Ningaloo reef... a great place to sit and wait.

After packing up and saying a sad goodbye to Crossing Pool camp ground in Millstream, we headed west destined for Exmouth and the anticipated excitement of Ningaloo Reef.

En route we stopped at the mining town of Pannawonica to fill up and thought they’d made a mistake with only charging $1.43/l for diesel. The cheapest so far on our travels... must be something to do with a mining subsidy or something. Anyway who’s to complain?

Getting closer to Exmouth it was very windy in certain spots with a huge cross winds determined to blow us off to the side of the road. But once we got to Exmouth it was quite a bit calmer and allowed us to set up at the Big 4 park without too much trouble.  It was then time to test out their pool. Wet and cool... perfect.

An Exmouth local getting a bit too close for comfort.

It was then that the two couples we’d met at Millstream (Anne & Ron from England, and Nick & Jane from 'Chaddy') also turned up at the caravan park. We all got together that night for a drink and had a great time swapping travel stories.  Like us, Nick & Jane were heading down into Cape Range national park, (known as Ningaloo) the next morning, so we ended up travelling down together and also camping together at Ned’s camp ground.  Anne & Ron also turned up for a look and decided that they wanted to stay as well. Not sure if it was the camping or us that was the attraction?  Anyway we managed to get lucky with a great spot that had a bit of shade and was a stone’s throw from the beach.



Neds Camp - Site 18... the best. Took 1 week before the ranger asked for the swing to be removed!




Our beach, and the locals cooling off at Mesa camp ground.
The 8 or so camp grounds up and down Ningaloo are run by camp hosts and Ned’s was by far the best camping spot (18 sites) and everyone camping there were very friendly.  Each afternoon at 5.30 everyone would get together at the beach for happy hour drinks and watch the sun go down and swap stories. 

The view for Happy Hour.

It really felt like a little neighbourhood community... and one of two reasons why we stayed for 11 nights!  The other reason being the loooonnnnngggggg wait for a pair of solar panels to arrive from Perth...  Anyway like our previous delay in Broome, waiting it out in Ningaloo was a pleasure.
The big attractions at Ningaloo are the many beaches and the snorkelling, and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. Sandy bay and Turquoise bay we’re our favourites.  Post card perfect.  So we spent our days on the beach waiting for the good lord AKA the courier man to deliver us our package. Day after day of snorkelling and relaxing.  One of the highlights of our trip for sure.
(Prepare yourselves... here come the photos)




Sandy Bay & Turquoise bay.



Alex perfecting the art of sun bathing.  Around the corner is 'The Drift' for snorkelling.



The Funky Octopus. Osprey - One bird you don't want taking your chips!

Anne & Ron - The substitute grand parents.  Ben - PADI certified.


White Tipped Reefie - Very timid. Blue spotted ray.






 

More colourful fish.

When he's not sunbaking he's snorkelling.

While we were there we also celebrated the Melbourne cup with a get together at the camp host’s caravan (as they had a tv) with the other campers.  Alex was the lucky sweep winner and was very pleased with his $24 win fall.  Karen insisted that she would have won for best hat had there been such a thing.



And they're off and racing drinking.  "Hello, do you like my Hat"


Winners are grinners.
While (waiting) at Ningaloo, we decided to do a day trip ‘down the road’ to Coral Bay.  Another beautiful spot.  The place itself is surprisingly small.  No more than 2 caravan parks and a general store.  The beach itself offers more great snorkelling.

Pristine Coral bay.
So on the way back from Coral bay a few calls were made to track down these mythical solar panels and as it turned out they had arrived at Exmouth that afternoon.  No waiting for delivery the next day for us, as we managed to go pick them up direct from the depot.  Anyway arriving back at Ned’s for happy hour, everyone gave a cheer that we had finally got our package (by day 11 everyone knows your business!).  Not sure if it was for the fact that it meant we were on our way again the next morning though!?So packing up the next morning we made our slow (and sad) departure out after saying goodbye to everyone and headed down to Carnarvon to catch up with Ron & Anne.

Carnarvon is apparently the food bowl of the west supplying Perth and other places with its fruit and veg. (Promise that’s the only tourist fact for the blog).  It also has some blowholes 60km’s up the road.

The Blowholes. Very noisy and powerful.
By this time, Ron & Anne were fast becoming good friends and the kids ‘travelling grandparents’.  And like all good grandparents, they offered to look after them one night, so Lee & Kaz could go out for some kid free time with a meal at one of the waterfront restaurants. One word: Bliss. 

Carnarvon sunset.

We also did the Coffee Pot train ride on the One Mile Jetty. It was interesting to listen to the driver talk about how they are trying to restore the jetty and all the troubles they’ve been having.  I could tell you but I promised not to tell you anymore tourist facts.

One mile jetty.



Waiting for the train can be tiring business.

The end of the line... and this blog.

That’s all for this blog.  Next we keep travelling south to Monkey Mia to find out once and for all, if there really are monkeys there.

