October 22

Ningaloo, Cape Range, and Exmouth

Posted by on October 22, 2015 in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

October 3-22

White sand, turquoise lagoons and waves breaking on Ningaloo Reef

We have spent the last three weeks in the North West Cape enjoying the riches of the Cape Range National Park and Ningaloo World Heritage Area. Here the landscape is remote and dramatic, but the focus is all on the oceans and the diverse range of marine life that calls the Ningaloo Reef its home.

From the boat, range meets ocean, colours galore

The land mass of the Cape juts into the Indian Ocean on the northwest corner of Australia and has resulted from a gradual uplifting of the sea floor. Subsequent erosion has left behind a rugged limestone range, deep canyons and pristine beaches. The turquoise coral filled lagoons are protected and nourished by the offshore Ningaloo Reef where the waves of the Indian Ocean crash. The contrast in colours between the brown limestone ranges, green semi arid plains, white beaches, turquoise lagoons, white breakers, deep ocean blue and tropical sky are fantastic.

Fantastic coral in crystal clear water

Sting Ray

The Ningaloo Reef is 260 km long and is Australia's largest fringing coral reef and the only large reef positioned very close to a landmass. Although most famed for its whale sharks which feed there during March to June, the reef is also rich in coral and other marine life. During the winter months, the reef is part of the migratory routes for dolphins, dugongs, manta rays and humpback whales and the beaches of the reef are an important breeding ground for the loggerhead, green and hawksbill turtles which depend on the reef for nesting and food.

Reef teaming with life

Osprey bay camp site

We spent a week at Osprey Bay in the Cape Range National Park. It was unreal being able to snorkel 50m off the beach and see the colourful coral and masses of tropical fish including sharks and sting rays. Paddle boarding over the reef gave a different perspective… massive sting rays hiding in the sand, turtles darting away as soon as they noticed you. Fishing here off the beaches was less rewarding despite the masses of fish, but it was good to have the excuse to just watch the colours and the turtle heads pop up! We got to share some of our time here with the Goldrick's before finally saying goodbye to them for the third time! As much as it has been fun having the extra time with them, we wish them luck that their setup will last and they can get back to Darwin on schedule.

Happy families... time to go in different directions

sunset, Osprey Bay, Cape Range National Park

Osprey was a good base to explore from. I have already blogged on our whale shark trip. We enjoyed Turquoise Bay, apparently the second best beach in Australia, where the kids got to surf and boogie board in a little turquoise spit break and we all got to “drift snorkel” over the reef. We did a glass bottom boat tour that was incredibly informative and best of all, from the boat we were taken to snorkel over amazing coral beds with a massive array of colours and shapes. Form Osprey we wandered down to the Yardie Creek Gorge, a freshwater gorge protected from the tides by a sand spit. There was plenty of wildlife with emus and kangaroos all over, and a different range of bird life that included sea birds, ospreys, wedge tails, and kestrels. We also got to enjoy the company of a field mouse that made the glove box his/her home… Sarah seemed not to appreciate how cute he was!

Surfing, Turquoise Bay, perfect learning break!

This was our whale shark, this was a real highlight.

Over the three weeks we went in and out of Exmouth to reorganise and stock up on supplies. We managed to stay at both campsites, but also treated ourselves to the Ningaloo Escape Resort and a few too many luxuriant meals in the excellent Whalers restaurant. We also encountered first big thing in nearly 20,000 km, the big prawn.

Exmouth's big prawn... In honour of the prawn industry

Exmouth is located 1300 km north of Perth and 3700 km west of Darwin. It was set up in 1967 to service the army's very low frequent communication radio facility which is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere built by the Americans to service ships and subs in the pacific, and the centre that was blamed for the interference that caused two Qantas planes make unexpected dives in 2008.

The locals... this family often stops the traffic as they wander around town

 

Exmouth has a population of only 2000, but as we discovered on our first visit, this number swells to over 6000 during the school holidays when we were shocked to be part of the heaving and horrible mess (there were so many people in the campsite pool you could not see the water…. terrifying!). This was a bit of a change after the remoteness of the last few months! Once the school holidays were over and it emptied out Exmouth was quite a fun place to be with lots good options for most things (cafes, motels, shops) and although expensive, it was not at the extortionate level of expense that we has seen elsewhere!

