Perth to Exmouth Trip - Day 5-6 Coral Bay to Exmouth

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

View Out of the Bus
(with brightly coloured hat)

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. :)

    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

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.

Turtle

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.

Perth to Exmouth Trip - Day 3-4 Kalbarri to Ningaloo

Day 3 with Red Earth Safari trip to Exmouth started the same way as Day 2...6:30 breakfast and 7:00 departure. We headed to Kalbarri National Park. Kalbarri is a large national park and has many features including the overlooks to the ocean that we visited on Day 2 and also rivers and gorges. The contours and colors of the rocks are beautiful.
Those who wanted to do a bit of abseiling (repelling) had the opportunity. It was a beautiful spot (pictured left). Since I had repelled before, I passed and decided to spend the extra money in Exmouth although I was surprised at how reasonable it was. Those of us who watched tried to take pictures as people came down that were more than just butt shots.
After repelling, we had time to explore down along the river. I wandered up the river a bit. The layers of the sandstone made a fun climbing area with different tiers of rock to conquer. We then followed the trail around to the Z-bend with some decent hiking up and down...it was great to stretch my legs out on a real walk (not just a casual 10 min stroll). The Z-bend is a zig-zag section of the Murchinson River that was formed by fractures in the sandstone. The river actually changes course in a pattern that looks like a "Z".
It was a beautiful spot...one I would LOVE to return to Kalbarri and spend some more time hiking around.
It was a great morning hike.

We passed tracks embedded in the rocks on the trail.

Eurypterid tracks (labled) and picture on plaque.

They were left by an extinct half meter long amphibious ancestor of a modern day scorpion called an eurypterid. Man...I would NOT want to come into contact with a living one of these guys!
Further down the trail, we ran into a couple of wild wallaby eating their lunch.  We also spotted quite a few reasonably sized spiders (1-2cm body) on huge webs. They were interesting to look at.  They were much larger than most spiders that would casually be around in the US or Europe but fairly small by Australian standards. :)

One of the main tourist destinations is called Natures Window. The window is completely natural opening in the rock. The rippled surfaces were caused by waves moving over the tidal flats when this land was covered with water. It is breathtaking and SO worth the stop.
It would not be a good spot if there are hordes of tourists because the area would be cramped and you would have to wait in line forever to get a clear picture of the window. We were very lucky and it was quite deserted. Everyone had time to take a picture. Breathtaking!!

We drove the 4 hours up to the Shark Bay peninsula after lunch. The region is a World Heritage Area.  One section at the tip is cordened off by a electric fence for something called Project Eden. They removed all of the feral animals (including foxes and cats) and reintroduced native species that were on the brink of extension. We were told to get out and go see what the deterrent is at the road (because they can not extend the fence across the roadway). Everyone was hesitant. I jumped out and walked up. I could see a cattle grate across the physical road. As I approached a VERY loud barking sound came out of a speaker. I jumped. :)

At the end of the road is Shell Beach. Shell Beach is comprised entirely of little white cockle shells.
It is 120 km long and the shells can be up to 10m deep! The outlet to the ocean is small and therefore the tidal flux is the only way fresh water is introduced creating extra salinated water which the mollusks love. Thanks to the World Heritage status, the beach is protected and you are not to remove shells so that this natural wonder can be enjoyed. We had time to enjoy the beach. It was fascinating and beautiful. I have to say...not really a barefoot beach...only for the strong :)

We also went to the Eagle Bluff overlook. Apparently, in the spring and summer there can be hundreds of sharks in the waters below the cliff. We did not see any. It was still a pretty place.

As we were driving back to town we did see several wild kangaroo and emu. It is fun to see emu wondering around. Our accommodation was another backpackers place on the beach. I was pleasantly surprised at all of the places we stayed. Bay Lodge Backpackers in Denham was literally across the street from the beach.

