Exmouth

     I spent time exploring Exmouth while I was not able to be in the water. I found several groups of wonderfully friendly people. Unfortunately, a car is needed to see anything outside of the Exmouth proper. We had time to see a little of Cape Range National Park on our last day of the tour up to Exmouth but there is much more to the national park.
     My first day to explore was with an incredibly nice Irishman who I met on the whale shark boat. He lives in Perth and had 2 friends visiting. The second day was with an Aussie who works in the mining industry. He was exploring with his 2 friends. We met in the car rental shop as we were both inquiring about renting a car to dive for the day and then drop at the airport. There was only 1 car. I let him have it and then he was nice enough to invite me to join them. I really enjoyed both of my days out and about in Exmouth. It is nice to be traveling and run into some more great people.
     Both days we explored the national park on the south side of Exmouth. There are 2 roads that lead into it. Shothole Canyon Road is 14km outside of town. The road is in the valley of the canyon and is not the smoothest road. There is a picnic area and scenic overlook spot at the end. The colors of the rocks were amazing. It was a beautiful drive.
The other road, about 21 km outside of town, is the Charles Knife Canyon. This dive is up on the ridge so the views look down into the canyon. The sheer drops are pretty impressive. You can also see the ocean from some of the overlooks. It was really pretty.

Shothole Canyon Road

Charles Knife Canyon Road

     Pebble Beach is on the way back into town. It was, just as the name indicates, completely comprised of 2-4cm round rocks. Apparently it is a great place to see whales in September/October when they migrate down south. The most interesting thing on the beach was a sign that talked about the seasons for the animal life in the Exmouth waters.

On the other side of Exmouth, we drove up to the lighthouse. Exmouth is situated on one side of the peninsula because it was initially not a tourist destination but a support town for the Naval Communications Station. The lighthouse is at the tip. It was able to get a picture with water in the background...this is impressive since the lighthouse is SO FAR back from the coastline. The overlook is actually closer to the water than the lighthouse itself.

We stopped by a Turtle Sanctuary information center. During the turtle season, this is a good beach to watch them come in to lay eggs or to see the hatchlings start their fight for life as they work their way out into the ocean. It was a strange area. There was a story board that had was written as if it were a child's book with rhyming but the story was quite morbid.  The pictures....well....the pictures are a bit...I don't know how to put into words how I felt a picture of a crab decapitating a baby turtle. A bit graphic.
There is a ranger station where you have to pay to enter Cape Range National Park on the beach side.
The very end of the road is Yadie Creek. We took the Nature Hike. The hike wound along the top of the gorge and looked down on the creek. The area is known for rock wallabys.  We did manage to see one of these shy animals. We also almost walked over several wallaby and kangaroos eating a snack. They were not concerned about us at all. It was a nice hike and highly recommended.
Back to the Water -

I think one of the reasons that Exmouth beaches have such great coral is that the beaches aren't really in Exmouth. The beaches are protected by the national park and therefore access is more restricted than Coral Bay.

I tried snorkeling at Lakeside (the first spot to park in the national park). I think we went to the wrong area because it was recommended but the marked area for snorkeling was pretty boring...mostly algae. The only thing that saved it was that the beach was pretty and we saw a shoveled ray in the first 2 minutes of the snorkel.

We went to Turquoise Bay each time I went out to the National Park.  Turquoise Bay is beautiful.  I wondered down both sides of the beach.  One side is beach and more beach.  the other side gets rocky.  iIt was fun to walk along the flat rocks...I kept hearing scratching noises and felt like I was being watched.  Turns out there were tons of little crabs in the rocks and they were watching.  If I approached, the scurried to a hiding spot in the rocks.  There were also lots of Chiton (which look like a funny shaped rocks but are animals that seal themselves in a moist environment so they can survive when exposed to air for extended periods of time.

Sea Cucumber in Turquoise Bay

I rescued a sea cucumber that had come in a bit too far and was left stranded when the tide when out. Sea cucumbers do not have any protection if they are out of water. He was baking on the rock.  I put him back into the ocean.
It was a fun tidal flat area with lots of critters to see.

