Day 57 14/08/2013 Lighthouse Bay to Carnarvon WA.
It was a warm night, with not too much wind. Today was a travelling day, and as such, not that exciting! We didn't rush, leaving the caravan park around 8.30am and headed into Exmouth. We re-fuelled and had a cup of coffee while we waited for the Ningaloo Blue shop to open so that we could purchase the DVD from yesterday's tour.
On leaving Exmouth we travelled south, partly the same route we had taken to get to Exmouth, but somehow we seemed to notice the termite mounds (nests) even more in this direction. There were literally thousands and thousands of them for more than a hundred kilometres. Termites can digest spinifex and this area was mainly an open plain of spinifex. There must be other contributing factors though, because not all areas of spinifex have termite nests. The number of termite nests....and therefore the number of termites...is probably one reason why all of the newer homes in Exmouth are of steel construction. Being able to withstand the cyclones that can sometimes affect this coast in the summer months is probably also a consideration when building in this region.
As we drove further south, the termite mounds disappeared and the surrounding country had more shrubs. We took a short detour to Coral Bay, at the southern end of the Ningaloo Reef, where we bought an ice-cream and had a look at the bay itself. It was exceedingly pretty with the coral reef very accessible from the beach....it looked perfect for children. It was the quintessential holiday resort but probably not somewhere where we would choose to base ourselves. We continued with our journey south and passed a sign indicating that we had crossed the Tropic of Capricorn. We would have crossed some weeks before, only in a south-north direction, just outside of Alice Springs; and on previous trips in Longreach QLD and also when we passed through Rockhampton in QLD.
We stopped for lunch at a rest area which, although officially not designated for overnight camping, already had 3 caravans quite obviously set up to camp for the night! This was only around 1pm!
We arrived in Carnarvon at about 3pm and checked in to a caravan park for the night. Carnarvon is a bigger centre than Exmouth and we wanted to do some shopping and also have a shower in freshwater......the caravan park we were in last night only had bore water and it was quite salty!! Most of Carnarvon's attractions are not in the town itself, but in the surrounding region. We did have some of them on our 'to do' list, but we have changed our plans and have decided to start our journey home from here. We have had some amazing experiences, but feel that the time has come to head back. (Anyway, we need to leave something for next time!). We are not going to rush, and there will be still be lots to see and do en route. So tomorrow we will head east!
The sky has become increasingly cloudy today.....first cloud we have seen since we arrived back in the west after our trip back home last month. We are even prepared for a rain shower and will not leave anything that can't get wet out overnight! From now on it will be much cooler, especially at night.