We arrived early enough to walk through town...to be fair...it was not a big town. I played with sunset pictures more...trying to get the pinks and oranges to really pop in my pictures. It was a great trip for playing with sunsets. :)

Day 4 - We were on the boardwalk at Monkey Mia by 7:00am. Monkey Mia is known for its population of wild dolphins. People have been interacting with the dolphins since the 1960's. In the early days, anyone could go to the beach and feed the dolphins. They population decreased and started to become diseased and lazy (dependent on the food) until the Department of Environment and Conservation stepped in. The DEC started limiting the amount of physical contact and food the dolphins received. The population currently is large and healthy.
A limited number of dolphins are fed 3 fish per session (encompassing less than 15% of the daily diet) a maximum of 3 times a day before noon if the dolphins appear. Anywhere from 0 to 25 dolphins come in to the beach on any one day or time. Apparently, at Easter there were 700 people and 1 dolphin.
We saw a couple of dolphins swimming from under a pier almost as soon as we walked up. We were invited to walk onto the beach and into the COLD water up to mid-calf deep. They gave a 20 minute presentation about the dolphins. Several dolphins some played in the distance, some swam around to show off the young calfs, some of the older dolphins in the program swam up and down looking at the crowd (several hundred people). It was interesting.
They picked 3 people at random per dolphin to feed them one fish each. Nobody from our group was selected. We decided that they should offer "rent a kid" services because most of the people selected were either older adults or had kids.

After the dolphins were fed, they swam away. We had time to walk around the area. A wild emu was also walking around town. :) It made me smile. I love this country!
The second dolphin interaction started about 10 minutes before we had to leave. Less than 20 people were there. We could not stay which was sad because even without a kid we had a fighting chance of being selected to feed one of the dolphins.

Stramatolite Pool

Our last stop on the penninsula was to see the stromatolites at Hamelin Pool. The stromatolites evolved 3.5 billion years ago. They were one of the first structures on earth that produced oxygen and led to the development of plant and animal life and there are only a couple places on earth where they still exist. If you look close enough, you can see bubbles from the oxygen production. It was amazing to look at these creatures that have been around for billions of years. Our guide told me that he had some geologists that came to WA just for the stromatolites. Apparently they ran out of the van when they stopped. :)

Lunch was not far from the stramatolites in a small "village". The picnic bench was under a thatched structure that was labeled "Post Office".  I thought it was funny.

After lunch we commenced a long drive up to the sheep station that we were visiting for the night. Along the way we traveled on the 2nd longest straight road in Australia (the longest straight road in the wold is east of Perth on the Nullabor Plain - 146km (90 miles) without any curves or bends). Along the way we saw several small Road Trains. Road trains are a truck that pulls several semi trailers behind (at least 2 but generally 3 or more). They are typical way of transportation of goods across Australia.

The Warroora sheep station was MUCH more modern that the one we stayed in 10 years ago.  We stayed in the shearer's & stockman's quarters.  It had twin share rooms, communal kitchen, outdoor tables and fire pit. There were lots of shreiks about spiders. I don't know what the reaction would have been in the other place. The cabins, sheltered picnic area, and cooking facilities were a surprise to me...I expected it to be much more rustic.
Our tour guide beat a path to get there so that we could make it to the station to meet up with the guys who work there. They loaded us in the "high class" working truck transportation and drove us through some of the property. It was fun!! We saw some wild kangaroo and lots of sheep. The kangaroo were quite close...it still amazes me how they move and use their muscled tail.
The property includes a beach that faces the Ningaloo waters. The beach was amazing...so beautiful and unspoiled. The most amazing place so far to watch a sunset. These people work incredibly hard but what an amazing place to get to relax after a hard days work! We played on the beach until after sunset. The water was warm for the first time.

That night after dinner (yummy roast chicken with potatoes and sweet corn), we sat around a fire and roasted marshmallows (Australian marshmallows taste different - sweeter and they also have multi-flavored marshmallows in the packages)and talked. It was a very pleasant evening.
I could not sleep (started with cold feet) and so I went back out to the fire.  It was a beautiful night, unfortunately with a bright half moon.  My camera and I tried to hide the moon behind a tree and capture the southern cross.  Yep...back in this increadible place on a beautiful starry night under the southern sky. :)

I saw the moon set on Day 4 and the sunrise of Day 5.

