Coral Bay

Back when we first started planning this trip, every time we spoke to someone who has travelled through WA they told us to go to Coral Bay. We kept hearing over and over how it is their favourite. Having seen some of what WA can offer eg the Kimberly and Cape Leveque I thought that Coral Bay would have to be pretty special to compete. Well I have to say that all those people were right. It is absolutely amazing here. The beach is like something out of a Pacific Island brochure. But the thing that I like best about Coral Bay is that it is so underdeveloped. If this was the East Coast there would be resorts everywhere and shopping centers and restaurants etc. Instead there are lots of dive shops, 2 tiny (but very expensive) supermarkets, a bakery, a newsagent and 2 small restaurants. The only accommodation is 2 caravan parks, a small hotel and a backpackers. There really is nothing here, it is like a sleepy country town. Except that it is located on one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen.






The dark patches on the edge of the photo above is Ningaloo Reef. Again you can snorkel right off the beach. For those like Jack who are interested in facts it is called a fringing reef rather than a barrier reef like in Qld. The snorkelling here is better than Cape Range. The coral is beautiful and there are patches of blue, yellow and purple coral. There are fish everywhere and they swim right past your fingers. The fish swim around your ankles when you are standing on the edge of the water! The water is getting colder but it is still very warm in the shallows.



This picture is from the boat ramp looking back towards the town.

The kids are still really enjoying playing on the beach so that is what we have done most days. This is Charlie in his racing car.


Michael and I have been snorkeling and Jack and Tom have enjoyed it too. Tom found it hard to get used to snorkeling at first but we ditched the snorkel and now he just uses the mask and swims with a noodle and he is doing really well. We haven't managed to get Charlie in yet but he is usually happy playing on the beach with his cars. We will stay here at least a week as we just found out how cold it is down south. Only 25 in Canarvon which really is quite warm but not when you have been in temperatures around 35 for the last 6 weeks!

Cape Range National Park

Cape Range is about 60km from Exmouth and is very beautiful. There are a few spots for snorkeling and lots of wildlife. We went to Lakeside and Turquoise Bay. It was very windy but it is great being able to snorkel right off the beach.





The coral is very different from the Great Barrier Reef. It is hard coral and so it isn't as colourful as Queensland. There are still lots of varieties and different shapes and the fish are really spectacular. The colours have to be seen to be believed!

We were also able to see lots of turtles as it is breeding season. There is a Turtle Information Centre at Jurabi and a couple of beaches down from there is a place called Wobiri Beach where we stopped and found hundreds of turtles swimming around. All the dark spots in this photo are turtles.







The kids were very disappointed that we were a bit early to see the nesting as that would have been great. We actually ended up going back to Wobiri after dark just in case there was some early nesting but we didn't see anything.

We also drove up to the lighthouse and admired the view back towards Exmouth.






On the way back we stopped to inflate our tyres at a caravan park and saw an emu with his chicks.



He had at least 7 we could see. No wonder the females disappear!
We spent longer in Exmouth than we planned because it is always nice to stay in one place for a while, particularly one with such lovely beaches and a great pool. But time to move on to Coral Bay.

Exmouth - Bundegi Beach

We really loved Exmouth. It is quite a small town, plenty of tourist accommodation but not much else. The WA coast around here is so underdeveloped compared to the East Coast. There are no huge resorts, no massive apartment complexes, no trendy cafes etc that you see all though the Eastern States. It is very laid back. However it is still hugely expensive. The supermarket prices are unbelievable, particularly for fruit and vegetables. Apples were $9 - $10 per kilo! So Jack's fruit intake has had to be restricted! Our friends the Vallances would not be able to afford to live here with the amount of fruit their kids eat!
The caravan park had a really lovely pool.



The first place we visited was Bundegi Beach which was about 12km north of town. We spent about 3 days here as it was a perfect spot for swimming and fishing. There was a boat ramp for the kids to jump and snorkel from and for us to sit under to get out of the sun. We didn't have much luck fishing, Tom was the only one who caught anything but unfortunately his fish was a bit small to keep.



