Sunday September 2

So, Winter has finally ended and whilst that makes little difference to us, we are sure family and friends in Melbourne will be very glad to reach this milestone!

A quick update, which was to have happened before we packed up and travelled the huge distance of 230 kilometres down to Carnarvon on Friday, but never eventuated because there was just too much snorkelling to be done!

We had a thoroughly relaxing (because we were pretty stressed when we arrived there!) two weeks in Coral Bay – snorkelled most days, lay on the beach and walked around just enjoying ourselves.   The temperature was 28 – 30, with a few windy days which occasionally caused a bit of a chop on the sea.  Generally though, the reef protects the lagoon very well, so it is not a huge issue.

For those of you who haven’t been to this part of the world, Coral Bay is a bit over halfway down Ningaloo Reef and like Cape Range, the coral gardens start just metres off Bill’s Bay beach and Paradise Beach (a very apt name) the swimming and snorkelling beaches, both of which share the crystal clear water and white sand we have become used to.

Bill's Bay and the 'town'from the lookout

Bill's Bay looking back towards the lookout

Coral Bay is very small and has been established specifically to meet the needs of visitors to this area. There are two caravan parks, small supermarket, general store, bakery, general store, two restaurants and the businesses which provide the necessary snorkelling, diving and kayaking opportunities and supplies for the many tourists. 

One is always mindful of the environmental issues around catering for large numbers of visitors in such places – water for showers, toilets etc is drawn from a deep bore and is quite hot and salty and fresh water is provided from a desalination plant.  Our (well, not ours personally!) still-not-cured need for green grass rather than the sand which is the natural state of affairs in these arid areas, means that huge quantities of the bore water are constantly poured onto said sand to provide grassy roadsides and campsites.  Electricity is provided, as is usually the case, predominantly by large diesel-powered generators, although there are large banks of PV panels on the newer buildings and three smaller wind turbines, which is encouraging.  Given the seemingly never-ending sunshine on this coast, there has been little significant use of solar power beyond water heaters.  As areas such as these are so isolated, there is no provision for recycling either, which I still struggle with.

The juxtaposition of the incredibly arid landscape of this area (still in the arid tropics) meeting the white sand dunes, white beaches and the sea, which goes from clear to turquoise to indigo as the water deepens towards the reef, is just amazing.  Every time we go down the beach I want to take more photos!  Apart from the many huge Tamarisk trees which have been planted in the caravan parks (the same trees as the huge old ones at Coward Springs on the Oodnadatta Track), there are no trees in this area at all and no shrubs are taller than 2 metres.  As I knew little about Tamarisk trees beyond the fact that they are not native, I thought I would ‘google’ them and now wish I hadn’t – more environmental nightmares!  They were introduced from Africa and Eurasia as they are salt tolerant and able to access ground water very effectively and are now a Weed of National Significance, as they soak up huge quantities of water and like willows, choke up water courses.

We spent most of our time on Paradise Beach, as we found this the best spot for snorkelling and it is where you access a large coral garden known as the Lavender Patch, which as its name suggests is an amazing expanse of purple coral.  Bills Bay, the area right in front of the ‘town’ is a beautiful beach, but the coral here is much less impressive and apart from the many large Spangled Emperors (or Nor West Snapper as they are called here) which gather each afternoon at 3.30 for the fish feeding (now strictly controlled by the Department of Conservation), there were very few fish. 

Fish feeding - the kids loved the feel of these large fish brushing against their legs

Spangled Emperor have the most beautiful colours when in the sunlight

Paradise Beach looking south

Paradise Beach from the lookout; the coral viewing boat is over the Lavender Patch

Ready for a spot of snorkelling at Paradise Beach; didn't always use the wetsuit, but it let us stay in much longer! 

The coral here is much more impressive than we saw at Cape Range NP, although there are not the huge numbers of fish we saw there, so we are glad that we got to spend plenty of time at each place.  Having said that, we saw Green Turtles often and many rays – Blue-Spotted Fantail Rays, Eagle Rays and one other which  we have not yet identified.  We also saw many of what has become our favourite fish – the Blue Angelfish, which looks as if it has been outlined in neon blue.

Blue Angelfish on the Lavender Patch

Where has this photo come from you may all be asking!  I have not infringed anybody's intellectual property and stolen it from the internet as Murray made one very important discovery last week. Whilst the drowned camera has virtually no functions remaining, it will still take photos if turned off between each one and the photos can then be downloaded from the memory card!  This means that we are able to overwhelm you with a heap of photos from our last couple of snorkelling trips, so I will put them all at the end

We had one foray around to Maud’s Landing beach (another superb beach, but not for swimming), where Murray caught one Trevally and had a few trips to the boat ramp, where you cannot fish or swim, to enjoy the views and to buy from some fresh Goldband Snapper from the fishing boat which runs out of there. 

