Ningaloo Station - Exmouth

(Photo: Turquoise Bay)

Lachlan – We went to Ningaloo Station. It was windy. We had lots of sand fights and lots of walks collecting shells. We found some nice ones. One day we went snorkeling and saw heaps of fish and coral and just as it started to get good a big grey nurse shark came over purple coral! So we changed our snorkel quickly to a shell collecting walk along the beach. Then we went to Exmouth. On the second day we went snorkeling at turquoise bay. It was really good snorkeling. Any type of fish was there. The current was strong. We saw parrot fish any colours. Then had a jellyfish fight.

(Photo: Lighthouse at sunset, Exmouth)

Pippa - Well we have been having fun going to the beach, snorcling, getting shells, patting a goat yes a baby goat! Lachie and dad saw a Grey nurse shark it can eat you. I like to go for a swim. I made pancakes on father’s day. We have been missing the gorges all ready. We prefer gorges than the beach. We are in Exmouth now. We went snorcling at Turquise bay the current was very strong. There where many different types of fish. There where Red, Blue, White, Yellow, Sliver, Purple, Spanish dancer, Black, Brown and Orange.

Campbell - I caught my first fish. It was windy. I we to get a reall.I went fishing. We caught nothing.

(Photo: Lachlan and Pippa at Turquoise Bay)

Kathy – Not more raves about turquoise water, warm sun and white sand you may say! Well, sorry. If you don’t want to read more about the above don’t read on. Ningaloo Station had all this and more and, even better, we were able to camp on the beach. There was only a small sand dune between us and the beach. The kids could play on the beach and we could supervise them from the comfort of the annex. There are many campsites at Ningaloo Station and apparently they get about 40,000 people through a year. We stayed at South LeFroy Bay which had the best snorkeling. When we got there it was pretty windy. The next day it was very windy and that night it was blowing a gale! People were saying the weather was “unusual”. Hmmm. Somehow we have managed to strike a lot of “unusal weather” (euphemism for extremely windy to the point of gale force) in WA. On the third day the wind died down and Lachlan, Rhys and I went snorkeling while Campbell fished off the beach. The snorkeling was sensational. Great coral, an amazing array of fish and….a 2.5 metre grey nurse shark! Lachlan spotted the shark and Rhys very quickly assessed it was of the humans are food not friends variety so we hot footed it back to shore with the shark following us at least half the way in. Don’t worry. Rhys had a pocket knife with him (as you do) so he was armed and dangerous if anything untoward was going to happen. We’ve since been assured by locals that the sharks up here are so well fed on the abundant sea life that they seldom take on humans. Well, I for one was not going to check to see if he was hungry. Talking of abundant sea life by the time we had returned Campbell had caught his first fish. It was an undersized perch but he was as proud as punch and was already talking up the bigger fish he had hooked which had got away. Apparently this now makes him a seasoned fisherman and he now feels qualified to wade into any conversation where fishing is mentioned!

After being sandblasted for three days we decided to forgo the beachside camp grounds at Cape Range National Park and opted for a sheltered caravan park in Exmouth. We met some friends of Campbell’s (and now ours) in the Exmouth Visitors Centre and found where they were staying and checked in there. We discovered that there were three other families we had met along the way there so the kids have had great fun playing spotlight at night with them. The park is right beside the local lighthouse which is a great whale spotting venue. We’ve gone up a couple of times and seen the whales and also viewed the great sunset from there.
I think the highlight has been snorkeling at Turquoise Bay (that is, apart from me getting a long-overdue hair cut and colour!). Although the coral and sea life were probably not quite as good as Ningaloo Station the only shark spotted was a reef shark which is apparently a shy creature and not likely to attack. Again it was the usual scenario - amazingly blue water and white, white sand. Rhys and Lachlan snorkeled for a long time and got some great underwater shots while the others did a bit of snorkeling and then enjoyed making sandcastles and jelly fish “farms” with other kids on the beach. We are hoping to go on a tour of the reef in a glass bottomed boat on Saturday but we are having “unusual weather” yes, you guessed it, very windy so we’ll have to see if conditions are suitable. After the tour we are planning to travel down to Quobba to see the blowholes then visit the dolphins at Monkey Mia before spending a week with Steve and Wendy Dickins at Kalbarri.

(Photo: walking along the beach at Ningaloo Station)

Rhys – for the first time I have read Kathy’s Blog, she does writ a lot better then me. As Kathy has so eloquently written about our diving experience at Ningaloo Station so I wont add more on that point other than I did not want to become shark food. We then took note of the school fish mentality and headed up to the top of North West cape where you could snorkel as a “school”of humans, less probability of getting eaten, particularly if you swim in the center of the “school”. Ningaloo Station would be a sensational place if you had a small boat. At North West cape there is more antennas than you can imagine, the military are quite active. Our two day stop over turned out to last about a week! Many things to see and do, I bet Exmouth will be a dramatically different place in 5 years time, so much development. Took the children fishing, don’t think I will live that one down. In the past when we have been fishing we have not caught much, it all changes when you catch a heap of fish. As soon as we packed up our fishing gear the boys were “angling” at going to our next fishing spot as soon as possible. The wind blows incessantly on the west coast, looking forward to get away from it. Tomorrow we are meant to be going in a glass bottom boat and go snorkeling (if the wind drops enough). After the boat tour we are hopefully going to travel Quobba where there is meant to be good scenery, fishing and camping. From there we a going to meet Steve, Wendy & Co for a week in Kalbarri which we are looking forward

(Photo: Pippa and Campbell at our Ningaloo Station campsite)