The Pilbara

Leaving Broome, we headed off to the Pilbara region to visit Karijini national park. 

But before reaching Karijini we had two stopovers to get there.  The first was at 80 mile beach some 360 odd km’s down the road.  Again no swimming in the beach of this caravan park because of the tomato jellyfish, but to be honest when the sign at the CP office says that they can’t endorse swimming because of ‘creatures’ in the water we weren’t too fussed either way.  But what it lacked in swimming opportunities it certainly made up for in its renowned shell collecting.  So after pulling in and setting up we took the short walk over the dune to be greeted by a very extensive low tide, revealing hundreds of different types of shells.  We all enjoyed collecting a bucket full of shells, which will no doubt find their way back to our home to join the shells in the cupboard from Cape York... 11 years ago!

The little urchin with an urchin shell.

Our next stopover was with Lee’s niece, Brooke, at Port Hedland.  It was great to catch up with Brooke and great being put up at her house.  We were all very excited, especially the kids, as they got to play with the two dogs and watch foxtel.  Oh the luxury of a couch and not wearing thongs to shower!

Brooke & Port Hedland.

Port Hedland is one big mining town and it was interesting seeing all the big machinery and long cargo trains that seemed to go on forever.  It also has a salt producing area and as we drove in we saw a huge pile of salt that the kids said looked like a snow covered mountain.

After our goodbyes to Brooke and Port Hedland we left the coast and took off in land down The Great Northern hwy for a highly anticipated Karijini NP.  Not only did this place rival the Bungles for its scenery but also for its stinking hot weather.  Thank goodness for the gorges because the campsite was pretty unbearable in the blazing sun and LOTS of red dirt.

Look at the colour of those feet!

The geography of the gorges at Karijini are quite different to those of the Gibb River.  All magnificent in their own right.  Very close by to where we camped at Dales gorge camp ground is Fortescue Falls and Fern pool.  We spent a whole day swimming there to beat the heat.

Fortescue falls.

Fern pool.

Due to their ease of access and location they were among the popular swimming holes... especially with the local miners who come down to unwind.  This being the case there’s plenty of no alcohol signs and no diving signs... which really don’t do anything.  Good old ranger Dan was busy patrolling Fortescue falls, even evicting a few drunks.  All pretty harmless though... some of them more than entertaining watching them dive into the rock filled water from some fairly hairy heights. 

The 2^nd day we drove into the park to visit Weano gorge and Hancock Gorge, both easily ‘do-able’ in one day. 

Weano gorge starts as a walk through small pools of water and finishes at ‘handrail pool’.  It was a very exciting walk through the gorge as we clung to ledges to make our way around pools of water but ultimately futile as you end up going through smaller rocky gorge ways in the water.  Reaching handrail pool was fun as you come over the edge and make your way down a ladder to reach the big pool of water.  There was also a narrow water filled gorge after that that you could swim down for quite a way which we all did.

Handrail pool - 'Mind the step'

Alex tired from all the climbing and swimming, and the water was cold. Brrr.
Hankcock gorge is similar to Weano and also involved more swimming through narrow gorge ways before reaching ‘Kermits pool’.  It was a a narrow swimming hole inside a cave like area within the gorge (if that makes sense).  We all had a lot of fun doing these two walks.



Hancock Gorge and Kermits Pool.
After the third night we decided to pack up early to leave the red dust behind us and go visit the mining town of Tom Price for some fuel.  We were surprised at how nice (and green) Tom Price is... for a mining town.  You can easily understand why people use Tom Price for a stopover.

From Tom Price we visited Hamersley Gorge (on the way to Millstream National Park).  We enjoyed a swim and lunch at that beautiful gorge then kept on our way to the next destination.  We could have easily stayed longer but it was a fair drive to Millstream and there was no camping near Hamersley to extend the stay.

Hamersley Gorge.

The wavy rock layers of Hamersley are quite visually staggering and unique.
After getting to Millstream, we decided to camp at Crossing Pool... the pick of the camp grounds available as you get to camp right on a billabong river.  There are only 10 spots (and none of those pesky caravans are allowed in so it’s pretty quiet).  There were only a few other campers there and we grabbed site 9 which even had an ensuite for our shower!

Crossing pool - site 9... paradise. And the ensuite.
We had a very relaxing time at Millstream and it really made us feel like we were getting back to bush camping.  We did a few walks around the camp ground and around the homestead; watching the wildlife and feeding the massive shark like cat fish; watching the sunset; but our favourite pastime was swimming and floating in the river... right out the front of our camping spot.





One of  'Ben's friends' - a Buff Banded Rail. (yes we have a bird book)



We met two other couples here at Millstream: Nick and Jane, (from Chadstone as it turns out) who kindly let us use their kayaks and paddles (not oars!), and Ron and Anne from England, who share our wicked sense of humour and we had a great laugh with.

Both couples have shown up along the way since Millstream and we’ll tell you more about these fellow travellers and our next camping spots back on the coast in the next blog...