Exmouth and Ningaloo

After camping roadside, we awoke to this nasty weather. We pushed on another 150+ and had driven through it and were lucky enough to be hot and humid! 

 

 These termite mounds are everywhere, with no trees, for obvious reasons

 Yep we ventured past a ranger into National Park Territory, with Nick hiding with the dogs in the back..... hehe

 Information bay at Turquoise bay, one of the best spots for snorkeling in Ningaloo. There is a drift here and you walk along the beach then catch the current over the coral.

 

Was a stunning beach, really wish I had the underwater camera here. Saw a sting ray, and 4 turtles, one's shell was as big as a car tyre. Most amazing day here, the current was certainly strong, and we were surprised not to find a lifeguard there, for the amount of tourists hanging around.

Blue skies, red dirt and these cool ranges one side, beach on the other, was a pretty amazing experience.

 Well we had to visit this place

 View from the lookout/ lighthouse. Was amazing to see whales splashing round in the bay, just behind that sign. We have seen countless whales on this stretch of coast. Its been great!!!

 Back on the highway, the road was not boring, the wildflowers are starting to come out , and I cant wait for a few more weeks, they will be spectacular. There were also these lovely ranges all along w]the way. Some flat topped, some covered with green. Was a very pretty part of the highway to drive through. We ran into Nick, from Belgium, at a roadhouse, we met at Quobba, and may meet up again around Broome.

Cane river, where we are spending the night. Its amazing here, Gallah screeching their goodnights, and the occasional splash from the murky water. Its so dark out here the sky is absolute. The starts have put on a show for us one again.

 Yep clean as a whistle, note the camp shower!!!

Q U O B B A blowholes and a whole lotta fun!!!

We finally packed up and moved on from Canarvon, only to head bout 80km away to check out these blowholes we had heard about, They were cool, but because the tide was low they weren't as spectacular as they could have been.

 This was the coast line near the blowholes.

 

This was one of the biggest Blow's, when we were there at the actual blow holes.

 

 

This sign was a timely reminder, as a tourist died last week fishing from the rocks.

This is the "chocolate fruit" or sapote, this one is green.

This is a ripe Sapote.. looks ugly

 What they look inside.... very yummy

Was kite weather....

 

 

The coast view from the lighthouse....

 It was a big walk for us all , this was from the top of the first sand dune....

Nick catching a ride with Mick to go fishing at the point. Much easier than walking (which we did yesterday) took about an hour each way trudging through the sand (maybe 5km) the dogs loved it, but was tricky when nick caught fish and had to keep it wet on the walk. Delta also dug up her first crab this day (it was a baby, and we put it back), and is now obsessed to dig up any hole we pass on the beach, or at least sniff it.

He came back with a few Travely, on a home made lure from a breadknife. The camp locals thought this was amazing, and offered him tools and stuff so he could make it pretty speccy. He became a bit of a fishing legend from this.

We went for a look at the Memorial.

Camp Quobba "goon sack alley"... on the was to the dunny

Caz the Spaz from Taz who was the camp host while Brett was away, in Fran the van.

 The boys with their Camera's I just had to grab a shot with my little digital from Cash converters.

Cricket our true friend from around Perth, giving us some lovely Relish.... mmmm (when we left she gave us another jar)

 Nick from Belgium, just worked for 10 months on the Great Gatsby film, as a graphic designer/ special effects with Baz and is now travelling around Australia, on a motorbike, eating nobbys nuts and 2 minute noodles.

 The crew hanging in the kitchen

 Aww Sahara..

 This was Nicks catch from fishing on the rocks a Spangled Emperor and a Dart, these fish were massive (that's a standard backyard plastic table)

Yummy lunch...

 The girls......from Quobba, saying goodbye was a tearful experience.

 This was the crew, they welcomed us, and spoilt us and fed us and gave us drinks (well Nick drinks) Tony took Nick out fishing and Gary shared his catch. We have left Quobba with a Engel full of Fish and many great memories. These guys are long term stayers, and do a months at a time. Cricket and Tony offered to pick us up if we wanted, in 2014, to fly in from Perth and set us up with all the camping gear so we could spend the time with them, they would drop us off at the end too. What was funny was as we were driving out we were making plans on how we could make it work for us, and what our other options were for 2014. We came for a night and paid for two, then decided to pay when we left (which was a week later) Magical, amazing spot... brilliant snorkeling, we have been warned its top notch here, and doesn't get much better.

