like nothing else and swishing of the hand does not make them move! I am now on the lookout for a hat with corks on it! If nothing else I am def getting a net to wear over my head! There is nothing worse than flies in ya face!

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 80

21 April 2013

Today we were thinking we might try and get a spot closer to Kalbarri as it was such a nice town. We had Murchison Station in mind which is just outside of Kalbarri and is a huge property where you can camp but also go 4wd driving all round the property. The road in is dirt but well maintained and a lovely lady showed us around. Unfortunately I think the camp spots could have been better organised...there was a group of 6 families which had about 20 kids between them and they were spread out right across the front of the river. She then showed us a spot directly behind them that we would need to park if we stayed there. I am talking 30 cm from this persons swag to the back door of our caravan. We decided to keep going and try a new place. For tents and big groups this is the perfect spot, for caravans not so much.

We were then stuck on where to go, we decided to just keep heading north to shark bay. While I couldn't wait to get there I also didn't really want to get there in the school holidays, however we had to be somewhere in the school holidays so off we went.

Travel took up most of the day, lots of nothingness between Kalbarri and shark bay! This state is huge and there is just so much free space! We did have a close call with an emu today but luckily they must of heard the big dmax and ran back into the bush, not onto the road! We were heading to Hamelin where there was a station we were going to pull up for the night and head into shark bay tomorrow.

Drove into station and there was goats running across the road everywhere so we made a note to let the owners know their goats may have escaped! Pretty lake on the drive in and the office area is just a short 1km drive on dirt road. Caretakers were lovely and helped us with brochures and advice on shark bay and monkey Mia. Great amenities, did some laundry, washing dried in no time with a combo of the west coast wind and heat!

Was telling caretakers there might be goats loose on property and she explained that they are all wild goats, they come and go as they please but if they are on your property when sale time comes around you can herd them up and sell them! Pretty funny I think!

Joel cooked a beautiful pizza for dinner, bought it in to the van on the hot tray for the oven and chucked it straight on top of the chopping board. Sizzle sizzle sizzle, I said babe what are you doing? Joel says its just the cheese sizzling, some must if fell onto the chopping board! I say no Joel I am pretty sure you have just burnt the ass out of the chopping board! Hahaha it's plastic, Joel thought it was made of that silicone stuff that you can out in the oven! Hilarious! Result....

Lazy afternoon, roothy DVD before bed and we were out.

Carly & Joel

 

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Day 79

20 April 2013

Today we decided to stay another night at Wagoe Camping so that we could go exploring at the Kalbarri national park. At this campground they do 4 wheeler tours too down onto the sand dunes etc which would be pretty cool and wasn't too expensive. I didn't find the reception lady very warm or welcoming so I decided she could stick her 4 wheeler tour up her bottom!

Drove in towards Kalbarri and just before you hit the town there is a road similar to the great ocean road which follows the water and there are little spots all along to stop and view some natural landscape. I apologise for the photos in advance as I only had my phone to take pictures with today.

Onto Kalbarri town and it was a beautiful little seaside town! Lots of people around for school holidays but still great. The ocean meets the river system here and it creates a pretty nice calm bay called chinamans beach. Great fishing here apparently so had a quick fish in the river system. No luck but sneaking suspicion there are crabs everywhere cuz something was taking the bait and weighing down the line!

Next to the national park which is $11 to enter (but not for us who purchased a month pass), now the road is rough here! Pretty corrugated! It says two wheel drive access but we saw a couple of little yaris's and they did not look they were having a good time. Of course Joel just overtook them and made them eat his dust! Haha.

There are two main things here, natures window and the z bend. Both were spectacular views but we were a little disappointed as there was little to no water left in the gorges. Would be even better with water in it! Natures window was our favourite, so cool how nature creates these little things for us to name. I reckon one day it won't be there though so don't leave it too late to see it! All around it the rock walls are collapsing so sometimes you are standing on the edge looking out and you look underneath you and it's all collapsed and just one shelf of rock is holding it up, bit scary!

We had totally worn ourselves out so back to camp for some r & r. We had good intentions of fishing the beach at the campground but were just too buggered. There is no public access to this beach unless you stay at the grounds, so surely there has to be good fishing! Have to find out next time.

Carly & Joel

 

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