Sunday September
16
Another week of our trip over and what a week it has
been! We travelled up to Point Quobba,
which is on the coast about 70km north of Carnarvon last Saturday and quickly
discovered that the description of the ‘calm coral filled lagoon where marine
life abounds’, in the ‘Australia’s Coral Coast’ magazine was a seriously boring
description of a very special place.
Even though this is still a very arid area, there has been
a gradual increase in vegetation (no thanks to the bloody goats we keep seeing)
in the coastal areas we have been visiting as we gradually travel further south. Still no trees, which are confined to water
courses (almost all of which are dry at this time of year) inland from the
coast. There was no access to water at Point Quobba so all visitors must bring their own supplies. The good thing about this type of very basic
camping (no water, no showers and one composting toilet) is that it limits the
number of visitors – good for vulnerable environments and for us!
Despite the harsh environment, this banksia was flowering on some of the higher areas - this one was in full display up by the lighthouse. Goodness only knows how they survive!
As often seems to have happened in coastal areas close
to larger centres (not that Carnarvon is that large), over the years many old
shacks have been constructed near the lagoon area at Point Quobba. As each has its own dunny, the environmental
implications are pretty huge and we heard from people there that the Shire of
Carnarvon is about to start removing them and changing the way the area is used. Let’s hope it can be done sensitively and
without ending up with some tacky ‘resort’.
But, back to our visit!
We set up camp, once again right by the ocean, in our own superb ‘space’
further along from the afore-mentioned shacks.
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| Our campsite |
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| The beach on the other side of the sand dune. The lagoon is off in the distance |
Once we had done the basics, it was back to the lagoon for
a look. A conversation with a couple of
ladies sitting on yet another white-sand beach with crystal clear water and
what they confirmed was coral about three metres in, was enough to have us back to the
car to round up the snorkelling gear and get straight into the water. The lagoon, which is protected on the seaward
side by a rocky island and the northern side by the rocky ledges between the
island and the point, is quite shallow and as it was low tide it was even more
shallow.
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| The lagoon, looking north towards the point, island to the left |
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| The lagoon, looking south |
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| The lagoon looking towards the island and the Indian Ocean beyond |
We swam along the edge of the coral, going further in along
gutters where possible and it was so unbelievable I almost mastered the art of
talking under water! Fish, fish and more
fish – big, little and tiny fish of all colours in and under the coral, which
varied in colour and type. I came out of
the water exclaiming that it had been like snorkelling in an aquarium and
because the water was so shallow, the fish were so close. The area around the lagoon is a Marine
Sanctuary Zone too, which is wonderful.
At the northern end of the lagoon, right by the point, was a
large deep pool in which huge numbers of fish gathered and as soon as you got
into the water they all arrived and just surrounded you. As a diver, Murray has enjoyed the experience
of ‘eye-balling’ fish, but I had not and it was remarkable.
We snorkelled at least once every day and made sure that we
went in at high tide as well so that we could swim over the coral, which gave a
very different perspective and allowed access to a wider range of creatures – a
Green Turtle tucked in under the rocks for a sleep, Blue-spotted Fantail Rays,
a yellow eel hiding amongst the rocks, a juvenile Lion Fish (treated with great
respect as they are extremely venomous) and a huge Coral Cod. It also seemed that many juvenile fish lived on top of the coral here - they probably felt safer as it would be too shallow for the larger predatory fish to swim across. From the beach it was often possible to see
reef sharks swimming in the deeper parts of the lagoon but unfortunately we
didn’t see any close up.
The really good news is that the partially drowned camera
is still taking photos for us (as long as it is turned off after every photo ) and
as the water was shallow, allowing the sunlight to penetrate well, we ended up
with some pretty good shots. I will put
a selection at the end of the blog rather than stick them in here.
What a way to end the six truly wondrous weeks we have spent
on the Ningaloo Reef. Each of the three
areas in which we have spent time has contributed in different ways to what has
become one of the highlights of our trip.
Cape Range had some lovely coral over extensive areas, but it was the
huge range and number of fish which entranced us, Coral Bay had fewer fish
(although a large variety of species), but spectacular coral and Point Quobba
had huge numbers of fish and some lovely coral in a very compact area. How lucky are we to have enjoyed these beautiful places? Very lucky we reckon!
