Ningaloo Reef - Monkey Mia

After our adventures in the Pilbara, it was time to head back to the coast. We had high hopes for the Ningaloo Reef – after hearing so much about it, it was the destination we were most looking forward to on our trip. Luckily, it didn’t disappoint!

We set up for a week’s stay at the Lighthouse Caravan Park, which was conveniently situated halfway between the town of Exmouth, and Cape Range National Park, where all the beautiful beaches, such as Turquoise Bay are found. We had arrived during school holidays, so the park was rather ‘cozy’ – we had the misfortune of being slotted between a crying baby on one side and a chronic snorer on the other (he was in a camper trailer, and could be heard from the other side of the park!).  We also ran into our first patch of less than perfect weather (admittedly, not bad for 10 weeks on the road) –  incessant wind that stayed around 25 -30 knots for the whole week, which made snorkeling much harder work than it is generally known to be!

On the up side, we reunited with the “Ping-Pong Poms” – the lovely Stanley family from Perth who we first met at the bottom of a Gorge at Karijini. We had such fun getting to know them and we are looking forward to seeing them again when we get to Perth. We also had the chance to catch up with our intermittent travelling companions the Wheatleys, who we first met in week 1 of our trip, and whom we always enjoy spending time with.

Exploring Sandy Bay with the Wheatleys

The other up side was, of course, the exquisite Ningaloo Reef. The colour of the water is defies description – it is so intensely blue/turquoise/aqua. We spent our days exploring the endless coves, bays and beaches, swimming, walking and snorkeling. The kids managed very well – even Georgie gave it a go, with me or John pulling her around on a noodle. James is an absolute natural in the water – declaring it his natural habitat. He has always been fascinated by the underwater world, and his enthusiasm and excitement was wonderful to see. The coral was not particularly colourful, but the formations were spectacular, as was the variety of marine life. We saw turtles, octopus, stingrays, eels, a wobbigong, dolphins, whales, countless species of fish, and even a dugong! Ningaloo Reef is famed as the best place in the world to see and swim with whale sharks, but unfortunately we were there out of season (we were aiming instead for “windy season”) – we are realizing it is impossible to time every aspect of a six month trip to perfection. We were also excited to see our first wild emus, and some “proper” kangaroos (as opposed to the smaller rock wallabies) bounding alongside the car. A lot of our excitement was based on the fact that we hadn’t wasted the few thousand spent on the car’s bull bar – our insurance against a “roo strike”. That said – we still haven’t hit one!

A family of emus



Humpback Whales



 

Happiness is...



Happiness is...



Our next stop was a couple of hundred kms south of Exmouth – the town of Coral Bay.  I say town, but I don’t think it qualifies as it is made up of only 2 caravan parks and a row of shops. Luckily for Coral Bay, its remote location is probably the only thing saving from becoming a tourist seaside mecca. It was absolute heaven. We scored a spot in the “ocean front” section of the park, overlooking the beautiful protected bay, under a tree, surrounded by grass. The caravan park trifecta! We have done a “Cape Leveque” and extended our stay from 3 nights to 6. What a privilege – to be experiencing such freedom. To find somewhere perfect and stay a while. We are not taking it for granted – every night we go to bed and thank the powers that be for the opportunity to live this life, if only for a little while.

Our campsite at Coral Bay

Our activities here have been much the same, with a bit more “sitting on the beach” thrown in for good measure, due to much friendlier weather. Georgie was reunited with her special friend Jasmine (a friendship formed so many weeks ago in Alice Springs) for one night, before we bid her and her family a fond farewell, with plans to visit them when we pass through Melbourne. We also had the pleasure of meeting up with another family from Melbourne whom we met at Cape Leveque - Chris, Trish, Grace, and Ivy Brewer, and friends of theirs, the Eisners, and their three gorgeous girls. They are terrific company and we have so enjoyed having the opportunity to spend more time with them. In fact, we have decided that that is one of the aspects of our trip that we are enjoying the most – meeting and re-meeting the many families who are following the same path as us. Much as we all love each other, it is nice to have people outside the family to talk to on occasion!! The kids certainly are happier and more harmonious when they have other playmates. I think they will probably remember the friends they made far longer than the sights they have seen. Tom especially has great talent in this area – he mixes easily with anyone and is never happier than when having fun with new friends.

