NINGALOO REEF and CAPE RANGE NATIONAL PARK

6th June, 2012

We arrived in Exmouth two days after leaving Carnarvon.  The first night we free camped at a rest area 50 kms south of Coral Bay and then intended to spend a couple of days at a caravan park in Coral Bay itself.  That is until we found out that an unpowered site (with no water connection) was going to cost $42 a night.  A powered site (still with no water connection) was $48 a night.  Prices have started climbing in direct proportion to the amount of kilometres north of Perth.  We figured that we would spend the day in the parking area near the water and check out the small bay before continuing on in the late afternoon.  Coral Bay is a small coastal village with only 250 residents but in the peak tourist season (which has now started) the whole place is crawling with caravans, motor homes, whiz bangs and people.  The place was a little over commercialised for us and by mid afternoon the nice sunny weather had disappeared and dark clouds were gathering on the horizon.  We decided that it was time to move on and further up the road to Exmouth pulled into a parking area to camp.  That night the coastal areas were hammered with gale force winds and rain but quite by accident we had picked a spot where two ridges protected us from the wind and all we had to contend with was the ‘over as soon as they started’ rain showers.  It wasn’t until we checked into a caravan park in Exmouth that our neighbouring campers told us about their sleepless night with the wind rocking and shaking their vans and annexes being torn to shreds.  We’ll just chalk that one up as sheer dumb luck!
Our main reason for being in Exmouth was to see and stay in Cape Range National Park where the Ningaloo Reef extends down the coast for 300 kms.  Ningaloo is Australia’s largest fringing reef and in some places only 100 metres off shore.  It is home to a staggering array of marine life, including dugongs, manta rays and whale sharks.  The park is a snorkeler’s paradise with coral reefs easily reached from the shore.  There are several camping areas inside the National Park but there aren’t many sites and in the peak season campers line up at the gate from midnight waiting for a spot to open up.  Normally sites are allocated on a ‘first come first served’ basis but now some sites can be booked on-line, so we surfed the park website and managed to get two nights in one campground, one night in another campground, another night in another campground and one more night in another campground – making a grand total of five nights in four different campgrounds.  It means packing up and moving nearly every day but we are used to that type of thing and the sites are large enough to leave Mitzi hitched up to the van.  One has to be pretty self sufficient to camp in the park as the sites are all unpowered and there is no water (drinking or otherwise).   The campgrounds have no showers, one or perhaps two bush loos and no cooking facilities.  Fires of course are banned.  We make sure both our water tanks are full and food supplies plentiful before leaving Exmouth.  Forty kilometres later we pulled into the entry station to Cape Range National Park where the ranger happily checked us off the camping list and sent us on our merry way.  We stopped at the Visitor Information Centre to have a look around and it was jam packed with lots of stuff about the park and the reef.  Outside the centre was a large aerial with a number of different antennas

Aerial outside the visitor centre

where an enterprising osprey had built a humongous nest.

Mr or Mrs Osprey sits beside the nest

This was very fitting because our first campground was called Osprey Bay.  There were 20 Sites at Osprey and by 11am we had backed into Site 6 and were checking out the surrounding area.  There was a rocky ledge overlooking a lagoon to the left and a sandy beach to the right.  The surf was breaking on the outer reef in the distance and a stiff breeze was blowing.  The ledge looked an ideal place for Wok to try out his fishing skills and after lunch we headed back for an afternoon of relaxing by the water.  If Wok managed to catch a fish it would be a nice bonus.

Wok tries out his fishing techniques

Well no fish seemed interested in Wok’s bait but we did spend a glorious couple of hours watching waves crash against the rocks.

Waves crash against the rocks at Osprey Bay

The next morning as the sun rose a lovely rainbow formed just off shore.  By the time we got the camera out it was already starting to fade.

Rainbow at Osprey Bay

Not phased by yesterday’s lack of fish Wok decided to try his luck again.  The following photos are the three phases of fishing …

OK fish .... Here I am!



Starting to get tired ...



May as well get comfortable ...

The water was a beautiful aquamarine and so clear that if anything was cruising by we were pretty sure they would be easy to spot.  Apart from a couple of turtles and a bevy of red coloured jelly fish there didn’t seem to be anything swimming in that water so once again Wok returned fishless.  The wind was beginning to pick up and by that night rain squalls with gale force winds rocked the coast.  In the morning the worst was over but it was quite a wild night.  We packed up and headed to the next campground – Kurrajong.  This campground only had 10 sites but extensions were being planned for another 20 sites in the near future.  We walked over the sand dunes and found a lovely beach area to the north and a rock ledge to the south.  Aha!  A perfect spot to catch a fish!   So here we are again – relaxing in the sun and waiting, waiting, waiting ……

If I'm going to fish I'm going to be comfortable!

