Checking out the snorkelling spots - Ningaloo Marine Park
Having fuelled and shopped up with fresh goods we departed for the Cape Range National Park on the western side of the Exmouth peninsula. With so many grey nomads out on the road and school holidays for Western Australia fast approaching, camp sites are becoming much harder to find let alone allow us to choose where we want to be! Our hopes to camp in one of the several small bush camps within the National Park fell by the wayside as they had all been taken. Fortunately we managed to get a site at Yardie Homestead which in the nearest caravan park to the National Park entrance. Even they preferred us to take it for a week rather than a couple of days. That suited us as there are many ideal places for snorkelling in close proximity to the beaches AND, now that we have seen the different camping spots inside the park, all very exposed to the elements, we realise that we are sited in a veritable oasis. Each day allowed us to explore different parts of the park for the senior’s rate of $3.00 a day. Without “Getaway” tagged on we have been able to call in at all sorts of different spots without any difficulty. Wandering along the shoreline at T-Bone Bay we spotted stingrays, a sand-shark and a blue-ringed octopus (one of the much feared poisonous species) in the shallows so close that we could almost have touched them.
George and Paula went snorkelling at a number of different sites and always seemed to delight in what they saw. But that hasn’t helped Lea get her mind over the matter of the cold sea. George & Paula don’t stay out in the water for long and many youngsters are wearing wet suits - so it IS cold! One misfortune occurred when our bunch of keys went snorkelling in a pocket and never came back!
On the northern rim of Yardie Creek
We all thoroughly enjoyed a morning hike along the northern rim of the Yardie Creek Gorge. Sitting on the cliff high above the creek overlooking some egret rookeries, we revelled in the spectacle of four emus silhouetted against the skyline, swallows swooping past and flocks of corellas seeking respite from the heat amongst the rock ledges of the cliff face. Back at the mouth we had a picnic in the shade of a few tamarisk trees while observing the creek crossing that ensnares so many. Listening to those that know… explain how best to go about it only to have the driver decide otherwise and get stuck proved quite entertaining! As one woman so aptly put it “men…!”
The Mandu-Mandu Gorge trail also gave us some enjoyable exercise and as we trailed back along the floor of the gorge with its multitude of smooth white boulders one couldn’t resist adding to the cairns just in case they were there for another reason. So many strange shapes and sizes added to by fellow hikers.
Another of the highlights this week has been Paula’s birthday giving us good reason to celebrate with a three course meal in “Getaway”. Our next target is the Pilbara region and the Karijini National Park with a stop over at the Giralia Sheep Station to see where Sean Pattrick spent a few months working with sheep.
STOP PRESS: In the eleventh hour, with a huge shriek, Lea made it into the water to snorkel the lakeside bommies ….
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