Exmouth is not a pretty place, established originally as an American navel and communication base, however out of Exmouth is Cape Range National Park. Here we went to the aptly named Turquoise bay and snorkelled the reef, it was just slightly too cool and windy to be perfect for the sea but after the initial shock it was ok.
At Yardie Creek the road ends, here we walked along a gorge a little way spotting rock wallabies in the cliffs on the otherside. Driving back as sunset we were playing dodge-the-kangaroo again and stopped to move an Echnida from the middle of the road.
Today I set out to try and realise my purpose in travelling up the west coast. The time of year I'd chosen was during the 3 months when Whale Sharks- the largest shark and fish in the world- visit the reef. Not much is known about these gentle giants which can reach 10m long but they have survived for millions of years
On the boat we have a briefing then a snorkel just over the reef- this is really a practice exercise in getting 10 people in snorkel masks, wetsuits and fins into the water and out with a huge amount of drama. The reef was beautiful but compared to the red sea in Egypt the corals were rather brown. We saw a couple of reef sharks (about 2m long and harmless to people, even though they look like mini Great Whites) at a shark cleaning station (where they go to have the cleaner fishes nibble off their parasites!) then back onto the boat for another briefing.
The spotter plane soon spotted a Whale shark and as the boat sped along instructions were being shouted over the roar of the engines and unweildy in fins we were standing on the end of the boat, water rushing over our feet, adrenaline pumping ready to quickly but quietly slither into the open sea. The boat gets in front of the whale shark, the snorkellers jump in and get to the side of the whale shark ready to swim and the boat pulls away. There are various legal requirements such as no swimming further forward than the shark's pectoral fins, no more than an hour of people swimming, no more than 15 at once etc so we're divided into 2 groups and rotated and there's a lot of organised chaos as we clamber on and off the boat. At first drop I have to swim hard to get into position, face in the water, looking around and suddenly: Whale shark! It's hard to exlaim with a snorkel on. There's no time to gawp it's time to swim. The shark doesn't seem to be moving at all get to keep up I'm having to put the effort in, all the while staggered by the size, beauty and grace of this creature. She's about 8m and as Whale Sharks go obliging by swimming along the surface fairly slow and we get a lot of time to take her in.
Back on the boat everyone's buzzing from the experience and exhausted from the rapid swimming. We get lunch and whilst recovering on deck humpback whales are spotted- mother and calf and we follow them for a little while until with a tail flick they dive deep down, another treat is a glimpse of a breaching Manta ray.
Back on land we move onto Exmouth just an 1 1/2 hours up the road.
I'd met with the new tour group I was joining the evening before and they were unfortunately disappointed by the weather- the dolphins were staying away again. We left Monkey Mia in the rain, retreated to a cafe in Denham and then to an Ocean Park whilst waiting for an improvement in the weather. By lunch time it was sunny again.
4 to 5 hours driving up the coast to Coral Bay followed during which time most of us lost the plot at being in the bus, the landscape was unvarying: low shrub, reddish sandy soil, sparse grass, termite mounds. As the sun set in a huge sky and dusk set in kangaroo dodging became the only break in the monotony.
Coral bay is a tiny community some 2000km north of Perth, having not passed through anywhere with traffic lights for more than 1000km it felt pretty isolated when we arrived. They have a shortage of freshwater so salty bore water is used whenever possible. In the hostel the showers were a bit salty and there were only 2 taps in the kitchen with water for drinking and cooking. This and its isolation made it seem like it was somewhere overseas, less civilised than Australia.
Along with neighbouring Exmouth this is the place from which to explore Ningaloo reef several hundred kilometres of fringing reef, accessible, unlike the Great Barrier Reef, from the shore line with a snorkel and proclaimed by many to be better or at least quieter than the GBR.
The tour moves on late morning but I've arranged to stay in Monkey Mia a bit longer. It's basically a large resort on the sea, 20 odd kms from the next nearest (also isolated) place. The bar is right on the edge of the sand and the dorm a stones'- throw from the bar, an excellent place for a few days relaxing. Emus wander around pecking food scraps, pelicans preen on the beach and there's a quaintness in that to get to the 1 small shop, or anywhere else it's a short walk along the sand.
