Exmouth to Sharks Bay via Coral Bay and the Blowholes

Above is a lovely green turtle that we saw on a diving/snorkel with manta rays trip at Coral Bay.
The diving was fantastic and very relaxing. We got the opportunity to snorkel 3 times with a 4 metre manta ray - wow! The rays come in about once a month to a 'cleaning station' to be cleaned by the fishes. We bought a cheap underwater camera so when we get the photos developed (yes, it's film) we will put some on the blog.

After leaving Coral Bay we drove to a free site right on the beach just north of Carnarvon. The snorkelling their was awesome. The coral was 6 inches below the water and right next to the beach and there was no-one else in the water.

They also had blowholes - holes that the waves crash into and the water is forced up through. Quite spectacular at sunset.

We left the Blowholes and drove to Shark Bay. These are stromatolites - the largest and oldest living organisms. They resemble the oldest and simplest forms of life on earth around 3.5 billion years ago.

We also stopped at Eagle Bluff lookout and saw about 2 dozen sharks in the shallows. I can understand why the area is called Shark Bay. There has not been a shark attack here for 0ver 200 years though.

Shark Bay is famous for the dolphin feeding at Monkey Mia. They've been feeding the dolphins here since the 60's. They come so close it's wonderful.



This is Nicky, the one that I was lucky enough to feed.


One the way back to the campsite this very cute echidna crossed the road in front of us. They are normally nocturnal so we were lucky to see him.


We also went on another wonderful boat trip to hopefully see Dugongs (sea cows) as 8% of the worlds population of them live here. Here is Nic looking very stressed as usual!

Here's me helping to put up a sail.

Hurray we got to see loads of dugongs, mostly Mum's with calfs. They are so cute.



Now we head to Kalbarri and we should be in Perth in about a week.

Broome to Exmouth via Karijini National Park

We left Broome on the 6th October desperate to get out of the tropics. We stayed for a night at Eighty Mile Beach with a really strong hot wind and then drove to Port Douglas, a massive mining town. We were going to stay here but the campsites were really expensive and pretty horrible so we ended up driving hundreds of kms to get close to Karijini National Park. The temperature dropped by about 10c and we had our first free nights camping for months in the cool sweet air overlooking a beautiful gorge. We even had to get our cover out for the bed!

The next day we entered the National Park and had 4 days of swimming in beautiful swimming holes, doing some very exciting gorge walking and climbing Mount Bruce, the second highest peak in WA (1235 m).

This is Fern Pool - cool water, Rosellas (white parroty birds), fruit bats and a large water monitor lizard patrolling the area.

This is a view through Dales Gorge. There's Fortescue waterfall here and another lovely swimming hole.


The next day we bumped very slowly along the corrugated unsealed road and went for a walk through Kalimina Gorge. Nic climbed up and through the arch that you can see on the right in this picutre.


One of the highlights was a lookout where you could see 5 huge gorges meeting. The scale was mind-blowing. Definitely one of the best views in Oz. My photos don't do it justice.

The next day we had a very exciting walk through Hancock Gorge to Kermits Pool. The walk involved a ladder (just like being back at work), rock climbing, wading and swimming through creeks. Here is Nic jumping into the cool water.

Here's me trying not to fall down again!


After lunch we did another equally exciting walk through Weano Gorgel to Handrail Pool. The pool is so called as to get to it you have to swing yourself around a corner clinging onto a handrail. It is well worth it though.

The next day on the way out of the park we got up at 6am to climb Mount Bruce. It took 2 hours to get up and the view was impressive. Unfortunately you could see the iron-ore mine most of the time but we did get to see the longest train we've every seen - about 2 km long. On the way down we lost the path and ended up walking through spinifex (needle sharp grass) and over jaggedy rocks. I lost my balance and fell backwards into the spinifex and looked like an echidna. I had to take my clothes off and we picked the grass out of them and then Nic had to pick the grass out of my body. Thank God no one came up the mountain at this point! I had a fairly painful descent and then Nic had to get the tweezers out to pick some more grass out and cover me in calamine lotion. The things you do for love!


After leaving the wonderful and gorgeous Karijini National Park we drove as fast as possible to Exmouth. I think we've found paradise. The Ningaloo Reef is metres from the beach, its sunny every day, it's not humid, the sea is turquoise, the sand is white and the marine life is out of this world. Does it get any better than this?

We were lucky enough to get a camp site (they're like gold dust) in Cape Range National Park and we had 2 days of snorkelling. On our first snorkel we saw 2 large reef sharks and a wonderful green turtle. The corals and fish life are extraordinary.

On Saturday we did 2 dives at the Navy Pier, voted one of the best dive sights in the world. We saw loads of massive reef sharks and nurse sharks, a lion fish, cushion star fish, octopus, massive potato cods and loads more.

Yesterday was even better. We did a trip to the Murion Islands and had 2 dives. The corals were spectacular and on the 2nd dive we saw 2 huge nurse sharks and they swam so close us looking at us with their intelligent beady eyes - very exciting! We also had time for a snorkel at Turtle Bay and we saw turtle tracks on the beach and turtles in the water. Nic was looking at a blue spotted ray and a turtle collided with him and slapped him in the face with his/her flipper. It's mating season at the moment so I think the turtle was making it's feelings clear!!! On the way out and back we saw 2 types of dolphins and loads of humpback whales. The highlight on the return trip was seeing 4 whales (males we thing) frolicking in the water next to the boat. The whole day was like a dream.

This is a picture of one of the beaches around here. So beautiful.


Today we leave for Coral Bay - more snorkelling at Ningaloo and hopefully Manta rays!

Darwin to Broome in Western Australia

We left Darwin and headed off to Western Australia. We had to stop and declare our fruit and veg at the border. There is a war against the fruit fly!

We drove across the Kimberley, one of the remotest parts of the world and it was very hot reaching 41C - phew!!!

We decided to do a flight over the World Heritage site The Bungle Bungle as it's a very inaccessible place. Here are some photos of Lake Argyle, the largest man-made lake in the southern hemisphere and the Bungles. We also flew over the largest diamond mine in the world but this wasn't quite as picturesque.




This is a glimpse into what we saw for 3 days. There is hundreds of Kms between towns that have about 100 people living in them.


Along the way we saw lots of Boab trees - they luck a bit like people! Some of them are huge and very old (1000 years old in some cases). Some of the hollowed out ones were used as prisons when transporting convicts around.


Here we are watching yet another amazing sunset this time over the Indian Ocean. We were so excited to reach the coast after finally driving right across Oz. We're now half way through and we've driven 20,000 km.

The thing to do in Broome is a camel ride on Cable Beach, so that is what we did. We got up early and wandered up and down the white sand 'nudist' beach on top of Horris, the alpha male. Luckily there was only one nudist and he was laid on his front! The camels are trained by Chris Hill (not Nic's brother).

This is a picture of me with a rather grumpy camel. He must have had the 'hump'! (sorry)

No more hair

Due to the extreme heat and humidity I've now got the shortest haircut since I was a teenager. Nic calls it my Lego hair!