Day 45 – Coral Bay to Carnarvon

Well the day started off normally, but ended in a way we certainly didn’t want or expect.

We had booked ourselves on a 2 hour glass bottomed boat tour out in Coral Bay this morning, so at 9.00am we turned up at the tour desk, and three of used the wetsuits offered. We brought our own snorkel gear, even though it was included in the package today, its always good to use the equipment you are familiar with. We met down the beach, waded out through the shallow water onto the boat. As we were boarding the boat two playful dolphins were swimming around the boat.

 

 

Then away we went, looking through the glass panels in the bottom of the boat, watching the coral and plentiful fish glide under the boat. After a short while we stopped for our first snorkel, jumping off the back of the boat into the sea. Unfortunately today their was a bit of wind, so the sea was quite choppy.

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Brendan and Sam had a wonderful time, seemingly not even noticing the wavy sea, as they snorkelled around seeing many colourful reef fish, and even a turtle. That really made Sam’s day. I got in for a short snorkel, but found the sea a bit rough, so after a swim around, Lily and I got back on the boat to watch the fish and coral through the bottom of the boat.

 

We stopped again at another part of the reef, called ‘the aquarium’, and we all got in the water again. This was exactly like a living huge aquarium – we swam right through huge schools of vibrant coloured fish, and looked at the Lavender coral – which is only found on the Ningaloo Reef.

The boys once again had a terrific snorkel around and really enjoyed the experience. Then it was back into shore. We were all pretty cold by the time we got back into shore, as the wind was starting to really get up now.

So after warming up with a hot pie at the bakery, we set off again in the car, aiming for Carnarvon – only a couple of hours down the road, or so we thought……

Half an hour down the road, about 20km south of the turn off to Coral Bay on the main highway, we noticed a caravan coming towards us, with another one trying to overtake it. Never good when it is coming straight at you. But then, the overtaking van suddenly started swaying out of control, and before our very eyes flipped over and over three times, taking the car with it, and finally landing right across the road blocking both lanes. Thankfully we were able to brake in time to miss it all.

The wreckage was unbelievable – the van just completely disintegrated, spewing its contents everywhere. Brendan’s first instinct was to run to the car and get the occupants out, which he did, while I stayed in the car for a few minutes with the kids, because to be honest, we weren’t sure exactly what he would find…

Anyway, he got the lady passenger out, and laid her down on a mattress he pulled from the van wreckage. The male passenger was OK (thank God), and got out himself. They were both in shock, and the only injury they had was from the glass from the windscreen. After I had told the kids to stay in the car, I went and helped the lady, who was shaking (not surprisingly), and helped pick out the glass from her face and shoulder, and making sure she was OK, I then ran back to my van, and made her a cup of strong tea (thankfully I could use the gas in our van to boil the kettle I hadn’t yet used!)  

She was better after a sit down for a while and a cup of tea, so then Brendan and I and the kids helped salvage what we could out of the van for them. It took us 1 ½ hours to drag what we could off the road, and flag down any other vehicles coming in either direction, so they wouldn’t run into the car and van blocking the entire road. A couple of other travellers stopped to help.  The poor couple were from Perth, and just on their way around Australia, and now they had lost everything – the car was a write off, and the van completely and utterly destroyed. It was a vivid reminder to us how easily something like this could happen – they were caught in a crosswind as they tried to overtake the other caravan.

After we had done everything we could (thankfully I was able to find her tablets and jewellery in the shattered mess), and also able to salvage a few clothes for them, then we waited until the tow truck came, and after exchanging phone numbers, we left them to wait for further help. Unfortunately we were 200km from any help (Exmouth or Carnarvon), and we all had no phone service. Thankfully a truckie that came by had a satellite phone, so eventually we were able to call for help. When we arrived in Carnarvon later that night, we contacted their family members for them to explain the situation.

A very frightening incident, and one that left us all quite shaken for some time.

Tonight we arrived at the Coral Coast Caravan Park, tired, shocked and very weary, not sure what we were going to do for dinner. As we were parking our van, a very kind lady came over to us out of the blue, and offered us two cooked chickens and rolls that she had overbought while shopping for her and a few family members. She recognised us from having lunch in Coral Bay yesterday near her, so decided to offer it to us. Talk about a blessing and good timing! More than that I think…..