Each and almost every day for the last 40 odd years several Indo-pacific bottlenose dolphins have visited the beach and interacted with, initially fishermen feeding them. They swim right into the shallows by the beach where they are fed in a what is nowadays quite a heavily regulated way but still providing the main tourist draw.
Over the next couple of days I see some dolphins up close from the beach and feed one. I take a couple of boat trips in beautiful sunshine. On the best one they spot a dugong in the shallows- these huge, shy mammals are also known as sea cows and feed on sea grass in just a few places in the world. We see ours rise to the surface for air every few minutes. In the clear shallow waters there are also eagle rays, more dolphins, turtles and small sharks and everywhere cormarants which, along with dolphins, are the main food for the tiger sharks which give Shark Bay its name.
The fair weather and fantastic sunsets give way as the wind starts to pick up on the 5th and by the 6th it's overcast, windy and raining. The dolphins don't come in, the boats can't go out and there's not much to do except read my book until I'm desperate for activity and walk along the dunes, wrapped up against the elements. When the wind finally drops and the ocean stops engulfing the entire beach there's a soft evening light and the sea is calm as a millpond. At least that's the beauty of Australia, when the weather turns bad it's not for ever!
An early start to catch the tour that will start me off on the West Coast, Northbound! It's a small and nice group. 1st stop is at Lancelin where huge dunes pull in people for various kinds of sand-based sport- quads, bikes and sandboarding which is what we're doing. From the top of one of the huge dunes I can see the ocean- blue and twinkling. It's early and already hot, hotter still after running up the dunes a few times then falling down them!
Between Lancelin and The Pinnacles I sit up front to chat to our tour guide and get a better view. The scenery is quite unvaried- a long empty road cuts through low shrub and spineflex grass which provides a green covering to what are essentially sand dunes. The sea is still visible most of the way and now and then tall sand dunes add a contrast to the blue and green.
The Pinnacles are strange geological formations, thousands of columns up to 3metres tall, limestone formed underground and exposed when surrounding land was eroded away. The aboriginal explanation of their formation is far darker though. They are beautiful and other-worldly.
After lunch the tour guide drove and we snoozed arriving at a place called Horrocks, right on the coast to stay the night.
It's another beautiful day and without any discernible effort I'm somehow at the bicycle rental shop by 9am. By 10.30am I'm slightly sunburnt and taking a detour to get more suncream.
Appropriately sun protected I cycle along the river to Kings Park. The views of the city from this elevated park are fantastic. I potter the morning away, doze off after lunch near a fountain and finally leave the park to cycle a route along the river. It's a lovely day of enjoying the Australian outdoors and feeling warm and holidayish again!
The next day is cool and it rains later but I'm interested to see the museum of Western Australia. There are some good natural history displays, an impressive collection of meteors found in the deserts, a section on the Stolen Generation and some explanations about life for the early settlers in this tough state. I hadn't realised really that Australia is such an old continent; there having been little in the way of earthquakes or volcanoes. Consequently the fossil record is old and more dinosaurs are being found all the time.
Last day in Perth and I take a tram to Cottesloe beach which is pretty but a bit chilly, from here it's a 7km walk to Freemantle and I'm keen for the exercise. At Freemantle the clouds lift and I can admire the harbour and Victorian buildings in the late afternoon sun, it's a nice little suburb. In the evening I take a last trip up to Kings Park to see the city by night which is beautiful.
My plan was to leave the tour again in Exmouth and go back to Coral Bay for a few days. The beach is beautiful and I wanted to do a bit more snorkelling and some diving.
Similar to the whale sharks, they use Spotter planes to find Manta rays which can measure up to 4m across. It was another incredible experience but another hard swim to try and keep up with this creature who didn't actually seem to be moving- but somehow was, fast! That day I was exhausted.
My final day I went out again on the Whale Shark boat- a bit choppy still and I was glad of the anti emetics I'd taken! This time we found a 5m young male Whale Shark and he was curious of us so kept swimming in circles which made it very difficult to not get in front of his head! The amazement was no less and back on the boat we had a great time leaning over the prow watching dolphins swimming with us for ages and also managed to see 3 humpback whales who swam alongside for quite some time.
