Heading South on the Coral Coast

Leaving Exmouth we headed into Coral Bay. This little town sits right on the coast and has even more beautiful blue seas and an opportunity for Lachlan to use his newly acquired spear gun. Armed with many brochures about idisustainable fishing, size limits, a measuring ruler, and multiple identification books we headed to the areas permitting spear guns.

It became clear why this area was open to fishing as despite abundant large fish in the marine park area, there was a profound lack of appropriate size fish waiting to be speared here.

There was some big fish we did not want to catch.

Despite valiant diving attempts there was no fish today.

Our roadside stop turned on a toasty fire and delicious baked bean jaffles.

And provided a lovely sunset view.

The next morning brought our first rain of the trip! Lachlan had to move his (smelly) runners off the roof and into the car.

Around Carnarvon Lachy was rather chuffed to see a McKenna Street.

Ningaloo Whale Sharks

We were lucky enough to be in Exmouth in May when the Whale Sharks swim around the Ningaloo Reef. We forked over the rather extravagant fee and went out on a day snorkel trip with a company Ningaloo Blue. It turned out to be some of the best money we have spent so far! Some days the boats and spotter planes wait all day to find the biggest fish in the ocean, but the day we went the plane took off at 10am and spotted the first whale shark at 10:15am.

We were suited up, and been for a trial run with our snorkel. I’m smiling wide but was secretly somewhat scared about getting in the water with the whale sharks which can be up to 18m long.

As soon as we got in the water all my fears dissipated. These big gentle plankton eating giants glide through the water and were beautiful to swim along beside.

We were lucky enough to spot 6 different sharks for the day and we swam with five of them. The largest we saw was estimated at 9m.

At one point we were swimming with a smaller shark and suddenly an 8m shark emerged from the depths with his big wide mouth open. It looked briefly like Lachlan might be mistaken for plankton!

While on the boat we also spotted Pilot Whales.

Many flying fish – yes this is actually a fish... They jump out of the water and race away with fins flapping.

Many sea snakes....

A leatherback turtle.

And Lachlan pranced about on the deck pretending the boat was actually his.

Exmouth

Exmouth, situated on a cape in the Gascoyne Coast of Western Australia is dead boring, but the National Park and Marine Park around it is the most phenomenal place we've seen. Ningaloo Reef Marine Park starts from just above Exmouth, wraps around the cape and travels about 150kms south along the coast. I wont bore you with EVERYTHING we saw, but here's a little taste.

Blue-Spotted Ray

Wussy Blue Fish (?)

Groper / Tusk Fish (saw loads of these)

Yellow Tail Snapper (I think)

Starfish Maybe? :)

Some Type of Rock Cod?

Trevally (BIG!)

...and a GIANT Hawksbill Turtle

He was quite the poser. The above photo (not the below photo).

So you can understand why we were pretty happy to be getting into the water to snorkel! But we were just as lucky below the water as we were above the water. The wildlife in the land-based National Park was also pretty impressive. Below is another collection of wildlife that we could capture.

Emus

Goannas

Kangaroos

Petas (Please watch out for Petas crossing roads whilst holding packets of chips and a small children)

Loud cockatoos playing

Big Pelicans

And this was all before we went on the cruise to go diving with the whale sharks!

Karijini Rocks!

Karijini is WA's second largest National Park and is set in the middle of the Pilbara, the iron mining region. The red iron rocks form deep gorges and being a tropical semi-desert, these are filled with icy water creating spectacular waterfalls. Needless to say, this park was amazing.

Here is a shot of our little home with Lachlan's new requirement - the tarp forming some lino out the front.

We were pretty snap happy in Karijini so there are quite a few of these....

So delightful to know no crocodiles can get into these pools.

Hmm, you do question the stability of these little pillars....

Little did I know as I admired the sheer drop that Lachlan would have me climbing up the waterfall from the bottom in an hours time.

Off to climb a waterfall.

The stylish fly nets came out again - I take back all my mockery of others in these nets, they are fabulous!

This ladder led us down into Hancock Gorge.

We soon discovered why they had it as a class 5 trail as we spiderman walked through the gorge.

The end pool was pretty impressive. From this point on you need abseiling ropes and a permit to continue - much to Lachlan's dismay.

Karijini Rocks!

The views from the top were also amazing.

And then you get to go inside!

The water in here was truly freezing. I took a very unglamourous tumble into this gully about 30 seconds later....

At first it was amusing to discover that some French guys played a prank and hid our shoes. Not so amusing as we realised one of Lachlan's was so well hidden we couldn't find it. Luckily they were still up the top as we emerged (Lachlan somewhat hobbly with one shoe) and after a few pleasant words were delivered they went scuttling back to find it.

Kalamina Gorge.

More red rock admiration...

We love our fly nets so much we even adapt them for eating leftover laksa.

Sadly the Rav copped a flat tyre coming out of Karijini. Turns our we should have checked the tyre pressure on the spare. Lucky for grey nomads and their preparedness we were able to loan an air compressor and avoid another tow trip care of the AANT.