Sat 26th Jun '21 - Day 15

 

Exmouth to Yardie Homestead

 

Although we don’t make any new neighbourly friends the now closest toilet and shower block is much newer than the one closest to our old site (worth checking if booking to call and ask which shower / toilet blocks are better) there can be a difference of 30 years between them on the same campground. I also found in two instances when websites said they were fully booked that a quick call uncovered availability to host us for additional nights. Similarly face to face they were able to put us on the same site for multiple nights in a row again when the website required a split booking across multiple sites in the same campground for multiple nights. Equipped with the Rees-Jones essentials of more bread, cheese and ham we head back over to the western side of the peninsular for the next 60hrs.

Heading first to Oyster Stack beach just beyond Turquoise Bay for a promise of more super snorkelling. Like turquoise the car park is actually full (granted the grand loop that constitutes a car park holds approximately a dozen cars) but after parking up on the verge we venture to the beach.

There is no false advertising thought the snorkelling is excellent, the access into the water is harder; straight off rocks rather than beach and although there are waves to contend with they are more pulses of water as this is all within the larger lagoon protected by the outer reef. Sienna is hesitant after the jellyfishes of yesterday whereas Seb has to be called back from the edge before he jumps in. Kate, Seb and I ease into the water which seems warmer than yesterday and view more coral sprouting from the sand within a few metres of the shore joined by an aquarium of fishes.

Across a few swims I venture further out but it never gets deeper than a few meters and visibility is excellent. Sienna is encouraged into the water and despite a mishap with her snorkel she does admit afterwards is was good to see so many fish. There is again a lateral current that even without flippers its fine to swim against.

Oyster stack beach is advised to only snorkel at 3hrs either side of high tide which is at 11am today so by 1.30pm we are leaving the beach and hop in the van to North Mandu just a couple of minutes south. Turns out to be a small 5 site campground so after eating lunch backed into an empty site with views over the dunes to the sea we try our luck at South Mandu for a bit of beach time without the swimming.

The first part of the beach is like Brighton beach, smooth pebbles but then it transforms into another picture postcard sandy beach and cerulean seas. So nice in fact that the only glamping on the peninsular Sal Salis have set up here charging $1,000 a night for the same view we get in our $22 a night campsite. We play on the beach, write in the sand till about 4.30pm before driving up to our new campsite Yardie Homestead 20mins north.

This is set to the East side of the road, so a few 100m from the beach a little closer to the hillside and the gorges fairly typical camp ground a little more rustic (older shower block) but they all look the same after sundown when we are in our van.