Day 53 10/08/2013 Exmouth to Cape Range NP (Ningaloo Reef).
The town of Exmouth is located on the eastern side of the rugged North West Cape in WA. It is a relatively new town, only established in 1967, as a support town for the US Naval Communications Station. It is now the main tourist town for visitors to the Cape Range NP and the beautiful Ningaloo Reef. The Exmouth Gulf is the body of water on the eastern side of the Cape and the Indian Ocean is on the western side.
Ningaloo Marine Park is a World Heritage area which protects Australia's largest and most accessible fringing reef system. Cape Range NP stretches for about 50km along the western side of the cape and provides access to the reef and has a number of exceedingly popular beachfront campgrounds. During the 'season', April to September, (it is generally too hot between October and March), the campgrounds are almost always fully occupied, and most people book months, if not a year ahead. It was almost impossible for us to do this because we often don't know where we are going to be from one day to the next when travelling. However, speaking with fellow travellers made us nervous about getting a campsite in Cape Range so we went on-line when we were in Tom Price and were 'lucky' enough to secure 3 nights in Tulki Beach campground.....although tonight we are in campsite No. 9 and tomorrow we have to move to campsite 7 for the other 2 nights! As we were driving out of Exmouth this morning on the way to Cape Range NP, there was a sign indicating that all campgrounds in the NP were fully booked. We were so glad that we had made a booking! The road through the park from the entry in the north, to the the southern end at Yardie Creek, runs between rugged cliffs and gorges to the east and the Ningaloo Reef to the west.
Before leaving Exmouth we did a little of shopping and re-fuelled. We are once again having trouble with the electrics between the camper trailer and the vehicle. When we connected the trailer to the vehicle on leaving Karijini NP, the brake lights no longer worked. This was the same problem as we had before, and one we hoped we had got sorted in Broome. Obviously not! Every time we replace the fuse the brake lights on the vehicle work, but once we connect the trailer to the vehicle.....bingo...the fuse blows. We called in to an auto-electrician this morning. He was too busy to do anything today and suggested it might be a 'short' in the wiring. So.......when we arrived at our campsite Dave spent some time undoing everything.....he didn't find any loose wires!
After he put everything back together and we had eaten lunch, we drove a few km south to Turquoise Bay where there is good snorkelling straight from the beach. Unfortunately it was very windy today, (apparently the wind only blew up in the night), and conditions were not that great for snorkelling. However we did spend a little bit of time in the water, but not as much as we would have liked. Frustratingly just as I got back onto the beach and turned around to look back at the water, a turtle swam over an area of coral where I had just been!!!
Turquoise Bay is a really pretty spot, but there are apparently other good locations for snorkelling. We are keen to check them out too....if the wind drops........but all indications are that it is going to continue for the next few days. Naturally we are disappointed, but we can't change the weather! There are lots of areas to explore along this part of the coast, and also inland, in the NP. If it is still windy tomorrow we might go for a bush walk instead.
There are only 11 campsites in this campground and so we have met most of the other campers.........in fact we all had 'happy hour' together this evening, as the sun was setting. The moon and Venus are in the same juxtaposition as they were a month ago when we were on the Kimberley Quest. How time flies!
I am sitting outside writing this; the wind has dropped a little, and we can hear the surf crashing over the reef as the tide comes in.