Day 132 – 28th September – Home

We’re home!  Our awesome family adventure has finally come to an end.  We have been to some amazing places and seen so many amazing sights.  It’s hard to pick a single favourite, so we have compiled a list of all the stand out places or events of our trip.

Drum roll please….

Highlights of our trip (in chronological order):

-          Snorkelling at Gnaraloo Bay

-          Karijini National Park (Weano, Hancock, Joffree Gorges & Fern Pool)

-          Stargazing at Karijini National Park

-          Fireworks on the beach at Kalumburu

-          Helicopter Flight at Mitchell Falls

-          Manning Gorge (Gibb River Road)

-          Bell Gorge (Gibb River Road)

-          Zebedee Hot Springs (Gibb River Road)

-          El Questro Gorge (Gibb River Road)

-          Top falls at Maguk (Kakadu National Park)

-          Bungle Bungles (Purnululu National Park)

-          Camping at Osprey Bay (Cape Range National Park)

-          Swimming with Manta Rays in Coral Bay

The stats:

Total distance travelled: 18755km

Total cost of fuel: $4051 (14.8km/lt)

Most expensive fuel: $2.47/lt in Kalumburu

Total cost of accommodation: $5493 (avg $42/night)

Number of different birds identified: 168

Day 131 – 27th September – On the road

It is a sad, sad day as we begin our journey toward home.  We are seasoned travellers now so made it much further than we have previously, making it all the way to Greenough River.  There was no time for exploration, just a quick look at the beach where we spotted the very last bird of our trip (it was a Pacific Gull by the way).  That brings our grand total to a whopping 168 different types of birds we have seen and identified… pretty good for a bunch of amateurs!

Day 130 – 26th September – Coral Bay

Our last day in Coral Bay was spent at Five Fingers Reef.  Not only was it our last opportunity for a snorkel but it would be the last activity on our big trip…  Thankfully it was a great snorkel.  Dave has previously been unimpressed with Five Fingers but today, it delivered…

 Everyone was happy to see a couple of our favourite boxfish.  

We also managed to spot this cool unicorn fish. Three guesses why it’s called a unicorn fish, and the first two guesses don’t count… 

To top off our day we finally spotted a Sooty Oystercatcher, an elusive bird we have been on the hunt for over the past few weeks…

There was even enough time for our little miss to work on her selfies… 

Day 129 – 25th September – Coral Bay

Feeling a bit water logged so we have had a quiet day today.  The most energetic thing we did was go for a wander up the beach to check out the shark nursery.  Turns out it’s a bit too early in the season so there weren’t any around…

Day 128 – 24th September – Coral Bay

Today we headed for one of our all-time favourite spots… Oyster Bridge.  Here’s Dave letting down the tyres before the ‘big hill’.  

Unfortunately, things went pear shaped after this point…  His number one problem?  Letting me drive the car!  I took two bites at the cherry but managed to get to the top of the first hill so was feeling rather confident.  But then came the second hill that peaks at a blind crest and has a significant drop off on the passenger side… Let’s just say I didn’t make it to the top of that one and in the process I got the car bogged good and proper…  It took a significant amount of digging, the tyres to be deflated even further and we even had to break out the max tracks for their very first use… One tired and sweaty husband later, we were out of the sand and back on track to Oyster Bridge (no, I wasn’t driving any more…).

Oyster Bridge is best snorkelled at low tide.  Luckily we had left home early enough that our car troubles didn’t mean we had missed the best time to be in the water.  Here we are all set up on the beach.  Another slice of heaven in our opinion… 

In the water at last, we had one of the best snorkels we’ve ever had at Oyster Bridge.  We saw no less than 3 wobbegong sharks, and one of them was even swimming around next to us (we usually just find them hanging out under a ledge).  There were the usual moray eels, octopus, frilly sea slugs and even a couple of nudibranchs.  The highlight were a couple of the ugliest fish we’ve ever seen. These things had grumpy faces and a good set of John Howard like eyebrows.  It took a bit of research back in town but we finally figured out they were toadfish… 

