Day 5 - We woke up at the Sheep Station and drove to Coral Bay. Coral Bay is small...at least
the part we saw. There is one main street into town with some shops
including a bakery, grocery shore, cafe, dive shop, and souvenir shop.
There is a reasonably sized trailer park and a several places to stay
including a a couple resorts. There are trips that leave from Coral Bay including snorkeling, diving, glass bottom boat tours, fishing, and swim trips with manta rays or whale sharks. The
whale shark season ended in Coral Bay a couple
days before we arrived. 
The
main draw is the beautiful beach
right off the main street with a coral
reef swimming distance from the beach.
We had a free day at Coral Bay. Those who wanted to go out on a boat to see a better reef and a turtle sanctuary could pay to go on the trip. Red Earth Safari arranged a discount for the trip at one of the local dive shops. About half of the group went out on the boat. The rest of us stayed on the beach. Snorkel gear was also available for rent at a discount.
I had a fun time teaching one of my friends from the tour how to snorkel. Her reaction to the coral reef and reef fish was wonderful. It made me smile hearing the ohhs, ahhs and squeaks of excitement. I was glad that I had her to swim with and point things out to because I was underwhelmed by the reef.
It was a beautiful day on the beach. We found a spot with shade and it was warm. The time passed quickly. After the group from the boat tour returned, we headed up to Exmouth.
Exmouth had changed quite a bit. I had visited only 2 years after a big tsunami had taken out the town. Things were MUCH less built up. We stayed at Potshot Backpackers. It was clean enough but my least favorite place we stayed on the tour. There was one shower per room with 10 bunk beds. I was surprised to find out that unlike last time I had traveled around in backpacker hostels in Australia/NZ, most of the backpacker places provided linen. I guess there was an outbreak of bed bugs because of dirty sleeping bags and so now, sleeping bags are banned and linen is provided.
Our group had 2 rooms and we split into those going out to see whale sharks and those who were not. Like at Coral Bay, a discounted rate was offered to go see whale sharks (only $350 with Whale Shark-n-Dive instead of the $395) because of a deal with Red Earth Safari. It was a great deal. I had pre-negotiated / booked my Exmouth water time (diving and shark swimming) for later in the week and had decided to get the most out of my tour by staying with the group on Saturday.
Dinner was fantastic--a Mexican Fiesta (or at least the Australian version of Mexican food) complete with celebratory bubbly for making it to Exmouth...the last "official" day of the tour. Friday night is the big dance party at Potshot that most people joined. I was exhaused from not sleeping the night before and so called it a night. Luckily, the dance party closes at 12:30 and so the noise dissapates after about 1:30.
Day 6 - Exmouth
Those who went to swim wth sharks left about 7:15am. The rest of us (in the other room) slept in and had a leisurly breakfast. After everyone was ready, we once again jumped into our bus following the brightly colored hat (the great hat that our tour guide wore the entire trip).
We drove to Cape Range National Park south of Exmouth. Charles Knife Canyon Road has a beautiful overlook of the gorage with the ocean in the background. I never would have known this beautiful landscape was here in the flat arid Exmouth...even from the main road this beauty is hidden.
After pictures, we drove back through town to the complete opposite side of Exmouth, up to the Lighthouse. Oddly, it is really difficult to get a picture of the lighthouse with water in the background becuase it is so far back from the edge of the cliff and has a reasonable amount of land between the lighthouse and the water.
It does offer a beautiful overlook from the top of the road.
We also drove past the Naval Communications Station outside of Exmouth. It is this station that caused Exmouth to become the town it is today. (pictured in the upper right) The Naval Communication Station has 13 radio towers that were built by the US military during the cold war to track submarines in the Indian Ocean. The towers are built in a hexigon shape around the tallest tower "Tower Zero". Tower Zero is 387m (1270 feet) tall which is larger than the Empire State Building or the Eiffel Tower. It does not look like it because the land is flat and there is nothing around to compare them to for perspective.
For those who wanted to snorkel, we picked up fins up at the Visitor's Center (which was a really nice visitor's center and well worth a visit). We spent the remainder of the afternoon at Turquoise Bay in Cape Range National Park.
As we were walking up the path to the beach, we spotted our first snake of the trip. An ringed brown snake...he was leisurely crossing the path but stopped for a rest right in the middle. We waited for him to clear most of the path before we proceeded. Can not be too careful...especially in Australia. :)
We saw lots of small familiar reef fish including wrass, parrot fish, snappers and damsel fish. I also saw a fish that I had never seen before. It was a type of cat fish but with an eel like tail. I was excited to see something new. Some of the areas were quite shallow due to the density of coral and the depth of the water. I tried to find a path that would give us the most breathing room as some sections made both of us nervous about touching anything.
I was also excited about the couple of big things we saw. A rather beefy reef shark cruised by us. We also saw a beautiful turtle swimming around. He was casually checking things out.
The day was beautiful. The beach came out to a point. I walked up the beach before lunch. Once I rounded the corner the wind blew so hard, it was hard to walk. It was nice, even without a shade area, the orientation of the beach meant that there would always have one protected side.
We went out for pizza on our last night on the tour. Those who went out with the whale shark boat were excited about their swim with the shark. We watched the DVD from the whale shark tour at dinner. It was a great last night.
I waved goodbye to those who were headed back on the 1.5 day trip back down to Perth on Sunday morning.