Holly snorkels on the reef

Reef life

Giant Clam up close

Another of our water based treats from Exmouth was the sunset whale watching tour. We had enjoyed being up close to the humpbacks on the whale shark trip and wanted more! It was the very end of the whale season in Exmouth gulf, and the whales having come up to procreate and deliver their young were all leaving for the Antarctic summer and krill. Despite this, we where lucky, and within a few minutes of leaving the port we followed a Mum, babe and their escort (friend / family member that follows, protects, and helps new family) for the whole two hours. It was interesting being on the water watching them pass by and observing the dynamic of the family. It seems that baby whales are just as cheeky and petulant as human children and eventually the baby treated us to a few playful breeches and spyhops which seemed to be greeted by an angry tail slap from the Mum! Unfortunately for me is was just at dusk and hard to get the perfect picture… ah well.

Spyhop, rolling to get eye out of water to check us out!

Mums angry tail slap... babe did nothing after this!

Another day in the ocean

 

 

We spent 5 of the days at Ningaloo station camped on South Lefroy beach. It was the most amazing isolated location on the Ningaloo Reef with incredible beaches and vistas. However, we abandoned it a day early due to the increasingly ferocious winds that seemed impossible to hide from. They made the nights cold, snorkelling and fishing impossible and whipped sand into every crevice and orifice that you could think of!

I

It was here with great excitement and anticipation that we were joined or the next 3 weeks by Granny and Grandpa / Helen and Alan / Mum and Dad in their Apollo Hilux van. We are looking forward to sharing our adventure and experiences with them. It would have been convenient to say they brought the weather with them from the UK, but alas we have learnt that the wind is the order of the day for the west coast from October through to January and that we ought to get used to it! I suppose that it keeps the flies away!


Turquoise Bay

Our day on a fishing charter with Josh and Jack from “On Strike” (onstrike.com.au) was a real treat. We chose the sport fishing option with the caveat that Holly's previous open water boating experiences had not been a huge success… a concept that kept Josh, the skipper, awake the previous night. But the day was a massive success and another real highlight of our adventure. Firstly Holly was a star and rode the waves and swell without a murmur as she regaled tales of catching crocodiles and other fishing adventures to a very patient and sympathetic skipper, spotting the myriads of dolphins and turtles. As for the fishing, wow! We started with a school of shark mackerel and had lots of fun actually catching (and releasing) them. They put up a great fight and one of them became our very tasty dinner. After a while our efforts attracted the local sharks that ate the fish on the hook and then we battled against the sharks until they broke the lines. We even witnessed a shark jump out of the water to snare one of the mackerel that we released. Alexs' mackerel became victim to a massive spinner shark that demonstrated to us where the name come from, as it leapt from the water spinning! I was then given the opportunity to play with a 250+ kg giant shark hooked on a serious heavy duty rod. It was amazing feeling its power, and head shakes through the rod, and by the end of 20 minutes when it finally went free I was exhausted… the best work out I have had in a while!

Two of our 3 Golden Trevally

Shark Mackerel, yum!

Our fishing charter afternoon finished on a high when Josh directed us to a school of Golden Trevally (“GT”)! We all dropped a plastic lure and “jigged” it back up and within 30 seconds 3 of us where playing with 14kg GT's. It took about 15 minutes to get them all back to the boat, and boy, was it fun. We then spent the remainder of the afternoon hooking the giant GTs, but unfortunately the sharks came back and although we played with many more, we didn't manage to land any. I can now understand the concept of sports fishing and why it might be addictive! At the end of the day we were all exhausted, Sarah was covered in bruises from head to toe, and we both had blistered hands. Sarah landed 3 fish to my one, but surely it's the fun of playing with them that is important?!

Alex's GT... bigger than him!

Sarah plays her Golden Trevally

Apologies for the long post… a lot to catch up on. Now off to Coral Bay and Gnaraloo and the southern end of the Ningaloo Reef.

Shearwater fishing