Perth to Exmouth Trip - Day 1-2 Perth to Kalbarri

The flight from Sydney to Perth was nice.  Quantas served us a nice dinner (unexpected and definitively a plus over any US airline).  When we arrived, I collected my baggage and went to find the city bus.  I had called the hostel and asked about how to get there and I had the bus number. The problem that I did not anticipate is that the bus stops running at 6:30pm on Sunday (would have been nice if they had told me that).  I opted for a shuttle called City Link from the airport instead of a taxi.  The one way ticket was $15 and round trip was $25.  I had to wait for about 10 minutes for a couple more flights to arrive but I was in no hurry.  The driver was very nice and dropped me at the front door of the backpackers.

Perth City YHA was an industrial looking building.  I walked in and the receptionist was behind a barred desk.  I thought that maybe I was in the wrong place when 2 guys  stumbled and I mean STUMBLED in.  I let them go first.  The receptionist said that they needed to leave because they were not guests and were not welcome since they had been kicked out earlier.  GREAT!  She ended up going back and getting a manger.  I looked around and wondered where I could stay instead of here.  Oh well…it was only one night. 

I went up to my room and the lights were off and 2 people were sleeping.  I dropped my bags and went to the common room to go and organize so I would not disturb the gals in the room.  The drunk guy who had just been kicked out came up and tried to start a conversation.

TIME FOR BED!!

I found out that you needed your key to get into the bathroom….strange.  After brushing my teeth, I got into bed.  Ahhh…sleep. Until a loud SKREECH and whine jolted me up.  It sounded like the train was RIGHT outside my window.  This continued until after 3am…I swear the room rattled.  Ugh!  I was glad that I only booked for 1 night.  I was NOT going to return to the YHA in Perth when I returned...what a miserable night.

My 6:30am wake up call was not required.  One of the gals in the room had set a 6am alarm.  Then the snooze rang at 6:10.  By the third bell at 6:15, I got up to get ready.  Turns out they had just come down from Exmouth on a tour.  They had tried to see whale sharks but had not seen any on the trip.  They had been offered either a voucher to go again or $150 of their money back.  I was really glad that I had planned an extra time in Exmouth as a "back-up" day.

Day 1 was pretty…well…slow.  I was picked up at 7 by a guy who was older than me with long hair and the hat of many colors.  I was the first person in the van.  We picked up other people all over the city and drove north to a state park.  The park has a population of koala (btw…koala are not native to Western Australia) that they have in a breeding program with other parks across Australia.  We saw a very active koala who was hungry and itchy all at once...and what a ham!  I swear he posed for pictures.
We walked over to a “lake” that had no water due to a drought around Perth this year.  We saw some wild kangaroo (one even had a joey who peaked out of her pouch a couple times) and some Banksia trees (also called candelabra trees because of the  big yellow flowers that look like burning candles). It was pretty much wasting time until our cave tour.  Unfortunately there was lots of time to waste.
The Crystal Caves were interesting…large natural caves with formations from water.  The tour guide was super excited about the cave.  She was a great tour guide but was more exited than anyone else in the room.

For lunch, we found a picnic table in the park. We then drove up to the place were were staying that night to check in.  It was the last house on a street that lead down to a beach in Cervantes.  The hostel was very clean and comfortable.  After dumping our bags we had free time for about 90 min before we had to leave to the Pinnacles National Park.  I walked down to the beach.  It was beautiful.  What a great location for a hostel.  I walked up and down the beach with my feet in the Indian Ocean.  It is funny how a brain works…water is water but it felt so different to have my feet in a different ocean.

