We broke the trip from Point Samson down and back up to Exmouth with one overnight stop along the way. Some of our favourite times this year have been spent in roadside rest areas and as far as they go this one was one of the better ones. Barradale rest area is on the site of a former roadhouse and station and has quite good amenities and with plenty of room for big vans and kids alike we were happy to spend the night. Pulling into Exmouth the next day and the weather was running true to form. While the wind has been (and continues to be!) a pain in the arse, it is pretty much standard fair for this part of the west at this time of the year we have been told, and sometimes carries on into February! While we really look forward to a few days of no wind we are still managing. The wind does get wound up after lunch, though the mornings and the weather overall has been nothing short of magic. Still around 30 degrees and sunny has been the norm for a couple of months now and we are all enjoying it.

Exmouth was a bit of a surprise for us and mostly we were happy with it. The countryside for most of the way in is pretty bland and featureless looking saltbush country. Makes you glad to have a fridge full of tucker because it would be hard work scratching up a feed in the bush around here! A huge water front canal type development greets you on the road into town and has a real million dollar look to it! The rest of the town seems low key with a couple of servos and pubs and small shopping village. A huge information centre with plenty of parking is also on the main road through town. It allows access to good drinking water for travellers as most of the stuff from the taps is very salty and not nice to drink! Other bases are covered with hardware and tackle stores catering to just about everything you would need for a holiday or just day to day.

Our chosen base saw us setup out at the Light House Caravan park about 20km out of town but at the start of the world famous Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range National Park. It had a great little shop with plenty of the stuff you really need and the cheapest fuel in Exmouth! With two dirty old bowsers and being 20km further out of town try and work that one out!? Fuel pricing in this country is nothing if not inconsistent!! With a week booked in Exmouth we were hoping to have a good look around the reef and the area in general. Starting close to home we made a trip up to the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse, about 1km from our camp! The view was awesome and really gave us a look at how close the reef really is over here.

After a day getting ourselves sorted with a few odd jobs and shopping we were ready to head out and get some snorkelling done. With an endless amount of activities catered for from fishing to kite-surfing to swimming with Whale Sharks, there really is something for everyone. Obviously though as mentioned with the wind really putting on a show for the whole week we were in Exmouth the kite-surfers were having more fun than the poor old fisho's! Having asked around a bit we were told that Turquoise bay would be the best place for snorkelling especially with the girls. The good thing for us, Chelsea was seemingly over her fear of fish and was jumping around keen to hit the water. Entering Cape Range, we were both glad to be getting some use from our WA National Parks pass we bought previously. Now snorkelling Turquoise bay could not be any easier, simply suit up and walk about 5m into the water and fall over, face first, for anyone new to all this!?

Now Kylz and I both really enjoy most water based activities and snorkelling is right up there on the list. It is just so peaceful and calming, floating around and watching the underwater world just carry on as if you are not even there. Little fish darting in and out of hiding holes to snatch a crumb or chase each other, bigger fish just cruising around without a care in the world. We saw plenty of big fish as well! Huge Tusk fish and many of the different Emperor species they have here in the west, they all must know it is a no fish zone as they hardly raise an eyelid when you snorkel near them. With goggles on and hanging onto their pool noodles or boogie boards we spent plenty of time towing the girls out over the reef also. Both girls really enjoyed it although Charli especially lapped it up and had no problem being towed around out amongst the deeper reefs. In between snorkelling they would spend time just mucking around on the beach which gave Kylz and I plenty of time to explore the water on our own. Getting there early was a secret we had been let in on by Col and Liz and we were glad we did, we even saw a pod of Dolphins one morning. Turquoise bay was a massive highlight and such a magic place to be able to stand out in a truly beautiful part of OZ!

Touring Exmouth one morning we took a drive south of town and up through Charles Knife Gorge and to Thomas Carter Lookout. The drive was better than I was expecting, while the actual lookout was a bit of a bummer, some of the scenery from the road on the way up was well worth the short trip. High up and looking out to the Exmouth Gulf and around some pretty rugged gorge country you could nearly imagine how it would have looked to the first settlers in the area, who I doubt came here for a holiday and to go snorkelling!? The girls were more impressed by the feral goat we spotted high up and out on one of the rugged ridges up the Shothole Canyon road. Apparently there are quite a few ferals around this part of the west. They both took turns spotting him through the binoculars and telling us what his name was and where he lived and what he liked to eat. Kids really do have good imaginations and ours have two of the best I reckon!

Kylz also managed to get us to visit Pebble beach as she has had it on her list to see all year. Well you can ask her about it but a beach made up of nothing but rocks just aint really a beach, the girls and I reckoned. So we scooped up a few rocks and headed off! We visited Bundegi beach and a couple of the others but we worked out we were spoilt from having spent time at Turquoise bay as the others just were not measuring up! Janzs beach however was another really nice bay and we would have spent more time at it, being only 5km from the park, had it not been blowing 30/40Kn from the SW every day. Being a turtle rookery we managed to spot a couple of the local turtles here and were told that they are always around there.

As always the caravan park pool saw plenty of action from the girls and it was almost their daily ritual to drag us down there. We met and chatted with a few other travellers while in Exmouth and were eventually joined by John and Marlene, who we had gotten to know in the last few weeks. With our short time in Exmouth, and even shorter really exploring Ningaloo itself, the biggest difference Kylz and I seemed to notice between Ningaloo and our own GBR was really only the seeming lack of colour? There were masses of marine life and beautiful crystal clear waters equal to if not better then the east coast but the coral just seemed to be a bit duller in colour. Now being died in the wool Queenslanders could cloud our view but that was how we both saw it. Talked to a couple of others as well and they shared our view!?

Packing up and leaving Exmouth to go to Coral bay we only had a short 150km drive ahead of us. Setting up in Coral bay was a real pleasure with a beautiful clean and green site in a really well looked after Caravan Park only across the road from the bay. Coral bay is a real little tourist town and is basically one long street with two caravan parks and a resort with a pub at the end of it. Family groups and fishing groups were already flooding in when we arrived and we seemed to have the last free site! With school holidays starting we had been forced to book our next couple of stays in advance to secure some accommodation. So far this year we had not booked anywhere except for the Finke weekend in Alice Springs, however not knowing how busy it gets around this part of OZ we decided it would be a good idea this time.

Coral Bay also gives access to the impressive Ningaloo reef and once again we spent the day's snorkelling and generally hanging out on the beach. The wind even settled down for a couple of days! The little bay is one of the most family friendly we have been to. So much shallow water and plenty of room for all! Every kid in WA must have gotten one of those "skim boards" for Christmas though as they were about all you had to dodge while walking along the beach. I spoke to a couple of blokes who use Coral bay as a fishing base and they were raving about the place. Apparently once out through the reef there are some big fish on the menu.

The Coral Bay Bakery provided an unexpected surprise as I stumbled upon the best curry pie this side of Walkerston. It really went down well and topped of a near perfect couple of days. John and Marlene once again caught us up in Coral Bay and were also glad to see a few days without the wind hammering them! Having never heard of our next destination until a few weeks ago we were really headed into the unknown. With the wind once again making its presence felt we were headed to Quobba Station to see Blowholes and Balloon fishing?!