Fishing at Maud's Landing - everyone's retirement should look like this!  It is not Murray, as you may have gathered, but this old bloke looked so much more organised than he did . . .

Even the emus enjoy the beach up here!

Whilst buying our fish, we were very excited (well . . . I was particularly excited, as Murray has seen many of these amazing creatures when diving) to see Merv, the resident Queensland Groper, which is over 2 metres long and has been coming in to the boat ramp when the fishing boats arrive for some years, as well as a more recent visitor, a much lighter and little smaller groper. 

Merv



Looking south from boat ramp

Still looking south from boat ramp

 Also had a walk up to Skeleton Bay at low tide, where from October up to 200 reef sharks gather to breed.  Apparently there were already a few sharks in the bay at high tide, but the combination of my dodgy feet and the vicious limestone rocks meant that a visit at high tide was not for me.

Skeleton Bay - see what I mean about the limestone!

Once again, we had some lovely neighbours in the campground.  One of the many joys of travelling has been the terrific people we have met and, of course, you make a real connection with some, which makes a place even more special.  Jan and Ian from Newcastle and Colin and Barbara from Heatherton were our neighbours for the second week and we had lots of fun together!

LR: me, Barbara, Murray, Colin, Jen and Ian enjoying happy hour and making good use of the green road reserve outside our campground

 It is astounding to think that we have spent a month on the Ningaloo coast.  We will have a week in Carnarvon, which is a major fishing port (crabs, scallops, prawns, fish – yum yum!) and a huge market garden area, providing over 70% of WA’s winter vegetable supplies so we have already gone mad at the local growers’ market.  Will get the car serviced as well and enjoy visiting the large Aboriginal cultural and heritage centre, but more about that next time!

A Chevroned Butterflyfish

Green Chromis amongst staghorn coral

 

Staghorn coral with live and growing tips

 

This and the next three . . . Lavender Patch

The unidentified ray, trying to hide in the sand . . .

 

Friday August 24

After carting my dive gear into gorges, towns, cities and the outback I’ve finally used it. 

Well . . . I have to say that the wait was all forgotten once I got into the water, especially as after our two weeks snorkelling I was well and truly bursting to enjoy the freedom afforded by not having to keep surfacing for air.

On Monday I went on a dive boat out of Tantabiddi to dive on the outer Ningaloo Reef.  Fortunately, the wind decreased the further we went and after an hour and a half we arrived at our first dive site.  As luck would have it, the owner of the dive business was up from Freemantle, where he has another dive shop, to try out a new twin tank setup with one of the staff from Exmouth and I got to dive with them.  This suited me, as many of the other divers were relatively inexperienced.  The advantage of this was that ‘Baz’ from the Exmouth store, knew all the best spots – like where the reef sharks, octopus and nudibranchs (sea slugs)etc were, so Mark and I had our personal guide.

Unfortunately, as Heff explained in our last blog update, my camera flooded whilst we were snorkelling so I can only tell you about most of the things I saw on this dive.  In order of size we got close to White and Black-tipped Reef Sharks, Wobbegongs, olive head sea snakes, Queensland Cod, Coral Cod, Coral Trout, Trevally and literally thousands of smaller fish, including a huge range of spectacular butterfly fish, wrasse, parrot fish and goat fish.

On the second dive that day, I saw the most varied and spectacular number of nudibranchs I had ever seen, something I wasn’t expecting in this part of the world.  It did convince me however, that I need to get some magnifiers for my dive mask!

Last Thursday, I dived the Navy Pier at Exmouth.  The palaver one has to go through to get onto the pier was simply ridiculous, however it was well worth it as the Navy Pier is rated as one of the top 10 shore-based dive sites in the world.  It is within the Ningaloo Marine Reserve and don’t the fish know it!  This is undoubtedly the place to go to see a variety of BIG fish and schools of Trevally and Barracuda as well as large Queensland Groper and White and Black-tipped Reef Sharks.

One of the many highlights was a big Grey Nurse Shark, which was slowly swimming in circles under the pier.  Whilst these sharks look pretty ferocious, they are actually harmless (and yet another threatened species) and to have the opportunity to see a 3 metre one close up was awesome.