We loaded into the van again and drove to the Pinnacles.  Geologists say that it was an old rainforest that was submerged years and years ago.  The land was pushed up and weathering has exposed the formations.  The formations are the relief of the trees, land compressed by the tree roots.  The formations are amazing!
There is a path that is 4 or so kilometers long, winding through the national park.  There were thousands!  One of the things I liked about the Red Earth Safari itinerary was visiting the Pinnacles at sunset.  The best time to visit.  It was great to see the long shadows form as the sun dipped down to the horizon.  Then everything took on a glow as the sun slipped below the horizon.  The horizon became the focus as we were treated to a beautiful display of color.  A beautiful yellow sky turned to orange and then into a pink/purple glow.  We stayed until the sun set.   Dinner was ready when we returned...lasagna, salad and garlic bread...yum.

Day 2 - The morning started with breakfast at 6:30am.  I slept surprisingly well considering there were 7 of us in the room.  Good signs for the rest of the trip.  :)
We drove up to Greenough Wildlife & Bird Park.  This place was fantastic!  They have Australian wildlife including kangaroo and dingos as well as sheep and goats and lots of birds.  They rescue injured wildlife, rehabilitate, and release into the wild (if possible).  They do such good work.

Everyone was given a bag of food with their entry fee and you can wonder around and feed the animals.  The kangaroos were somewhat insistent on being fed and would grab your hand.  I made sure to keep the bag out of their reach so as to not reward them for their behavior.  There were other animals around to feed including birds and farm animals like sheep/goats. I even braved feeding an emu.  They are big, mean looking birds.
They offer an opportunity to "cuddle" animals including snakes, dingos, joeys for a small fee.  All of the money goes to help the rehabilitation.  It was too cold to bring out the snakes.  A couple of the girls went in with the dingos.  I decided to hold a joey.  His mom was hit by a car and he was rescued from her pouch.  The make "pouches" and keep them on a heat pad.  It was amazing.  I was able to hold his paws and feel the muscular tail and see the three nails on his foot. He was so little.  It was incredible and I can not imagine ever being able to hold a joey like that again.

We drove past the leaning trees.  The leaning trees are fully formed trees that grow horizontal to the ground because of the wind off the Indian Ocean.  I remember a whole grove from my trip 10 years ago.  Today much of the land is grazing land and so there are significantly fewer trees but there are multiple trees in the area growing with a 90 degree bend.
Lunch was again beach side.  It was my first chance to call home and it was fun to call KS while my feet were in the Indian Ocean.

After lunch we headed out of the country.  The Hutt River Province seceded from Australia in 1970. The "Prince" of the region found a loophole in the constitution where the English only claimed a certain area around Perth.  He was tired of the taxes on his sheep and was smart enough to find the loophole.  He declared his land independent and Australia could not object.  The loophole was patched and the 'Prince' no longer has to pay any taxes on revenue from his land.  Unfortunately, the Prince Leonard was out and we were not able to meet him.  He has had fun with it by creating his own passport, currency, stamps, etc.  Many countries recognize the Hutt River Province as a separate country.

Kalbarri is the WA's answer to Victoria's Great Ocean Road.  We walked along the cliffs to several of the overlooks.  It is beautiful and did remind me of the Great Ocean Road.  Shapes carved out with their own texture.  Bridges formed by the water by carving out a hole a pass through and pillars separated from the mainland...the cliffs are weathered away in layers leaving a beautiful, rugged coastline.  In the distance we were able to see the spouts of water that was the blow from migrating humpback whales.

That night we had time to play on the beach that was across the street from our backpackers hostel...and watch the sunset over the water.  I had a good time sitting and watching another beautiful day slip away.  The afterglow colors were beautiful.  Australian sunsets involve the entire sky.  I love it here.

We had an Aussie cookout for dinner with sausage and chicken on the grill.  Dinner also included an appetizer of kangaroo meat...enough for everyone to taste.  I thought it was pretty high class of the tour to do this.  It was good, sweet...and a bit chewy.  Apparently, it is really important not to overcook because it can get really tough.  We made jokes about holding a rescued joey earlier that day and hoping that we were not eating his relative.
A great day!
Looking forward to Day 3.