We even spotted whales while at Quobba, Mothers and babies splashing around just outside the reef. Was great I saw one back at Horrock's and now have seen plenty. Wish we had the underwater camera still as the snorkeling was fantastic, we saw some stunning coral blues, pinks and purples. I never realized what a stunning underwater world there is just off shore. (particularly true for coral reefs) We got to swim with a turtle, and when or snorkel mask broke both Kaz and Cricket quickly offered us replacements. (Kaz even sent us off with one to keep as a parting gift.... awww) the fish were stunning and beautiful, Parrot fish and all sorts.

When we did end up leaving we found this 'lil roadside stop, red dirt, blue skies and put up the Annex.

As we are both snorkel Junkies now, we were both pumped to see this sign on the way in

We also had to stop for a quick pose here....

 and here....

 

Just got out of the water after a late arvo snorkel and loved every minute. The coral is so different it is like huge lettuce's but they are the size of a car. Its amazing how different the reefs can be such a short distance away from Quobba.

 

Monkey Mia

 

We were so excited to have our 3rd overtake in 8 months!!!!

 We arrived in at "Shark Bay" World heritage area. Both excited for what we would see and discover.

Entrance into the resort, very flash, and it should be for $16 per person per night.

Then the girlies saw ......

 an emu

 and it wouldn't leave us alone.

 We went for a lovely stroll to the beach before we were scheduled to depart for our sunset cruise on the "shot over" catamaran. There was a beautiful dolphin hanging around the shore that wan up so close. What a special welcoming. Sahara and Delta started barking and alerted all the tourist's that there was dolphins on the shore, and ended up embarrassing us totally by acting like spastic's.

 The sunset catamaran tour was amazing, but we came at the wrong time as the mast had broken and was being repaired in China of all places. So we "potted" along with the motor, but it was stunning. Laying on the net and cuddling up on the bean bags was something we will never forget, and a great way to spend our 5 year wedding anniversary.

 

This Emu would not leave us alone, and stalked us for the whole time we were there. We decided to stay another night, so we could get out the Kayak and Nick wanted to have a fish.

It ended up drinking out of Sahara's bowl, it looked really thirsty, then dropped dirty wet poo's everywhere through the park. It was sad watching how people treated this emu, and we were quite outraged that no "warning" system had been put into place for visitors. We were warned that they don't like dogs, particularly small ones, so to pick up Delta if it got aggressive. It did. Other people were feeding it one minute then pushing it away at other times, even going as far to throw camp chairs at them. We complained.

 

 Sunset from the Jetty.

 We got up early and joined the 100+ people for a "dolphin interaction" no promises to feed them and we were unlucky and weren't one of the 12 selected ( what odds) and we decided to leave our girlies in the car, to avoid embarrassing situations.

In the end 3 dolphins cam up to be fed, and a couple of baby's were left further back. I was a little sketchy about all this dolphin feeding, but was explained quite well. They don't just feed any dolphins, there are 5 females that are fed, and if they have real young babies they don't get fed. They also get a very small amount of their daily diet, so they do not become dependent.

 

When we did leave we stopped at Shell beach.... Which was just as the name sounds, what surprised us was just how large the bay was.

Trillion of tiny little shells instead of sand.

 

 
We stopped into Hamelin Pool, which has the Australia's or the worlds oldest living "thing" called Stromolites. Ok, sorry, i'm not too technical, and cant give you much more. They were just basically rocks on the ocean floor.

 

Then we found a nice spot, on the top of a lookout, and ate some special truffles, mmmmm

We arrived about 30 km out of Carnarvon and decided to spend a few days, well we are actually still there, at New Beach. Great spot, and not too many people are around, surprising that its school holidays. We did venture into town and noticed that everything is booked out and accommodation is premium here. We did the "fruit loop" and picked up a whole heaps of produce, mostly organic. At amazing prices, frozen mango cheeks, tray of about 6  cheeks or $5, 2kg tangelo's for $3, Banana's, chocolate pudding fruit (yes, I know, nick was impressed) we also grabbed some fresh pecan nuts as well as a whole heap of veg. We are now headed back to our spot, to soak up the sun.

 

 

 Its been about 30 degrees and sunny, warm, beautiful weather. Cant complain, we do think of you Adelaide folks back home .