What’s that old saying?  ‘The early bird gets the worm’   ‘All good things come to those who wait’   ‘A persistent Wok will prevail’    …..  That’s the one!

Wok is all smiles - a fish at last!

Now don’t laugh!  This fish (a Chinaman Cod) is apparently good eating.  If it had been another 20 cms longer it would have been dinner.  It did however give Wok more practice on his catch and release technique.  The following morning – another move to a different campground.  This time to Site 3 at Tulki where there are 10 sites and a beautiful sheltered shallow sandy bay.  Just perfect for swimming and lazing around.  But no time for that.  We unhitch and drive the couple of kilometres to Turquoise Bay where we are going to tryout our snorkel gear for the first time.  Turquoise Bay is considered to be one of the best snorkel sites in the park and we are going to have a go at the ‘snorkel drift’.  We walk about a 100 metres south along the beach, put on our snorkel gear and swim out to where we can see other snorkelers in the water.  Then we float face down and let the current carry us over coral bombies teeming with all sorts of fish – large and small.  Even saw Nemo and a few of his relatives.  The only hassle with the drift was the extremely strong current which really had us working hard to make sure we exited the drift before being carried seaward to the opening in the reef.  We did the drift a few times before finally calling it quits.  The coral and fish were fantastic but trying to get back to shore was tiring us out and we thought we had better quit while we were ahead.  After a good night’s sleep we packed up and headed off to the last campground we had booked.  Yardie Creek with 11 sites is the southernmost campground in the park and by 10am we had settled down on Site 9.  At 11am we walked over to the creek to join a one hour cruise up the gorge.

Cruise boat at Yardie Creek

The creek is quite deep (12 metres in one spot) but does not go very far before it becomes too shallow for watercraft.  We pass a group of college students practising their kayaking skills in the sheltered waters.

Kayakers in Yardi Creek Gorge

It’s not long before Peter (our ranger guide) points out a black-footed rock-wallaby watching us from its lofty rock ledge.

There's a rock wallaby up there.  Can you see it?

These small wallabies are only found in Yardie Creek Gorge and three other areas in Australia.  They are a rare and protected species.

There's the rock wallaby - checking us out from its rock ledge.

They have distinctive black tips on their ears, feet and tail and have a white stripe on either side of their face.  They live in very small groups high in the rock face and can hop across, up or down the sheer rock face with astonishing ease.  The gorge is composed of limestone and there are many rocky overhangs, ledges and crevices.

Yardie Creek Gorge

In one section of the creek the rocks that once made up the walls of an aboriginal fish trap can be seen lying submerged in the clear water.

Remains of aboriginal fish trap in Yardie Creek

Wallabies aren’t the only animals to reside in the rocky walls of the gorge.

Can you see us?

Birds also make their nests here and right now it is time for Corellas to pair up and spend a few months at Yardie Creek.

Here we are!  Mr and Mrs Corella ...

They’re cheeky parrots – always squawking and getting into mischief.  The gorge is a great place for them to ‘chill out’.  A movement high up on the cliff wall catches our eye and we watch two wallabies chase each other across the seemingly sheer drop.

Rock wallaby high up the cliff face

Once the leading wallaby had rounded a rock and gone out of sight the chasing wallaby hopped back along the rock face and appeared to take up sentry duty.  The ledge on which the wallaby sat gave it a good view of that section of rock wall.

Rock wallaby on sentry duty

Our guide explains that the wallabies are territorial up to about 100 metres from their rock ledge quarters.  Both males and females will chase interlopers out of their perceived space.  On the way back to the jetty we stop for a look at some flying foxes that have also just flown in for the winter and were making their home in some mangroves near the creek entrance.  All too soon our boat ride was at an end – it was a nice relaxing way to see the gorge and those rare black-footed rock-wallabies.  We had seen enough of the National Park to know that we wanted to spend more time here so in the morning we were up early and by 7.30am were waiting at the campground host’s site as he checked the availability of sites at the other campgrounds in the park via his two way radio.  We were in luck – a site was available at Bungarra Camp near Osprey Bay.  We packed up quickly and by 9am were settled into yet another campground.  The only difference now was that this site was ours for the next 23 days if we so wished – woohoo!  We could stay put in one place for a while.  With only five well-spaced camp sites at Bungarra we sort of felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.

Our camp site at Bungarra

The guy camped on the next site was a keen fisherman and showed us a photo of a shark he had caught at the fishing spot over from the camp.  We were amazed when we saw that the shark he was standing next to was taller than him which made it about six feet long.  Even more amazing was the fact that he was alone when he caught it and had to carry it back to camp (a distance of about 500 metres) on his shoulders.  Well of course that spurred us on so we got the fishing gear together and trekked along the sandy path to the water.  It was pretty easy to find the place where he had been fishing.