Georgie and Jasmine feeding the fish, Coral Bay





Some local urchins

Georgie, Pepper, Ivy. The pink posse.

Seems we're not the only ones to find room for a dress up!

I’m sure the boys would add that another highlight for them was taking a lesson in scuba diving in the swimming pool. They absolutely loved it and picked it up easily – unfortunately they have to wait until they are 14 before they can go in open water, but they will certainly be ready when the time comes, as we hope to do a few more lessons along the way.

James



Tom



We also enjoyed a snorkeling cruise on a catamaran, where the kids had an exhilarating time “boom-netting” behind the boat, and a glorious day at Five Fingers Reef, where we had the beach all to ourselves.









Snorkeling Cruise



Five Fingers Reef, Coral Bay

 





The other incident worth reporting was the appearance of “Red Man”. A “random” guy dressed in an all over red lycra bodysuit (including face) who occasionally turns up on the beach. Apparently there is an emerging craze called “morphing” whereby people get about in these suits, presumably in order to make a liberatingly anonymous spectacle of themselves – a goal easily achieved on the beach at Coral Bay! Very curious indeed.



Red Man. Taken with the underwater camera - hence bad photo!

Day to day van life is on the whole happy and comfortable. The kids have their moments of getting on each other’s nerves (and consequently, ours) but most times tension is relieved with a walk or time to one’s self. After starting out with a recipe book of “gourmet meals for campers” our diet seems to consist of cereal, sandwiches and BBQs. We seem to be happy with that. We have not watched TV for 10 weeks, but do enjoy the occasional DVD night, sometimes just us, sometimes with up to 10 children flopped in layers on the bed. The home schooling is a bit of a disaster. Some weeks we are very conscientious, and others we do nothing more than read. Such as Coral Bay. Looking at the photos, though, I’m sure you understand. Sorry Mrs Hopwood! We will try and do better. Mostly we wake up with butterflies of excitement at the prospect of a new day filled with new adventures.

UPDATE:

I didn't get the chance last week to finish this post, so we are now at Geraldton, after a wonderful few days in Monkey Mia. We were there again with our friends from Coral Bay, which certainly enhanced our enjoyment! The highlight was of course, the beautiful dolphins, which come in to the shallows up to three times a day for feeding. What began as a very casual and unregulated practice, (therefore becoming an inevitable problem, with the dolphins unable to fend for themselves), is now highly managed, with a maximum of five female dolphins restricted  to a single fish no more than three times a day (the dolphins decide if and when they want to make an appearance).  The crowd at the first morning session was large – over 200 or so, so we knew our chances of being chosen were slim. However, the Jedi mind tricks must have worked, as low and behold, James was singled out from the crowd!  That plus his sweet earnest face, his mother pushing him forward, and the bright purple t-shirt reading PICK ME AND NO ONE GETS HURT!  Needless to say, he was so excited, and now even further committed to a future as a marine biologist (/actor/aviator/historian/farmer/Edwardian gentleman).

We are heading off tomorrow for Perth, via the Pinnacles. It is raining today for the first time since we left and we are feeling slightly melancholy  at the prospect of heading south. We have so enjoyed our weeks of endless sunny days and balmy nights, never having to wonder what the weather will be like tomorrow – sunscreen and swimming bag always at the ready. We have also surprised ourselves by the fact that we seem to be “outback” people. Even boat boy John! We loved its rugged wild beauty, its untouched emptiness, and the countless adventures that we shared. That’s the problem with having such incredible experiences at the outset – surely it can only go “south” from here? Let’s hope not!

Monkey Mia

The locals

New friend Pepper's 4th birthday party.

We did a lot of this at Monkey Mia.

PS. I've finally resolved my torturously slow internet problems by buying a Telstra wi-fi thingy. Hence the number of photos! Can download in a fraction of the time. Yay!!

PPS. If you'll remember from John's post (wasn't it great?) we bought a new camera in Port Hedland. Canon Eos 60D. BRILLIANT.

The Pilbara

Guest Blogger: Mr J Bohemian

We departed the enchanted Kimberley vowing to return.  

Eighty Mile Beach was out first stop. It was blowing a gale (a sign of things to come along the Coral Coast) so we didn’t camp there, but collected shells by the bucketful. All of the kids had driving lessons on the beach in the Landcruiser. James successfully dodged the sand cones of my obstacle course. Tom successful knocked them all down.