Back in town we headed to the pub for dinner and to watch the Dockers get knocked out of the AFL finals… oh well, there’s always next year…

Day 127 – 23rd September – Coral Bay

Who’d have thought?  We have less than a week to go on our big trip and we still manage to have a ‘Top 10’ experience… today was an adventure on a boat for some awesome snorkelling and a swim with a manta ray…

Here’s the excited family, waiting to board the bus down to the marina

And here’s some cool kids just about to board the boat 

A short half hour-ish trip brought us to our first snorkelling location on the inside edge of the reef 

The water was crystal clear so the visibility was awesome and the coral this far away from town is still alive and vibrant.  I thought it was one of the best snorkels we’ve done this trip…  No fish photos to show but how’s this for a family photo? 

Back on board and we headed a short distance further north to find ourselves a manta ray.  We had three goes at jumping in the water and swimming alongside it.  Unfortunately, there were no barrel rolls as the manta ray was in cruise mode, but it was still an awesome experience.  Thankfully, the kids coped really well and had no trouble at all keeping up with this gentle giant… 

Back on board once again for lunch while we putted along to our final snorkel location.  We were one of the first groups into the water so we had to wait around for everyone else to jump in… so what better opportunity for some fun with the GoPro? 

Another amazing snorkel took us to some deeper water where we found this massive cauliflower coral.  Apparently it is a ‘cleaning station’ for sharks and turtles.  The small cleaner/sucker fish live around this big lump of coral and so the sharks and turtles swim along and hover over it expecting to get cleaned.  We were fortunate enough to see four grey reef sharks cruising around and around… 

The deeper water meant an opportunity for some bigger pelagic fish.  We saw an absolutely massive school of trevally and Aiden and I cruised past a school of barracuda.  The snorkel eventually ended up at some shallower reef where once again, the clear water and brilliant sunshine made for awesome viewing.

Of course, we can’t have a massive day without some foot shots… here’s one with a difference 

And my last foot photo as the boat cruised for home was photo-bombed by an eight year old… 

Day 126 – 22nd September – Coral Bay

Another cruisy day today… we spent the morning at the beach with Jenny & Jeff again before they head for home.  At least we managed to squeeze in a snorkel off the beach.  Unfortunately, it’s no Turquoise Bay drift snorkel… the coral has clearly been affected by years of human and boat traffic so there just aren’t the same number or variety of fish.  

Day 125 – 21st September – Coral Bay

We have officially started our week long ‘holiday from our holiday’ before we head home.  We have adjusted from adventure mode into sit back and relax mode…

We arrived in Coral Bay just after lunch where we finally met up with Jenny & Jeff.  We had been leapfrogging each other since Kununurra and hadn’t managed to be in the same spot at the same time until now.

We did a quick camp set up, had some lunch then headed straight for the beach.  Coral Bay has become quite a busy spot in the last 12 months.  Both times we have been here we have noticed how packed the place is… people everywhere…

We spent a lovely afternoon chatting on the beach before heading to the pub across the road for more chatting over dinner…

Day 124 – 20th September – Exmouth National Park

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a morning coffee photo… check out this view…  

To top off this awesome view, while I was drinking my coffee we were lucky enough to spot heaps of whales swimming past.  After our coffee was done we grabbed the binoculars and headed up to the highest dune we could find to sit and watch the whales… just in time to see a few of them breaching and fin slapping.  At one point we had three whales all breach at the same time… so, so cool. 

After about an hour of whale watching we dragged ourselves away to hit the water again.  The current at the Turquoise Bay drift snorkel was screaming along so Megan sat this one out. 

We wondered if the white tipped reef shark would still be there so we headed straight for the lump of coral where we found him yesterday… and guess what?  He was still there… AND he had a friend!  

