Fri 25th Jun '21 - Day 14

Exmouth

 

Part of the game of finding sites to stay at during this peak period is the Tetris logic puzzle worked by all the campsites. As such, even though we’re in the same campsite in Exmouth tonight we still have to exit the park by 10am and check in again later to obtain a new spot within the same campground.

Whilst the migrating flock might choose to stay in the same site for all of Winter (or indeed for 5 months as our neighbours but one from Mandurah near Perth whilst their home is being knocked down and rebuilt), the backpackers, or at least the younger crowd have less to tie them to Exmouth once the obligatory whale shark tour is complete (like our neighbours on the other side, in a self-converted Ford Transit van, built since the onset of Covid had trapped them in WA, albeit a State the size of 10 UK’s), they are now homeward bound to Perth via Karijini – a spectacular remote destination, but a 600km in land, a little too far to simply “do” as a detour for the kids.

As such, even though our next two nights accommodation is on the West coast of the peninsula we still decide to venture that way, first for a boat tour then to check on one of the recommended snorkelling spots.

We are booked into the 11am boat trip out of Yardie Creek which is at the end of the road – as in, there is no more road. After that, heading South, its 4WD only. On the hour drive we pass turn offs to a dozen beaches or campsites just a few hundred metres from the road perched on the edge of the beach. We stop at Milyering Discovery Centre for our last souvenir coin (barring those in Perth itself), a humpback whale.

The boat trip is in a large tinny holding about 24 people and we’re he last ones to jump on at the front under the shade sail covering the boat. There’s an aisle up the middle and a small platform at either end up which Ash, the guide, runs back and forth during the hour-long cruise.

It’s a well-rehearsed, mostly monologue affair containing dad jokes at the expense of the AFL team from Fremantle Dockers and anyone from Tasmania. I’m certain he’d do the same speech 4 times a times and regardless if there were 4 or 24 people om the boat. But it is impressive too making a journey over time from the gorge formation through Aboriginal fishing methods 40,000 years ago to Dutch, then American, then Norwegian settlers, all before the time of Captain Cook.

They’ve clearly had kids many times before, who have been distracted and distracting as Ash hands them a craft bag each when we get onboard, and then 20 minutes later a bag filled with plastic animals which the kids gratefully accept. However, the bag, when emptied of animals, sure enough blows overboard and we have to double back to retrieve it out of the water.

The gorge itself is anywhere from 10-20m wide and only extends 1km into the hillside, but the jovial commentary and the counting of rock wallabies (28 by the end) makes it an enjoyable trip. As well as hearing about the fauna we also see two ospreys in nests wedged I the cliff edges and Ash seems genuinely pleased to see two pairs where recently there had only been one, who’s eggs and offspring kept succumbing to some predatory wedge tailed eagles.

After the tour its more sandwiches alongside the van and then a 20 minute drive back to one of the beaches passed in the form of Turquoise Bay – “this perfect sweep of a powdery white sand, lapped at by cerulean waters is considered one of the top beaches in Australia” so says the Lonely Planet borrowed from the library. There’s a North facing and West facing beach, both with natural currents pushing along the beach that meet in the middle causing a sandy spit. The Northern one is supposedly easier for snorkelling but it’s the West one that is almost busy as its more protected from the breeze.

Seb, as ever, makes a beeline for the water so he and I walk a little way down the beach in anticipation of the drift and don our goggles. Seb is still content with just goggles, holding his breath to dunk his face under before coming up for air, whilst I use a snorkel. There are a number of drifting brown jellyfish enjoying the ride which are easy enough to didge but are enough to deter Sienna. Seb and I view the myriad of coral shapes, sizes and colours along with all the fish inhabitants, also of varying shapes, sizes and colours. Though if you ask Seb what he saw, its only “fish” used to describe it all.

I have a few goes walking down the beach, getting in, drifting along, clambering out by the spit. The water it must be said is still fresh and it does encourage movement to keep warm but its still amazing that this coral and marine life is so readily accessible just metres from the shore in contrast to its more famous cousin the Great Barrier Reef which is a couple of hours offshore in a high powered boat.

After a couple of hours on the beach we drive up and back over the top of the headland to our new spot at the Exmouth campsite, picking up some fish & chips on the way through before settling into the nightly routine including tonight looking through the whale shark photos that have come through today from the tour operator.