Another great plus diving in this part of the world is that the water is warm, so even after an hour one still isn’t cold – a very pleasant and unusual experience for those of us from the south!

Yet another plus - a couple of people on the Navy Pier dive had functioning cameras and they kindly shared some of their photos which give you all a bit of a feel for what it was like down there. 

Blotched Porcupinefish

 

Catfish

Wobbegong Shark

 

Coral Cod

Fringe-eyed Flathead

Grey Nurse Shark

Lionfish

Map Pufferfish

Weedy Scorpionfish

 

 

Monday August 13

spectacular wonderful awe-inspiring

As corny as it sounds, these are the words we need to describe the two weeks we have just spent at Kurrajong camp in Cape Range National Park, which gave us access to the beautiful Ningaloo Reef.  We returned to Exmouth yesterday for a few days so Murray can do some diving so I will try and fill you in without going on too much (ever hopeful!).

Cape Range National Park is about 40 kilometres south of Exmouth and is a relatively narrow park, 50 kilometres in length, bordered on the east by a rugged limestone range with deep gorges, which descends to incredibly arid coastal plains and sand dunes.  The juxtaposition of this arid landscape with the unbelievable turquoise water and white sand of the beaches is astounding and every time we found ourselves up on a sand dune or the rim of a gorge looking at the contrasts, we were incredulous all over again.

Ningaloo Marine Park protects Australia’s largest and most accessible fringing reef system, which extends 300 kilometres down the coast.  The range of habitats in the shallow lagoons between the beaches and the reef and the deeper offshore waters supports some 200 species of hard corals, 50 species of soft corals and 500 fish species.  Add to these the humpback whales we were watching every day and the turtles and dolphins we spotted and you will understand us feeling that we have been allowed to sneak into heaven for just a little while.

Kurrajong is one of 13 camps along the length of the park and I must confess that as we crossed the sand dune on the day we arrived we were a little surprised and maybe even disconcerted!  Like most of the camps, there was no shade and the campsites were spread across an area sparsely vegetated with spinifex, very low shrubs and ground covers.  Cape Range Kurrajongs (the tallest we saw was about 3 metres, but that was in a gorge) were scattered about, but by far the tallest things around were the colourbond dunnies! 

But, as soon as we parked the van and walked the very short distance over the sand dunes to the beach we were just astounded – white sand, turquoise water and waves breaking on the nearby reef! 

Looking south from Kurrajong towards Osprey camp

Looking north towards Bloodwood Creek

 While we were setting up camp the wind was blowing incredibly strongly. The effects of that wind and the unbelievable hardness of the ground - even wielding the camp hosts’ huge mash hammer and stainless steel spike did not let Murray get tent pegs in, led us to abandon all thoughts of putting up the awning and as the weakling trying desperately to stop the afore-mentioned awning being ripped off the side of the van whilst Murray was hammering madly, I was very grateful.

As our allotted two weeks sped by though, we became less troubled by the wind - or simply became more used to it and by the second week we had taken the plunge and put the awning out, as there had been some fairly settled days.  Mind you, there were no more attempts to put in tent pegs – Murray simply tied the ropes to the pine poles edging the site. 

There is no water at the camp sites, so you must bring your own drinking water and can top up with washing water at a bore tap about 25km from Kurrajong.  The local Emus have learnt that there are often small puddles created at the tap as people fill jerry cans and I now know that they go down on their knees (or is it really ankles?) to drink - the things I am learning!

We also learnt very quickly not to leave any water around the van in buckets or basins, as the local Euros and Red Kangaroos very quickly track it down and this causes all sorts of bother amongst animals which have learnt to live in this very arid environment.  At Bloodwood Creek, very close to Kurrajong, the ‘roos dig large holes in the dry creek bed to find water (look carefully in the photo below to see the ‘roos in the holes on the left and right).  They also know where small springs emerge under the rocks on the beach at low tide, so it is not unusual to see them down on the rocks and beach.

We snorkelled almost every day in the warm water of Turquoise Bay and Kurrajong, simply walking in to the clearest water imaginable and swimming short distances to enjoy coral of many different types and colours, amongst which swam tropical fish of every colour, shape and size. Trying to remember them all so we could attempt to track them down on the chart I had bought often became an exercise in futility – there were simply too many.  At least the turtles,rays and clams were easy to identify.