The next port of call was Port Hedland. We were there predominantly for supplies and to buy a new camera, but it was interesting for us all to see the mining boom up close and personal. Iron ore trains rumbled in and out all night and ships queued by the dozen to receive their burden. Everything in Hedland was tainted with the rusty orange hue of iron ore.  Wages, real estate prices, rents and even the caravan park are astronomically priced. The camera shop owner argued that the Pilbara should have its own currency. Elsewhere in Australia camera shops seem to be closing down due to the pressure of the internet, but not in the Pilbara, where people can easily afford convenience and service. Perhaps secession (and not just the Pilbara Pound) is looming in Western Australia.

My four wheel drive master, Sensei Vic Widman, described Karijini National Park as a place everyone must visit at least once in their lifetime. Our expectations were onerously high, but we were craving the outback again, and headed east into the Pilbara.

Karijini country is appealing in its palate with its iron ore sand, soft grey foliage, white trunks and blue sky laid across rolling hills. But the surface is not the magic of this place for me. Unlike the gorges of the Kimberley and Kakadu where you walk into a gap in a mountain range and find a water hole or water fall at the end of the gorge like a prize for a long hot hike, the Karijini gorges appear as cracks in the earth, and the challenge of this place is to clamber and climb down into them to discover an almost subterranean and secret world. Vic was right, this place is very special. It is also unique because unlike so much of our modern world, it is not sanitised with safety regulations and restrictions. However, with the freedom of access comes risk. Tragically, accidents and even fatalities have occurred. Sober with this knowledge, we carefully, respectfully (and somewhat nervously) set out to explore these magical, sacred places.

After setting up at Dales Camp, we made the relatively short and moderate trek to Circular Pool. The water was icy cold, but it was a good warm up walk for the following day’s challenges - Hancock Gorge and Weano Gorge. The climb down into Hancock was reasonably straight forward, a blend of steep natural and manmade steps and a couple of ladders. During our descent we passed a gaggle of teenagers climbing out all huffing and puffing as they dragged their way to the top. Ali and I looked at each of other as they passed and telepathically communicated “How the hell are we going to get out children out of here?”





The bottom of Hancock Gorge was exciting and dramatic; a serious of chasms, rock ledges, chilly pools and slippery narrow shutes with rushing water. It was fun and exhilarating exploring this natural commando course. Much to our surprise and delight, all three kids powered though the gorge and climb back out unassisted, pumped to tackle the next challenge.





In the afternoon we tackled Weano Gorge. It was another challenging climb down to a series of pools, chutes and chasms. One section was called the Spider Walk, a narrow section with water rushing underneath where it was necessary to make like a starfish and jam oneself into the crevice to inch along above the rushing water below. I was wondering how we would get Georgie through as she could not reach either side of the crevice with either arms nor legs. However, before  I could point out the logistical and physical constraints we were facing, our little Bear Bear Gryls just pushed herself into the flowing water and swam, slid and climbed her way along the chute below the Spider Walk without hesitation or comment.  For us, Weano ended in a section called Hand Rail Pool, where a metal hand rail has been installed to allow a slippery decent from a chute into the pool. To go further required abseiling gear and a guide.

We made it out of Weano not only unscathed, but feeling exhilarated and alive with the satisfaction of successfully and safely tackling the day’s two gorges. The scenery was also spectacular, but the highlight of the experience for Ali and me was the performance of the kids. With no complaint or whinge gracing their lips, all three little legends climbed in, along and out of both gorges on their own steam. We were so proud of them.

The next day we visited Knox Gorge. With almost no information available about the condition of the gorge, we made a decent in what unexpectedly turned out to be the most challenging decent for us at Karijini. The track in was quite steep and slippery. In sections there were rocks to clamber down which were taller than me (which is not that tall I hear my darling wife say) and required passing children from one ledge to the next. Much to our delight, the environment of the gorge base was varied from the previous day’s conquests. Beautiful, tree lined water holes, crystal clear rock pools one after the other linked by bubbling streams, tall red cliffs, white ghost gums impossibly perched on crags and in crevices like billy goats. It was breathtakingly beautiful. We spent hours swimming in the water holes, jumping off rock ledges into deep clear pools and, like lycra covered lizards, warming ourselves on sundrenched rocks. We met the Stanleys from Perth down there – Lee, Delia, Greg and Genevieve. The delightful ping pong poms that we would get to know at Exmouth. What a joyous day it was, and we powered back out!