Trigger fish

Parrot fish

 I also enjoyed more time snorkeling at Turquoise. I was there for a sunset snorkel one of the days. It was beautiful to see the amazing color and animals below and see the sun doing its best to paint the sky with its own brilliant color. It was beautiful.
I liked where I stayed in Exmouth. Most of the people who I met stayed at Potshot backpackers or hotel so I had to walk down to meet them but it was not a long walk. Potshot Backpackers was not the nicest or cleanest place. It was not warm and comforting and it FELT like an old backpackers place that was not cared for. The nice thing was that the communal kitchen did have cooking equipment (knives, pots, pans) and (for a deposit) they would hand out place settings (but watch out for the cracked mugs). There was also a toilet/shower in each room BUT in the backpackers, there were 10 beds in each room. I did not like it there.

Visitors outside of my room

I moved to Aspen Holiday Park. It was really clean and nice. I was more at home from the minute I walked in...well maybe after about 5 min. The guy at the front desk was quite abrupt when I told him that I had a reservation and gave him my name, he responded with "No you don't!" ;I thought he was joking....so I repeated myself and then asked if he wanted to see the reservation. He said yes because he did not believe that I had a reservation (apparently I was not in the system). I presented my printed reservation after digging it out from the bottom of my bag. He was quite confused. The lady at the other end of the desk overheard my name and said, "is this her reservation". She thought it was a joke because of the combo of my name and email address...so she did not enter it but kept it around. At that point they were very nice and laughed about the whole situation with me and we made jokes about it the whole time I was there. I even was given a ride to my room in a golf cart. My room felt really new. There were only 4 beds per room (and since it was the off season...I had the room to myself). The bathroom/really nice warm showers/laundry were a quick walk across the park road.

Visitor at the picnic area

The grilling/cooking facilities were fantastic however you had to provide all your own things or you could rent a well equipped cooking kit from the front desk. If you needed anything...just a plate and knife...that was your only option.
They also has a nice shaded pool area and they showed 2 movies outside on a big screen twice while I was there. They were kids movies. I took my sleeping bag and picnic dinner over to watch the shows. I really liked the place.

Since there were not a lot of city lights, I did take the opportunity to go outside and try to get the southern cross in a photo again. It was fun but I did get bitten by mossies (an Australian mosquito) on the walk. The Southern Cross looks like a kite (I would say a cross but there is an extra star). It is featured on the Australia flag. There are 2 pointer stars that point to the south. They are the brighter than the southern cross. It is strange to look up and be disoriented with the stars in the sky. When I returned home from living in Australia I found that I really missed the southern cross when it no longer looked down on me.
The other funny thing is that I could not escape the song from the fire display during Vivid Sydney.  I like the song...makes me think of the fun we had walking around Vivid Sydney (see my blog post for a video of the fire display).  I heard it everywhere.  If it is not a big thing anywhere else, it sure is popular in Australia.

View from plane - Exmouth to Perth

The airport in really small...in fact there is nothing to buy, eat, drink once you pass security...even the bathrooms are outside the secure area. It is on a military base so you are also not allowed to take pictures of any kind. It was cute. My flight pack to Perth was pretty and Eddie (who I met at the car place) was nice enough to drop me at the backpackers in Perth.
By the way...never stay in Governor Robinsons hostel in Perth...well...I don't mean never but I would not stay there again.  They were not the warmest of people and the long term residents there really complained about the lack of help and support.  They ended up calling the wrong shuttle service for me even though I handed him my voucher.  It made for a VERY unpleasant morning.  The shuttle service they called has regular routes and pick up times.  The front desk clerk told me to be up and ready 45 minutes earlier than what I had been told when I called the shuttle company previously.  When they arrived, I jumped in the shuttle and was told that my voucher was for the other company.  Luckily I had not shut hotel front door enough for the lock to engage and I was able to get back in because it was cold.  I paced and fretted about if the right company would pick me up.  They did.  City Link picks up based on request and that is why I would have had 45 min extra sleep.  I made it to the airport with time to spare and bid WA goodbye until next time.