This has got to be the spot!

We don’t know who Bob was but he must have fished at this place on a regular basis to warrant having it named after him.  And what a wonderful spot it was!

The clear waters at Bob's Spot

Over the next few days we hiked over to Bob’s Spot each morning and fished for a couple of hours.  The only thing Wok caught was a funny looking brown and blue spotted fish that looked like a blowfish – so more practise on catch and release.  We did however see turtles, stingrays and lots of different types of fish swim by.  None of them seemed interested in our yummy bait - not even the very large (we estimate six to seven foot) black shark that cruised up and down in front of us for quite some time.  Needless to say that after spotting him/her we instantly gave up the idea of having a snorkel on the beach next to where we were fishing.  Instead each afternoon we hopped in Mitzi and drove a couple of kilometres north to Sandy Bay where there was oodles of white sandy beach and a coral bombie which we could snorkel over and around.  We felt like we were swimming in our own tropical aquarium with a myriad of colourful fish ranging from the minute to dinner plate size.  Of course we were confident that the big black shark wouldn’t think of looking for us just two kilometres up the coast ….. yeah right!

Sandy Bay

It goes without saying that there is just as much wildlife on land as in the water in the park.  The most prolific animals are the kangaroos.



A kangaroo on the move



Watching you ... watching me

We mainly see the grey kangaroo but there are a few ‘big reds’ here as well.  Flocks of corellas, galahs, budgerigars, cockatiels and tree martens are common visitors to the campgrounds.  Seagulls and osprey patrol the shoreline and behind the sand dunes the emus rule the roost.

Emus near our campsite

They generally get around in small groups of two to six and are easy to spot in the low scrubby spinifex.  The large lizards are a little harder to find.  We came across this five-foot ‘perentie’ taking a leisurely stroll beside the main road in the park.

I was strolling through the park one day  ... In the merry merry month of May .. umm June ...

One animal that we always said would be impossible to find ‘unless it decided to cross the road in front of us’ was an echidna.  Much to our astonishment that is exactly how the scenario went.  The echidna was sitting on the road and as we got near waddled off into the scrub on the shoulder.

Echidnas are very hard to see if they aren't in the open



There he is .... nose tucked in and hiding in the grass

Well – how about that!  Now we can cross that one off our ‘spot the animal’ list.  We were running low on a few essential supplies so took a drive into Exmouth stopping off at Vlamingh Head Lighthouse

Vlamingh Head Lighthouse

which has a panoramic view of the cape and the world’s largest Very Low Frequency transmitter. 


View from the Lighthouse

The array can be seen from miles away and is the second tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere.  You’ll just have to believe us when we say that it is gigantic (ie a bunch of transmitter towers on steroids) as it just refused to photograph very well and seemed to disappear into the landscape whenever we took a shot with our ‘handy dandy off-the-shelf’ digital camera.  At the northern tip of the cape is the wreck of the SS Mildura, a cattle ship destroyed when it clipped the reef during a cyclone in 1907.

Wreck of the SS Mildura

Timbers and iron from the wreck were salvaged and used in renovations for Yardie Homestead.  In World War II the wreck was used for bombing practice and today it provides an ideal sanctuary for baby sharks.  At the beach near the wreck site a rock wall caught our eye.  

Interesting rock

The lump of rock looked like a big block of chocolate crammed full of macadamia nuts …. verrry interesting!!!  We had planned on checking out a couple of gorges on the eastern side of the National Park but the access roads were closed.  Apparently over here on the eastern side some heavy rain had fallen while we on the western side were bathed in sunshine.  Oh well!  We will try to see the gorges another day.  The next morning we gave the fish one more chance at Bob’s Spot to jump onto our lines and become our dinner – but no go!  We had given these fish five days to do the right thing and take our bait but they weren’t the least bit interested.  So at 7.30am the following day we waited patiently outside the camp host’s site while they checked availability at the other campgrounds.  We were in luck – a site was ours at Ned’s Camp as long as we got there by 9am.  The quickest pack-up we have ever done then ensued and at 8.58am we pulled into Ned’s Camp and snared the only vacancy for the day.  We paid the camp hosts for six nights and put a sign on our site to say it was taken and drove to Bundegi Beach near Exmouth to fill up our water tanks with drinking water.  While we were at the beach we found that the public amenities block had showers.  Woohooo!  They may have only been cold showers but after twelve days of bathing in the ocean (we were conserving the fresh water in our tanks for more important things like drinking and cooking) it sure was nice to not be salty any more.  Back at Ned’s Camp that night everyone gathered at the picnic tables for ‘happy hour’.