Blue-spotted Fantail Ray

Blue-spot Butterflyfish


  

Clam

                       

Green Turtle

Lemon Damsel and Humbug Dascyllus

Spotted Boxfish

Moorish Idol

Kurrajong beach

Murray also snorkelled at Oyster Stacks, which proved a bit too rocky for me.  Another great experience as lots of larger fish were sheltering around the rock stacks.  Relaxing on the gorgeous beaches afterwards was also pretty special and as all the camp grounds are very small, even with day visitors added in, it did not add up to huge numbers of people with whom we had to share!

Ready for action at Turquoise Bay

Between snorkelling expeditions we walked into Mandu Mandu Gorge, clambering up the side of the gorge to the rim to enjoy the views back across the range to the plains and sea.  We discovered that although the limestone would be deadly to fall over on as it would rip you to shreds, it was great to climb on – the roughness provided terrific grip, especially for those of us who are a bit less fleet of foot!

We also took a boat cruise up Yardie Gorge, which is at the southern end of the park and has its only permanent water.  As this comes in from the sea as well as from the surrounding catchment when it rains (infrequently), it is quite salty. The multi-coloured rocks were beautiful - the result of millions of years of pindan and oxides leaching through the limestone.  The sheer walls of the gorge provide a safe haven for a colony (one of only 4 remaining in WA) of about 40 threatened Black-footed Rock Wallabies and this male very obligingly spent ages washing its face and looking even more gorgeous that they usually do.

Murray also managed to get in some beach fishing with the retirement rod and reel presented to him by his then colleagues at SE Water at ‘our’ beach most days and even though the pickings were slim, he did manage to catch two beautiful Spangled Emperors (which tasted as beautiful as they looked) and a Crocodilian Longtom.  The teeth on this fish were truly horrendous – lucky it was only about 500cm long or swimmers would surely be in fear of their lives!

 

Whilst Murray fished, I tried really hard to get some photos of the magnificent White-winged Fairy Wrens which lived all around.  The breeding males were particularly difficult to catch sitting still, but ever the optimist I kept trying and got a couple which are just OK.  The females and non-breeding males were much more co-operative (there were also lots more to stalk), so I had a bit more success there.  We also just happened upon this gorgeous Red-backed Kingfisher as we were returning to camp one day.

To add to our wildlife experiences, a couple of days ago we had a visit from this amazing snake – very slender and quite long (about 1.5 metres), which was quite obviously on a hunting expedition around our campsite.  We were able to watch it for ages as it moved around and checked out tunnels that we had never noticed – in one hole and out the other.  It did eventually ‘catch’ something we are quite sure, as there was a sudden writhing and then it disappeared down another hole.  Our camp hosts, Graham and Lyn, who we dragged down to have a look, went off to talk to the rangers about what it might have been and the general consensus was that it was probably a Gwarda (Western Brown Snake), which is listed as ‘dangerously venomous’.  More excitement for us!

Over the two weeks, the weather was consistently sunny, with the exception of one cloudy day and hot, although if the wind blew from the south, as it did on a couple of days, the temperature dropped to a barely acceptable 26 degrees.  Apologies to the wet, cold and wretched of Melbourne and environs, but it is very hard not to gloat just a little bit.

Every night most of the Kurrajong campers gathered for Happy Hour, where we were forced to endure sitting on the beach watching the Humpback Whales beyond the reef, the odd reef shark swimming by, kangaroos hopping on the rocks in search of water, sunsets, a moonrise and the company of our camp hosts Graham and Lyn and other travellers.  We also learnt about and saw the phenomena of the green ‘flash’ as the sun slips below the horizon – obviously has some scientific explanation we now have to track down.  Tough times all round!

So here we are back in Exmouth for four more nights.  Murray is out diving as I write, so hopefully I will be able to induce him to write the next update.  Shame the supposedly ‘safe to 3 metres’ camera let moisture in on our first snorkel, so he will not be able to share any photos with you all (luckily the photos included above which he took on the ill-fated snorkelling trip came out alright despite the demise of the camera).   From here we will go the very short distance to Coral Bay – still on Ningaloo Reef, so more snorkelling and from there to Warroora Station which is also on the reef (so yet more underwater adventures), before making our way to Carnarvon.  Do you ever get sick of snorkelling  on coral reefs I wonder – I suspect not!

We are now busy sorting things out so we can catch up with Karina and Peter and the girls, who are going to be travelling from Perth to Broome during the school holidays.  Given our relative lack of forward planning to date, I have had to resurrect my almost forgotten organisational skills this morning to make certain we will meet up at Monkey Mia on September 25^th and 26^th, which will be great fun.  Anyone else like to join us?

So, that’s it until we get Murray’s account of today’s expedition . . .

Kurrajong beach