Day 44 – Exmouth to Coral Bay

An easy two hour drive south this morning from Exmouth down to Coral Bay. Oh Coral Bay – what a beautiful, beautiful place. There are only two caravan parks in Coral Bay and you can’t book ahead, so even though we arrived by 10.00am there were no powered sites left! Yikes!  So we settled for one of the last remaining unpowered sites. It’s a wonderfully positioned park right near the beach, nice grass sites, and expensive (like all the WA ones) at $57 per night – unpowered.  The Peoples Caravan Park, has a bistro restaurant, café, small supermarket, and snorkel/dive hire shop.

So after checking ourselves in we wandered over the road to the stunning turquoise waters and went for a snorkel off the beach. As you stand in ankle deep water, several huge reef fish come over and check you out, and you only need to go a few metres offshore to float over the coral, and see the stunning array of fish life. Clam shells, squid, tiny vivid blue fish, angel fish, large parrot fish, huge silver fish, red emperors, and a huge variety of tropical reef fish. A snorkelers paradise, and so good for the kids as they can just step off the beach and swim back there for a rest when they need it.

 

We wandered down to the tiny shops – a few dive/snorkel/glass bottom boat tour shops, a newsagent, a bakery, and nursing post and sat outside enjoying our lunch. Sam and I were very taken with the Reef n Beef pies from the bakery. Then we wandered back to the van park for a wander around, and a short drive down to the harbour to have a look at some of the larger cruise boats, then we went back down the beach for another snorkel, swim, and play in the sand. This is such a stunningly beautiful place, it would be easy to spend days here.

After another snorkel, it was time to head back to the van for a shower, and a walk down the street to the newly opened Bills Place – a lovely restaurant for dinner. We enjoyed our Red Emperor in these lovely surrounds. What a great day!

Day 43 – Exmouth

After breakfast we headed around the peninsula to the Milyering Visitor Centre on beautiful Turquoise Bay to check out the best snorkelling sites. There are many places to snorkel along a beautiful 80km stretch of coastline. The visitor centre has a good display of the best places to swim and snorkel. We paid for our day pass at the ranger station on the way in. There are plenty of wildflowers including the beautiful Sturt Desert Pea here too.

 

We settled for two sites, Oyster Stacks and the Turquoise Bay lagoon. Both absolutely beautiful stretches of pristine beach, with fine white sand, glorious greeny blue waters, and the water temperature – a heavenly 24 degrees.

The reefs are close to the beach, so we could snorkel the reefs straight off the beach. We were delighted to find many different kinds of colourful fish, including the brilliant electric blue tiny fish, the pretty black and orange angel fish, sea cucumbers, and many, many other types of marine life. It is a completely different world under the sea, and we absolutely love to get under the water and be reminded of God’s wonderful creatures. There is nothing else like it. The beach at Turquoise Bay is stunning – fine white sand, turquoise blue water.

 

My favourite was Oyster Stacks. It was tricky getting down off the beach and into the water as you had to walk over and around some sharp rocks,  but once you had accomplished that, oh my, the fishlife was just amazing. There were huge reef fish hiding underneath the oyster covered large rocks protruding out of the sea. Absolutely amazing.

On the way back around the Cape we stopped briefly at the Jurabi Turtle centre to view the information boards and beach. Unfortunately its not nesting season at present.

Then we called in at the Vlamingh Head lighthouse giving us stunning views over the end of the cape, where we could watch some whales spouting and rolling in the beautiful blue-green sea. We could also spot five oil rigs out in the distance. An amazing day. Put Ningaloo Reef on your bucket list people!

Day 42 –Tom Price to Exmouth

A long day in the car today – about 7 hours, 633km. We only stopped briefly at Parabadoo (the other mining town owned by Rio Tinto) for a quick look, and the roadhouse at Nanutarra. There was no where else!  Parabadoo is quite a modern town, composed entirely of mining houses, a hospital, sportsground, a few shops, and landscaped gardens.

We arrived in Exmouth at about 4pm and checked into the Exmouth Cape Holiday Park (Big 4) – which wasn’t even here last time we were here.