The fish police were very vigilant checking quantities and size so we had to be careful. Dion managed to spearfish a couple of batfish and catch some barracuda, parrot fish and bream so we had fish for dinner for a couple of nights.



Michael bought a new rod but it must be faulty as he hasn't caught anything yet!

The sea life is amazing around here. In one afternoon at Bundegi we saw lots of different fish, some in schools of hundreds, stingrays, turtles, shovel nose sharks and whales in the distance. Lovely spot to spend a few days.

Driving towards Exmouth

The afternoon after the mine tour in Tom Price we had the first rain we have seen since we left. It poured for about 5 minutes. The next day we left Tom Price to head to Exmouth and we had the most amazing storms all around us but we managed to avoid them. This is what it looked like when we pulled over for a brief pitstop.






We stopped overnight at Nanutarra and the next morning it poured with rain for about 10 minutes. However it was clear very quickly and there was no more rain or even clouds all the way to Exmouth.

Charlie swimming

When we left Melbourne 3 months ago Charlie was happy to splash around in the shallows but not much else. We couldn't even get him to wear floaties and come in the deeper water. 3 months of pools and swim Ming makes a big difference - look at him now! He also dives down to the bottom to pick things up and does back and front somersaults in the water. And backflips into the water from the edge!

Tom Price and the Rio Tinto Mine Tour

I wish I had been able to take Jack on this tour about 4 years ago, he would have been so excited about the enormous trucks and diggers!
We drove into Tom Price early after an easy 100km drive from Karijini. The mine tour took about an hour and a half and was really interesting. I am going back to Melbourne to qualify as a train driver as we learnt that senior train drivers earn in excess of $250,000 per annum!
We drove around the mine and saw the huge tip trucks and diggers.



That's us standing in front of the digger!


You can see a door to the right of the truck, just to give you an idea of its size. Also the huge pit.


And some more huge stuff


The train in this photo has about 230 carriages. Everything is big in the Pilbara!

There isn't much else to see in Tom Price. After the tour we checked in at the caravan park to try and wash some of the dirt out of everything. We are driving towards Exmouth tomorrow, looking forward to getting to the beach again. Only 640km or so!

Karijini Day 2

Day 2 we went to the Visitors Centre to see which walks would be the best for young children. The woman working there was spectacularly unhelpful. Really quite disgraceful how little assistance she provided. She was very negative, telling us "not to bother" with one whole part of the park as there was nothing that the kids could do. Luckily we met up with some people we stayed next to at Cable Beach who had arrived the day before us and they were able to suggest some things that the kids could do. If we had listened to the advice from the Visitor Centre we may as well have packed up right there and then and gone home. So we drove for about 20 km on a very rough dirt road to Kalamina Gorge. This was a bit of a tricky walk down some more steep steps but it was short so we managed it. The swimming hole was smaller but still very refreshing.



After climbing back up to the carpark and having lunch we drove another 20km on the dusty red road to the Weano Gorge Recreation Area. Most of the walks here were too hard for us to do but we checked out a couple of the lookouts. Spectacular scenery here. It reminded me of the Grand Canyon on a smaller scale.



The heat was getting to us all again by this stage so we went back along the rough dirt road to check out Circular Pool. The unhelpful visitor centre lady had told us this may be a possibility for our kids but it looked a bit tricky so we went back to Fortscue instead. Lucky we didn't try as it turned out it was an hours walk into Circular Pool and it was only 800m so it would have been another Jim Jim Falls walk - very difficult.

I am glad we made the effort to see Karijini but we have found that National Park camping is very hard work in this heat and with this many flies around. Had it been about 10 degrees cooler we probably would have enjoyed it more. It was very spectacular but just too hot to go on any of the walks. Having young children also makes it hard. Anyway, we are off to Tom Price tomorrow and then on to Ningaloo Reef which everyone is very keen to get to!



All the kids at the lookout.