Late that afternoon we drove on to Tom Price for a mine tour the following morning. We had seen the iron ore leaving the shore at Port Hedland, but we wanted to see how it was mined and moved all that way to the coast. Big bangs, big pits, big diggers, big dump trucks, big trains, big money. Rio Tinto mines and moves 100,000 tonnes of iron ore on 4 trains that are each 2.5km long every day from Tom Price. BHP does more than that down the road in Newman. There are enough reserves in the Pilbara to keep them all mining at this rate for hundreds of years. It was fascinating to have a look under the hood of the Australian economy.

After a long and desolate drive along Paraburdoo Road, the next stop was Exmouth and Ningaloo Reef.

Cape Leveque

Apologies for the lack of posts lately - we have been without internet coverage for some time, so haven’t had an opportunity to update the blog. We are now in Exmouth for a few days, so we have time to stock up, take stock and catch up!

Cape Leveque was magnifique. We had intended to stay three nights and ended up staying six, as it was as close to paradise as we could imagine. We had the good fortune of being able to book one of the few beach shelters, which was perched on the edge of a small cliff, overlooking the exquisite bay. Due to the 200km of dirt road to get there, we left the caravan in Broome and brought our tent, which only just managed to fit under the shelter. We had considered just rolling out our camping mattresses and doing away with the tent, however after the first night we were glad we didn't - hundreds of hermit crabs (some as nearly as big as your fist) came out of hiding during the night and scampered about, leaving tracks that in the morning had covered every inch of the sand. We even saw one taking off with a biscuit! 

The view from the shelter was spectacular - red Kimberley cliffs meeting the white sand and the turquoise sea. The night time ambience was further enhanced by a campfire, a blanket of endless stars, and the regular passing of the light from the lighthouse that stood on the hill behind. So very romantic! (for those not sharing a tent with three children.)

Beagle Bay Church, where we stopped in on the way to CL.
The altar is made up of mother of pearl. Amazingly gorgeous.

Miss Georgia, beautifully co-ordinated with the view from our campsite

Our beach shelter, with lighthouse in the background

One of our days was spent on a tag-along tour (or drag-along tour, as Georgie innocently called it) with Aboriginal local, Tara, and her 2 teenage cousins. We were able to follow Tara into Swan Point, an area owned by her family, where we were led to a picturesque cove. The girls then set themselves up for some fishing on the rocky point, which we joined them in, after the compulsory swim in the crystal waters. After an hour the girls had caught about 20 fish. The Rapps had caught precisely 0. Same spot. Same tackle. Same bait. All we managed was snags, which, to add insult to injury, Tara had to swim out and untangle. Oh the humiliation! We have vowed to restore our name by the end of the trip – Ningaloo Reef surely has to deliver us better luck.

Tom putting on a brave face whilst quietly crushed.

The swimming made up for the fishing

The rest of the time our time there went too quickly, as we had such a busy schedule. Relaxing on one beach was cut short by swimming, which had to be hurried due to scheduled relaxation on another beach. The kids had a marvelous time, as they mingled with others their age, exploring caves, making hideouts, and visiting each other’s campsites. Absolute kid heaven (and yes, we also enjoyed the benefit of some time to ourselves, we even managed to squeeze a bit of reading into the schedule!).

James enjoying a shower at our shelter

Our (slightly messy) campsite

Having another crack

Behold the beauty (of the beach!!)

On our last day we managed to find the energy for a tour of Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm, which included a trip out on the bay in a Sealegs vessel, an amphibious vehicle that drives on land and water. The boys (all three) thought that was the highlight of the day. It was fascinating learning about how the pearls are grown and harvested - a "cultural" experience of a different kind!

We came back down to earth with a bang (literally) on the drive back to Broome, thanks to a spectacular flat tire. We still don’t know what we hit, but it must have been something very sharp hidden in the soft sand, as the tire was well beyond repair. We then spent the next 2 hours on the side of the road, as changing a tire in soft sand proved to be rather problematic! (a broken jack was involved…) John was completely orange from head to toe by the end of it, as the dirt mixed with sweat turned to paint, and his clothes have not recovered. I was on hand to pass things (stat!) and provide moral support, and the kids were on hand to whinge. Thanks to the week we had just had, we were able to see the lighter side!

*%#@#$%*!!!!!!