Happy Hour at Ned's Camp

It was while we were enjoying the conviviality of our fellow campers that a familiar sound drifted to us on the breeze.  We were positive that we could hear the sound of bagpipes but no-one else seemed to notice.  Then from around the corner a lone piper came into view.  He was staying at the next campground and our camp hosts had invited him over for ‘happy hour’ and an impromptu performance.  

The Lone Piper outside our campsite at Ned's Camp

In exchange for his effort to keep us entertained the piper was given a rousing welcome and a few rounds of happy juice.  While we enjoyed the company of new found friends we watched the sun set over the Indian Ocean.

Sunset at Ned's Camp

It was a great way to finish the day!  The next few days were spent snorkelling and fishing.  Well trying to fish – we can see ‘em but we can’t catch ‘em!  From the beach we can see the spotter planes and cruise boats harassing the whale sharks.  The planes radio the location of a whale shark to the boats which then converge on a spot in front of the poor creature.  Then a bevy of flipper clad snorkelers jump into the water and watch the whale shark cruise past.  If they are lucky the snorkelers (paying just under $400 each for a ‘swim with a whale shark’ experience) may get to see a few whale sharks during their seven hour cruise.  We are not sure what benefits the whale sharks get from their ‘experience’ with the snorkelers. Three days after arriving at Ned’s Camp a cold wind sprang up from the North East and blew and blew and blew.  This sort of put a damper on playing in, on and around the water but Wok did manage to catch up on some chores he had been putting off doing.  We were still enjoying the park and managed to book (with the help of the friendly ranger lady at the visitor centre) six more nights at another campground.  So we packed up again and made our last move – this time returning to Tulki where we had camped for one night earlier in our stay.  The next morning a flock of galahs landed behind our new site and nibbled away at the ground.

Galahs at Tulki Campground

It was hard to tell what they were eating as there wasn’t much grass growing in the gravelly soil but there must have been seeds of some kind as they spent quite a bit of time with their heads down and tails up.  The wind was still quite brisk so we decided to try and visit the gorges on the eastern side of the range again.  We were in luck!  The access roads were open and soon we were driving up Shothole Canyon – so named because of the shot holes left by seismographic explosions during oil searches in the 1950’s.

Heading into Shothole Canyon

The road meandered over dry creek beds until it reached a picnic area at the end of the canyon.  The view back down the valley over the way we had come was quite spectacular.

Shothole Canyon

We headed further south to Charles Knife Road which climbed the range across razor backed ridges until we reached a capped oil exploration well at its furthest point.

Capped oil exploration well on Cape Range

Several exploration wells were put down in the 1950’s with no success.  The wells were capped and exploration ceased.  The views down the canyons were splendid and in the distance we could see the waters of Exmouth Gulf.

Views from Charles Knife Road

There were stark multi-coloured gorges on either side of the road which were quite breathtaking.

Gorges off Charles Knife Road

When we arrived back at camp the hosts told us about a pod of five humpback whales that had passed by heading north along the coast.  The whales normally don’t start visiting the area until July so it seems like an early start to the season.  Looks like we will have to start taking the binoculars over to the beach now along with our fishing and snorkelling gear.  It’s a good thing we aren’t catching any fish as we would probably have difficulty getting it back to our campsite with all the gear we are lugging around.  Well what do you know!  Finally our fishing efforts have been rewarded.  Much to her astonishment Robyn managed to land a Yellowtail Bream on her handline.

My first fish!  And Wok says we are going to eat him ...

And not long after Wok hooked a Longfin on his fishing rod.

Wok has finally caught a fish that is going in the pan!

That night for dinner we had fresh fish to go with our chips instead of the frozen store-bought variety.  Very tasty!  The following morning we went snorkelling where we had been fishing hoping to recover two hooks and sinkers that we had lost.

Wok is looking for our lost hooks and sinkers

We found no trace of the fishing gear but saw lots of fish so we may try out our new found fishing expertise on the next high tide.  Everyone over here knows that WA (West Australia) stands for ‘windy always’ and we are beginning to understand why.  It can be as calm as calm can be and suddenly the wind will spring up from nowhere.  We only have a few more days left before we continue on our journey north and the wind is playing havoc with our fishing and snorkelling endeavours.  As if by magic during the day the wind usually peters out for a few hours.  When that happens we scramble about gathering our snorkeling gear and head out to one of the snorkel sites before the wind picks up again.

Wok enjoying chasing the fish

It is always a delight to float face down in the crystal clear water and watch the multitude of different species of fish that swim in and around the coral bombies. Sadly our time here is at an end.  Our original booking had been for five nights and twenty two days later we are still reluctant to leave – but there are more places north and east that we want to visit before the heat sets in and sends us scurrying south.  On our last evening we join our fellow campers one more time for ‘happy hour’ and watch as the sun sets in the west.

Sunset over Ningaloo Reef

A perfect end to a glorious stay at Ningaloo Reef!