I really enjoyed the 6 days on the Red Earth Safari Tour from Perth to Exmouth. It was a great group and we saw a ton of stuff. I was alone now and ready to jump in the waters of Exmouth and snorkel and dive to see some more animals.
The
main draw is the beautiful beach
right off the main street with a coral
reef swimming distance from the beach.We had a free day at Coral Bay. Those who wanted to go out on a boat to see a better reef and a turtle sanctuary could pay to go on the trip. Red Earth Safari arranged a discount for the trip at one of the local dive shops. About half of the group went out on the boat. The rest of us stayed on the beach. Snorkel gear was also available for rent at a discount.
I had a fun time teaching one of my friends from the tour how to snorkel. Her reaction to the coral reef and reef fish was wonderful. It made me smile hearing the ohhs, ahhs and squeaks of excitement. I was glad that I had her to swim with and point things out to because I was underwhelmed by the reef.
It was a beautiful day on the beach. We found a spot with shade and it was warm. The time passed quickly. After the group from the boat tour returned, we headed up to Exmouth.
Exmouth had changed quite a bit. I had visited only 2 years after a big tsunami had taken out the town. Things were MUCH less built up. We stayed at Potshot Backpackers. It was clean enough but my least favorite place we stayed on the tour. There was one shower per room with 10 bunk beds. I was surprised to find out that unlike last time I had traveled around in backpacker hostels in Australia/NZ, most of the backpacker places provided linen. I guess there was an outbreak of bed bugs because of dirty sleeping bags and so now, sleeping bags are banned and linen is provided.
Our group had 2 rooms and we split into those going out to see whale sharks and those who were not. Like at Coral Bay, a discounted rate was offered to go see whale sharks (only $350 with Whale Shark-n-Dive instead of the $395) because of a deal with Red Earth Safari. It was a great deal. I had pre-negotiated / booked my Exmouth water time (diving and shark swimming) for later in the week and had decided to get the most out of my tour by staying with the group on Saturday.
Dinner was fantastic--a Mexican Fiesta (or at least the Australian version of Mexican food) complete with celebratory bubbly for making it to Exmouth...the last "official" day of the tour. Friday night is the big dance party at Potshot that most people joined. I was exhaused from not sleeping the night before and so called it a night. Luckily, the dance party closes at 12:30 and so the noise dissapates after about 1:30.
Day 6 - Exmouth
 |
| View Out of the Bus (with brightly coloured hat) |
We drove to Cape Range National Park south of Exmouth. Charles Knife Canyon Road has a beautiful overlook of the gorage with the ocean in the background. I never would have known this beautiful landscape was here in the flat arid Exmouth...even from the main road this beauty is hidden.After pictures, we drove back through town to the complete opposite side of Exmouth, up to the Lighthouse. Oddly, it is really difficult to get a picture of the lighthouse with water in the background becuase it is so far back from the edge of the cliff and has a reasonable amount of land between the lighthouse and the water.
It does offer a beautiful overlook from the top of the road. We also drove past the Naval Communications Station outside of Exmouth. It is this station that caused Exmouth to become the town it is today. (pictured in the upper right) The Naval Communication Station has 13 radio towers that were built by the US military during the cold war to track submarines in the Indian Ocean. The towers are built in a hexigon shape around the tallest tower "Tower Zero". Tower Zero is 387m (1270 feet) tall which is larger than the Empire State Building or the Eiffel Tower. It does not look like it because the land is flat and there is nothing around to compare them to for perspective.
For those who wanted to snorkel, we picked up fins up at the Visitor's Center (which was a really nice visitor's center and well worth a visit). We spent the remainder of the afternoon at Turquoise Bay in Cape Range National Park.As we were walking up the path to the beach, we spotted our first snake of the trip. An ringed brown snake...he was leisurely crossing the path but stopped for a rest right in the middle. We waited for him to clear most of the path before we proceeded. Can not be too careful...especially in Australia. :)
My snorkeling buddy and I went out for her second snorkel. It was beautiful...so different from Coral Bay. Lots of big coral bomies and forests of bright colored coral like the blue tipped staghorn coral with a huge school of sargent majors (pictured right). For an inshore reef...it was STUNNING!! :)
We saw lots of small familiar reef fish including wrass, parrot fish, snappers and damsel fish. I also saw a fish that I had never seen before. It was a type of cat fish but with an eel like tail. I was excited to see something new. Some of the areas were quite shallow due to the density of coral and the depth of the water. I tried to find a path that would give us the most breathing room as some sections made both of us nervous about touching anything.
 |
| White tip Reef Shark |
The day was beautiful. The beach came out to a point. I walked up the beach before lunch. Once I rounded the corner the wind blew so hard, it was hard to walk. It was nice, even without a shade area, the orientation of the beach meant that there would always have one protected side.
 |
| Turtle |
I waved goodbye to those who were headed back on the 1.5 day trip back down to Perth on Sunday morning.
I really enjoyed the 6 days on the Red Earth Safari Tour from Perth to Exmouth. It was a great group and we saw a ton of stuff. I was alone now and ready to jump in the waters of Exmouth and snorkel and dive to see some more animals.
Thanks for sharing your trip to us. Really great for us to see this.
ReplyDeleteThat is really a nice view. Thanks for sharing. Now I can see the beauty of that place.
ReplyDelete