The beach where we were camped was dotted with many holes,
so we investigated our presumption that these were made by Ghost Crabs by
taking a walk with a torch one night. It
was just amazing – the beach was alive with white crabs scuttling in all directions.
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| Ghost Crab |
This area of coast is known as the Blowhole Coast and at
Point Quobba the Blowholes are quite spectacular as water under huge pressure
from the powerful waves is forced through sea caves before exploding out
through holes in the rock. The coastal
rock is limestone, which erodes to create a surreal and somewhat harsh
landscape of wind and water sculpted edges, ledges and large scattered
rocks.
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| To the left of the Blowholes - this limestone is fascinating (and sharp) |
Last Tuesday we drove 60 kilometres further north along the coast through Quobba
Station (where you could also camp, but there is no coral there) to Red
Bluff. As we drove the cliffs became
higher and more rugged and as it had been very windy for a couple of days there
were magnificent waves breaking against the coast.
Red Bluff, on Gnaraloo Station, is a camping area very
popular with surfers from Australia and overseas. The beach is superb and starkness of the bluff against the indigo sea is quite spectacular. The waves at the
point looked pretty impressive and there
were a couple of surfers out there, which I reckoned was very brave seeing as a yuong bloke was
attacked by a Great White Shark there last week. Luckily he survived, with serious damage to
his arm and abdomen.
The limestone rock was just as incredible as everywhere
else, but where we stopped for lunch were what looked to us like ‘fossilised’
tree trunks amongst the rock – more investigation to be done!
If anyone can interpret these photos and tell us, we would love to know
On the way back to Point Quobba we drove the short distance to the coast
to see the remains of the Korean Star, a bulk carrier which went aground during
Cyclone Herbie in 1988. From here we
could also see the port facility for the Lake McCleod gypsum mine. The cliffs here were astounding – huge and
precipitous. Murray observed that this
is an area where one really feels like you are on the edge of the continent –
no vegetation blocking the view of the rugged coastline and the land seems to
end so suddenly .
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| Murray on the edge of Australia! |
On Thursday we reluctantly packed up and drove back into
Carnarvon to top up with groceries and have the wheels on the caravan swapped
around, before travelling south to the Shark Bay World Heritage area. Stayed two nights at Nanga Bay, which is
about half way up the Peron Peninsula and yesterday came up to Denham, where we
will stay for six nights, before abandoning the van once more to visit
Francois Peron National Park. We will
then have two nights at Monkey Mia with Karina and Peter and the girls and
another two nights down at Hamelin Station at the southern end of Shark
Bay. As we will save all this for the
next blog update, we’ll leave you with some of our favourite snorkelling
photos. Have named the fish we have been
able to identify and all suggestions as to the names of the others will be
gratefully accepted! There are lots, but as we know that some who visit the blog only look at the photos, the more of those the better we reckon!
The lagoon:
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| Beaked Leatherjacket (these are only about 8cm long and just gorgeous and have become serious contenders for my favourite fish) |
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| Blackspot Goatfish, which has 'feelers' under the chin which it uses to stir up the sand and find food |
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| Bluespot Butterflyfish and Scissortail Sergeant |
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| Convict Surgeonfish and Chevroned Butterflyfish |
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| Threadfin Butterflyfish, Eye-stripe Surgeonfish and Bridled Monocle-bream |
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| Juvenile Bridled Monocle-bream |
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| Moon Wrasse |
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| Moorish Idol and Scissortail Sergeant |
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| Clam and coral |
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| Threadfin Butterflyfish and ? |
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| Scissortail Sergeant |
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| Threadfin Butterflyfish |
The rock pool:
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| This is what greets you when you hop in! |
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| And this . . . |
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| Fish every way you look! |
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| The patterns on this Thick-lipped Wrasse were beautiful |
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Convict Surgeonfish and ?
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Raccoon Butterflyfish and Spangled Emperor
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| More Raccoon Butterflyfish - our second favourite fish! Out amongst the coral these ones hide from you, but not in the pool. |
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