After our excursion inland to visit Mount Augustus, it was a great to be back on the coast again. Everywhere we looked was evidence of the recent flooding in Exmouth and Cape Range National Park - from the vivid green verges to the damaged road surfaces at every floodway. The National Park had only just opened - and as we made our way to our campsite, we could see why.
Cape Range National Park had received a wopping 400mm of rain over a 12 hour period, followed less than a week later by another 280mm. The resultant flooding destroyed over 50 campsites in the park - taking in some cases caravans and camper trailers with it. Fortunately there were no serious injuries - and our campsite booked a month ago was fine.
We set up, and after a little paddle on the beach set ourselves up to watch the sun set over the mighty Indian Ocean.
Sunset ove Ningaloo Reef
The massive floods had affected many of the roads in the area, however we were able to make our way up to Charles Knife Canyon for a look. The road was built to service oil exploration, however the scenery it passes through is nothing short of exceptional. We made it all the way to the end, planning on doing a walk - however we found the views on the road were better than on the walk. The limestone cliffs here are relatively young, and we spent a good couple of hours working our way back down the valley.
Charles Knife Canyon
Our visit in Exmouth coincided with the national NAPLAN testing. This mammoth undertaking tests all kids in Australia in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 against common core skills. The Little Fisherman had indicated that he was keen to do the tests, so we had organised with the local school to sit the tests in Exmouth. The school was only too happy to assist, and for the next couple of mornings, the Little Fisherman went to school!
In the afternoons we checked out the local scenery. The lighthouse at Vlaming Head was in a magnificent location, but the light these days shines from the top of one of the massive VLF radio towers of the Navy's submarine communication base.
We made our way to Yardie Creek - open to the ocean for the first time in nearly 10 years. The gorge is spectacular, and as a permanent water hole, is an important wildlife refuge.
We were fortunate to see on our walk up the gorge some rare Black Footed Rock Wallabies, living on tiny rock shelves. We also saw some birds nests, and one even had a resident Osprey perched, surveying the scene below. It took me quite a while to juggle the binoculars and the iPhone to get this shot - it isn't great, but it did work!
We spent some time snorkelling at Tourqoise Bay, The currents were quite strong, but the coral and fish were beautiful. I did take some photos and video with the goPro camera, which I will try to upload in due course. Needless to say, an underwater photographer I am not! Still it was great fun drifting among the coral - although the kids kept swimming against the current, not quite understading the idea of a drift swim. They slept well that night!
The boys are just as happy digging in sand as they are swimming in the water - so on another day we made our way to Sandy Beach. Well named for its sandy bottom and minimum of coral, the swimming was soon ditched in lieu of making sand castles... of a slightly different theme!
Of course Mum and Dad had to get involved too - and not being competitive at all, we soon found ourselves digging and pushing sand in all directions trying to out-do each other with the grandest sand-sculpture. No prizes for guessing who did each sculpture!
It was a whole heap of fun - and funnily enough we all slept well that night too! Well, after sitting back and watching another sunset that is!
It was in the quiet of the evening that we were sitting back with our feet up watching the moon rise up over the range, that I wondered if this was the furtherst we would get from home. There was nothing for it but to grab a piece of string and to scribe an arc. It was confirmed, we are definitely as far from home as we will ever get this trip.
According to our mapping software, we are 3722km from home, as the crow flies, on a bearing of 288 degrees true. It is funny but we all missed home a little more than usual this week.
On our final morning in Exmouth, we had planned a guided snorkel and glass-bottom boat ride over the reef. We knew that Whale Sharks were in the area, but we really couldn't justify the cost for the whole family to do a swim with them. We figured we would be best to save the coin for an experience the boys would really appreciate - and in the mean time, the boat cruise seemed a good compromise. Unfortunately thunderstorms in the area caused our cruise to be cancelled.
We were a little disappointed - but would have pulled out of the cruise anyway as the storms really were prolific. We felt that we had already seen some great snorkelling at Point Quobba and here, and it wasn't worth trying to stay another day in the area. So we refuelled in Exmouth and hit the road. Our original plan was to camp somewhere on the North West Coastal Highway - but we were now several hours ahead of schedule. Could we make Millstream-Chichester National Park by dark? There was one thing, we could give it a fair crack.
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