Exmouth is a strange little town, well set up for all the tourist ventures it offers. The Ningaloo Reef which stretches for 260km covers a huge area and offers world class diving and snorkelling.
Exmouth itself is a town of 2300 people and is situated 1270 km north of Perth on WA’s west coast. It has many beaches, and as well as the reef, is also home to the Cape Range National Park, a spectacular place of rugged limestone ranges and canyons. As there are no stingers or box jellyfish here, we can’t wait to get in the water and do some snorkelling. The good snorkelling places are all 50km or so south of Exmouth, so we will tackle them tomorrow.

We were amazed at all the development since we were here 12 years ago – lots of new houses set on a new marina development, new shopping centre, new resorts - although the town beach is not that spectacular. I think Coral Bay is a much nicer place (well, at least it was last time!).

Exmouth has no wet season, the region has dry climate summers and winters and enjoys 320 days of sunshine each year. Nice!

Day 41 –Tom Price

This morning after a breakfast fryup (bacon, eggs, tomatos, mushrooms, bread), we headed down the street for a wander around town. The town of Tom Price was constructed in 1965, and today has a population of 5000 people, including two primary schools, and one secondary school – all for miners and their families. There is a good range of sporting facilities, town pool (amazingly closed in Winter as the temp is only 29deg today), drive in theatre and quite a few little shops. We were amused at the corellas in the town park trees – even they were reddy brown, everything in this town is covered in a layer of iron ore dust – even the birds!

 

At 10.00am we checked in at the Visitor Info centre and boarded the mine bus to begin the two hour tour out to Rio Tinto mine. Rio Tinto own 15 mines in the area (including Hope Downs which 50% of is owned by Gina Reinhart). They pull an amazing amount of both low grade and high grade ore out of these mines every day. 360 million tonnes per annum this year. In the mine that we visited 5 ore trains per day headed out to the port, each one carrying 27,376 tonnes of ore (approx $3.5 million per train load). Rio Tinto owns 173 locos and 10,500 wagons and uses 1600km heavy duty, standard gauge railway track.

It was an amazing tour in which we got out a couple of times to have a look at the lookout and look at the big Tonka toys – huge Komatsu Dump Trucks that cost $4.5 million each and can carry 240 tonne.  We also had a look at the crushing plant, the huge array of conveyor belts, the slurry lake, and ore dumper tunnel that filled the train wagons.

Next up we visited some more of Karajini National Park’s beautiful scenery. First up it was off to Knox Gorge to the lookout. An amazing view down over the red walls of the gorge, to which fig trees cling to the rock faces.  Once again we enjoyed a variety of wildflowers everywhere we went.

 

Not far away was Joffre Gorge lookout (no time to walk down to the gorge today), but the lookout was sensational. It is a spectacular curved waterfall that forms a natural amphitheatre.

A drive over to Weano Gorge was next. This is one of my absolute favorites. Just stunning views, precipitous cliffs, and narrow passages. Banded iron rock formations tower of the valley far below. I’m in awe of my two kids that tackle these walks. They are rated grade 5 (the most difficult grading), and they are ready to tackle any challenge. Must admit my heart was in my mouth as I watched them cling to rockfaces, and walk through waist deep water to get to the end, and to Handrail Pool.

Oh my goodness – what a sight when you do get there – absolutely stunning. After you lower yourself down backwards, holding onto a vertical metal pole, using the tiny footholds, with water dripping and running past you. Scary, but amazing. At the bottom of the gorge you are faced with a stunning sight.

After we completed this gorge, we were all on such a high, we decided to tackle the other grade 5 rated gorge nearby – Hancock gorge, with the end reward being the stunning Kermits Pool (yes the water is iridescent green).

Down rugged stone steps, along the gorge floor, then down a sheer vertical metal ladder. Wading through waist high water, and then the most scary part, negotiating along rock ledges along the side of the gorge, with a big drop below you (don’t look down). Oh my goodness, the fear factor was so high on this one, I had to force myself to keep going. But once again at the end, the views were spectacular.

 

By the end of the day we were all absolutely exhausted. Climbing down a gorge wall, then along the bottom for a few kms, then back up the steep gorge was very mentally and physically challenging – but also very rewarding too!