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16th July 2008.
Coral Bay is only a few hours drive from Carnarvon but WOW, what an an eye opener and change of environment. There are only 20 houses in the whole town and even the local cops live in the caravan park. Coral Bay, home to Ningaloo Reef, was originally developed as a recreational area for the American servicemen and women based at Exmouth.
Being such a big tourist attraction, we were surprised how little there was there. Two caravan parks, a hotel with bar and restaurant, a small supermarket which includes a bakery, gift shop, a couple of cafes/restaurants and a few tour operators, that's the whole town. Campers/caravanners be warned, you cannot connect to drinking water in the caravan parks as all the water in the taps is obtained from salt water bore holes and is not suitable for drinking. Drinking water has to obtained from specific taps strategically located around the camp site, so ensure you fill your water tanks before coming here and remember, everything is very expensive so stock up beforehand.
The beaches are stunning with crystal clear water and reef snorkeling within 50 metres of stepping into the water. This is the ideal place to just chill out and relax. We did the obligatory coral viewing in a glass bottomed boat but we were both surprised with the lack of colour in the reefs. This is mainly due to the water being so shallow and the reef being bleached by the sun.
A 20 minute flight over the area was not really worth the $240.00 fee coz there's not really much to see. Henry, my pilot was very good and accommodating and the highlight of the flight was seeing a whale putting on a show. I've been out on quite a few fishing charters around WA and have always paid around the $100 to $150.00 mark per person. Up here, $220.00 per person!!
Coral Bay is busy all year round so ensure you phone before arriving. We had to wait for two days before we could get into the overflow area. Some people we spoke to always book their favorite site 2 years in advance.
In summary, this place is paradise and an idyllic location to just chill out and relax, but bring plenty of money and drinking water.
Exmouth - 19th July 2008
Another short stint up to Exmouth and one again, we had to settle for the overflow area as the caravan park was booked to capacity. The wind was blowing a gale and it was pretty cold by northern standards. Hardly slept a wink on our first night as the wind was so bad and rocked the caravan all night. This is the first time on our trip so far that we've come across non friendlies. The caravanners next to us and behind us would not even acknowledge us when we said hi and we tried on many occasions, but they totally ignored us, so not the best start to our Exmouth adventure, but that's their problem, not ours coz we're happy chappies and enjoying our adventure.
Cape Range National Park:
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The Cape Range mountains start just south of Vlamingh Lighthouse and continue down the coast to Yardie Creek and provide a picturesque backdrop to the national park. This is where Exmouth really shines for us travelers. The Jurabi Turtle Centre is just the start of an amazing coastline. There are bush camping sites all along the coast but get there early in the morning as they are sought after and fill up early in the day. Mesa camp was by far our favorite. Snorkelling within metres of the beach is abundant at every stop all the way down the coast. On the way through, make sure you go up the Vlamingh Lighthouse drive and enjoy the views and sunsets
Yardie Creek:
The drive culminates at Yardie Creek with a boat trip along the scenic gorge. As the wind had been so strong over the past few days, all trips had been cancelled and so the first trip of the day was fully booked, which fortunately we missed. We had to settle for the the 12:30 trip and were lucky enough to be the only people on the trip, so could position and maneuver the cameras wherever we wanted them.
What an awesome trip, slowly drifting down the gorge past the picturesque rocks, cliffs and mangroves. We were treated to all kinds of birds, 100 year old nests, rock wallabies and all kinds of unique vegetation. Really worth doing and can thoroughly recommend it.
Shothole Canyon Road & Charles Knife Road:
Headed for Shothole Canyon Road as we'd heard you can drive through the dried-up river bed and view the gorge from the ground up, bugger the road was closed, so continued onto Charles Knife Road turn off and trundled up the dirt track towards the hills. The road goes up to the top of the Cape Range mountains and offers 180 degree views forever. Driving along, it's just gorges, canyons and views on both sides of road, absolutely awesome and an under publicised gem. This trip was the highlight of our trip to Exmouth, unforgettable.
Life On The Road:
Decided to have a break from cooking and get a take-away fish and chips coz it's gotta be fresh here and the bestest coz it's straight off the boat.... That'll be ready in around an hour mate. No ways am I gonna sit around and wait for an hour for fish and chips, so see a chinese take away two shops up and order our usual, chilli king prawns for me, sweet and sour fish for Marlene and a small special fried rice to share. Now this usually costs us between $23 to $25.00 in Perth, but WOW $48.95 in Exmouth :(
I love my peri-peri prawns and as we were in the prawn capital of Australia, decided to stock up with some Exmouth King Prawns direct from the factory coz they gotta be cheap. I usually pay around $30.00 a kilo for peeled Exmouth King prawns in Perth, 16 to 18 prawns per kilo of pure raw edible flesh, so they're a reasonable size. Direct from the factory, $25.00 a kilo for whole unpeeled prawns including heads and all. By the time they were peeled and cleaned, they were a lot smaller and half the weight, bugger, ripped off again and had to pay for the privilege.
Off to Karijini in the morning and we're so looking forward to it ,as we've heard so much about the gorges :) |
Our Trip 
