Our Trip Around Australia: Carnarvon, Coral Bay, Exmouth (Cape Range National Park)

OK folks, so after leaving Monkey Mia and Denham we had a quick pit stop at Hamelin Telegraph station in order to view some Stromatolite colonies (living rocks) which are a link to the first signs of life on earth 3.5 billion year ago. From there we came to Carnarvon which other than a brief fruit and vegetable tourist route that allowed us to sample and purchase some of the local produce, it didn’t have much else to offer. I have to say the fruit and veg was worth it though and the Chocolate pudding fruit was something we had not tried before. Carnarvon is also known for it’s NASA links but there wasn’t much if it to look at now other than the dish. Which would make a great addition to the trailer tent, should have no problem picking up all the tv stations!!. But fixing it to the tent might be a problem.

On our way north towards Exmouth we stopped off in Coral Bay for a little nose around as we heard it was beautiful, the rumours were true,

We spent a day at the beach, snorkelling and chilling in the sun before spending a little time in the local bar with a view over the ocean.

When we arrived in Exmouth we decided to stay in the National Park (Cape Range) mainly because it was a lot cheaper (About a $30 saving a night) than staying in town, but this meant no power or running water (other than what we had on board) and no nice clean amenities, just a drop toilet and our solar shower. But it was worth it. On the way to the National Park we stoped off at the Vlamingh Head Light House to have a look and checkout the view. While up there we were lucky enough to see two pods of whale playing out at sea. James had the video camera and was very excited to show me what he had captured, only to realise that he hadn’t pressed record and when he pressed to stop recording he actually started it so we have footage of the gravel as he walks over to me, LOL. Luckily they stuck around long enough for him to get some more footage. After making sure we had supplies of every we would need and setting up camp we went to investigate the local beach (about 50m from the tent) it was a pebble beach but the colours were amazing all pastels, pinks, yellows, orange. As we where watching the sunset along with the rest of the campsite (5 sites in total) someone noticed whales breeching beyond the reef, and then James noticed a little black pointer shark just of shore all in all it was an eventful sunset that was not repeated while we where there.

The following morning before we set off to do a boat tour along Yardie Gorge James managed to get a photo of the resident Osprey. Apparently in the UK these a so well protected that you are not allowed anywhere near them. This is according to a couple staying at our campsite that are from the UK and are wildlife photographers, so I believe them.
The boat trip was great, it was only about 2 hours long but we got to see lots of different animals and the guide was fantastic. The photo’s below are just some of them.

After the boat ride, we had a wander around the rest of the park working out what we planed to do the following day. As the temperature was heating up we decided to do a 2 hour hike of Mandu Mandu gorge early the following morning before spending sometime at turquoise bay trying to find Nemo and his friends.