On arrival in Exmouth after a day of driving, we saw sunset at the Lighthouse before moving on the next day to the Cape Range NP campgrounds on the beach at Ningaloo Reef. Caught up with Geoff again, met a couple with the same Explorer Motorhome as us (good to compare notes with) and that night managed to get 5 people around our table playing ‘Up and Down the River’ (card game).  The campground does a 5 pm byo drinks session every night so that makes it a sociable place and a good source for travel tips.

The Ningaloo Coast was World Heritage listed in 2011 due to its land and sea contrast and diversity of habitats.  Ningaloo Reef is the largest fringing coral reef in Australia, and one of the longest and most pristine in the world.  It hosts more than 200 kinds of coral and more than 500 fish species, one of the world’s largest whale shark aggregations plus whales, dolphins, manta rays, dugongs, sharks, and turtles, as well as one of the  most important turtle rookeries in the Indian Ocean.

We had 6 nights in Cape Range NP at two different camps. Dick had a 2 hour sail in a small trimaran one day and we had a couple of snorkelling sessions other days, as the snorkelling is supposed to be world class.  Saw lots of coral and fish and some places we could walk in from the beach while others involved climbing over rocks.  Often getting out was the hardest part and at one place Dick had to help me walk against the current for ages to find a place we could exit the water easily.  I even broke down and bought my own noodle as I had borrowed a couple and found it made things easier and I could stay in the water longer.  For our first three night camp we managed to be ‘card central’ and had people (up to 6 at a time) in to play cards each night. Even learned a couple of new card games! Speaking of being social, we made the 5 o’clock drinks six nights in a row.

Although there were a few walks in the park we only managed one, the Yardie Gorge walk which was about 1.5 hours in the hot sun. The park is really full of animals and during our drives around there we saw an echidna, a bustard family, emus, kangaroos and wallabies.  Fortunately no snakes were sighted by us, but they were by others.  In fact on one late afternoon drive we had to be really careful as kangaroos jumped out or almost jumped out in front of us every 50 meters along the road.  Its not surprising that the road is littered with dead kangaroos.

We then moved on to Coral Bay (great snorkelling right off the beach) which is further down Ningaloo Reef and a noted spot for seeing manta rays as its a manta ray hot spot year round.  Its also the time of year to see humpback whales so we booked a boat trip to swim with manta rays and see whales.  We had a great day, good weather, only 10 on our boat and we saw dolphins and a tiger shark, had a snorkel session in the bay where we saw lots of fish and coral.  Dick also swam with the manta rays and we saw lots of humpback whales quite close to the boat.  Then we drove further down the coast, crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and ended up in a free camp at Quobba Point, where we finished off a busy day with a roast dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a 3 hour drive to Millstream Chichester NP on deserted gravel roads (no traffic, no stations, just a few cows) and a very different place to Karijini NP.  Millstream was once a 400,000 hectare station running 55,000 sheep and the homestead built in 1920 is now the Visitor Centre/Homestead museum for the Millstream Chichester NP, and it has a pleasant wetlands walk through what was once the garden/tennis court/yards of the property.  Millstream Palms abound on the property and its a bit of an oasis.  We did a 7.5 km walk to a Cliff Lookout in the midday sun without much shade so were very glad to go to Deep Reach Pool in the Fortescue River (and fed by an aquifer) for an aftenoon swim.  We also did a 30km drive through an area of Snappy Gums with nice vistas and a scenic lookout. The next day we visited the Chichester end of the NP and were really taken with all the Sturt Desert Peas growing at the side of the road.  We climbed Mt Herbert and then went to Python Pool for a swim.  Had the place to ourselves, had a lovely swim and a bit of a shock after I got out of the water.  Dick said he saw a crocodile swimming across the other side of the pool.  I was quite shaken!  As we left other people arrived and said it was probably a water monitor/lizard since there were no crocs in the area.

On our one hour drive to Karratha we saw over 10 huge, very, very long iron ore trains; either going to the mines to be loaded up or going over to the port for shipment. Learned later that the trains are each 2.4kms long with 234 iron ore cars.  Lots of the infrastructure in the area is good and well maintained thanks to the mining companies.  Got a pleasant surprise in Karratha when we rang Toyota re our Monday appointment and they did our repair work on the Friday afternoon, and they reduced the price for us also.  Fabulous service!

Covered errands and phone calls in Karratha, checked out a beach and some aboriginal etchings on the Burrup Peninsula (quite disappointing) and drove through Dampier so I could see the Red Dog statute (because I liked the movie so much), before having dinner with our new friends George and Kylie in Karratha. With no reason to stay there any longer we went to Exmouth via a free camp stop on the way.  That drive took us out of the Pilbara region.

PS – Disclosure – We have been down to one phone/camera since Cape Leveque, where I took my phone for a swim. This may mean fewer photos or just fewer photos of Dick!