Travelling down the west coast. The second half of the holiday.
After Cape Leveque we returned to Broome for a couple of days to restock, to see the staircase to the moon - which was much better this time than 6 years ago, and to plan our trip down the coast.
We have been travelling with another family (mentioned in last entry) and that has been really positive for us all, Bronte has had other kids to play with, Billy has been able to mentor young Max 8 in the finer points of fishing. And Dave and I have been able to have some adult company aka drinking pals.
We were very excited to get to 80 Mile beach (380km from Broome) as our memories were of catching lots of fish and collecting shells. This time the shell collecting was just as good however the wind picked up and the fishing became really difficult. so after a few hours on the beach fishing we gave up. The weather whilst hot would get windy making packing up the tent very challenging- the annexing threatening to fly off.
The next day we drove to Point Samson - a tiny little sea side town within the Iron ore and gas mining areas of Port Headland, karratha etc. We loved this little town. The girls (7 of us ) found this little cove where we snorkelled and swam whilst the boys found the boat ramp and went fishing. this was much more successful with them catching a range of different fish and even one that was big enough to be our entree for tea. We saw a whale up close - it swam about 80 metres from us as we were swimming- a very special moment.
The whales have continued to impress us and we have seen so many that it has been simply awesome.
From Point Samson we drove over 600 kms to Exmouth and the awesome Ningaloo Reef. Over all we will have spent nearly 2 weeks within the Ningaloo Marine Park. The 5 days here have been focussed on snorkelling tourquise bay, swimming, and fishing. A definate theme is developing- snorkelling, swimming and fishing. The weather has been beautiful, with mostly blue skies ( the occassional morning with a smattering of clouds but these cleared quickly), and still quite hot.
Bronte has developed her snorkelling skills and heads way out to explore coral reefs and beautiful colorful fish. She and her new friend are having a great time together. Billy and Max have caught lots of fish at Bundegi Beach - enough for us to have for dinner - very nice Bream.
We arrived in Coral bay yesterday (only 155kms - our shortest travel day) and have already hand fed the spangelled emperors that swim up to your feet. we are continuing the snorkelling, swimming and fishing theme. we have 4 days here before we head off road again to Gnaraloo homestead (still on the Ningaloo reef but much more remote).
We are doing a 6 hour tour to snorkel with Mantra rays, turtles and whales.
hope you like the photos. take care
Lisa