The other highlight of our snorkel was our first sighting of a sea snake… I thought I would be a bit nervous around one of these but the excitement took over and we swam along after him for quite a bit… 

The weather turned a bit in the afternoon and it became quite windy so we spent a quiet afternoon watching the whales cruise past.  On a different note, our day was made complete when we finally spotted two brilliant blue White Winged Fairy-Wrens.  We have seen loads of the female birds which are a non-descript brown colour so we had been hanging out to spot the blue males.  Unfortunately my camera isn’t up to taking long range bird photos… so, thanks to Google for the photo...

Day 123 – 19th September – Exmouth National Park

Today we had the pleasure of snorkelling at one of our favourite spots, the drift snorkel at Turquoise Bay.  We were super excited to get out there and happy to finally have Megan big enough to join us.  Here’s the kids getting kitted up…  

As usual, we were treated to an abundance of marine life.  We saw a couple of turtles and some octopus along with a multitude of weird and wonderful fish.  

On our last snorkel we even managed to find a white tipped reef shark hiding in a cavern under a big coral boondie.  

We came back to camp for lunch and waited out the afternoon sea breeze.  Once the wind died down we thought we’d try a snorkel off the beach where we are camped.  Unfortunately, it was no Turquoise Bay.  What we had assumed was coral turned out to be just rock and seaweed.  The only thing of significance we saw was a turtle coming up for air right in front of us… that was pretty cool…

Day 122 – 18th September – Exmouth National Park

We have been eagerly anticipating our stay in the Cape Range National Park.  We have seen some amazing things on our adventure but my favourite part of the world is still the Ningaloo Coast…

We arrived in the park late in the morning only to be told today, between 12pm and 1pm , would be the only day where the tides were high enough to snorkel over the Oyster Stacks.  So we did a super fast set up, bolted down some lunch and before we knew it, we were in the water for some snorkelling action.

Here’s our camp spot with a million dollar view.  We were lucky enough to book a site right on the water front. 

In the water 

The sea breeze picked up by the end of our snorkel so we were back at camp by mid-afternoon.  As we were lazing about I was watching some fairy-wrens in the bushes right next to our camp.  Out of nowhere a goanna starts slithering through the tree trying to catch one of the wrens… it was very cool… I love nature up close and personal!  Never fear, the goanna didn’t catch his lunch this time… 

After the sea breeze settled down a bit we went for a wander up the beach.  Did I mention how much I love this part of the coast? 

Looking back at our camper – the one furthest to the right

It’s been a while since I’ve done a foot shot… 

As we were walking we noticed this shell just at the shoreline.  It was massive!  The animal was still inside but it didn’t seem to be alive… we weren’t sure so we put him back in the water and left him in peace… 

Day 121 - 17th September - Exmouth

We have just arrived in Exmouth.  We have a quick overnight stop in town to stock up on food before we head into the national park tomorrow... looking forward to the snorkelling at Turquoise Bay...

Day 120 – 16th September – Onslow

Today’s task was to go exploring.  We headed back out of town 20km and out to the Ashburton River to find the ruins of the Old Onslow town site.  There is a common theme with all these early towns… they began in the late 1800’s, lasted a short time during a pearling/gold/mining boom, then inevitably died a slow death due to a lack of access to fresh water… 

Here’s the old Police Station

I like this photo… the old meets the new… The pillars in the foreground are from the old tram tracks from the town to the jetty built in the late 1800s and the construction in the background is the new Wheatstone Gas Plant. 

On the way back into town we stopped at several places along the Ashburton River.  What a magic spot!  You can camp all the way along the river in spots that are away from other campers and perched right on top of the river bank.  The only thing that stopped us from packing up camp in town and moving out here were the lack of toilet facilities.  There are not too many things we have missed out on this trip, but spending a night on the Ashburton River will be one thing we are disappointed we didn’t do…

This is the causeway crossing the river.  We saw the largest flock of brolgas we have ever seen just standing around in the water.  Unfortunately they were a bit too far away to get a good photo, but here are a few a bit closer. 

A bit further along the river was a spot called 5 Mile Pool… just stunning! We could have camped right where I am standing to take these photos…