Exmouth is a great little town with that watered, mown, tidied and loved look. We stocked up for our venture into wilder territory up the road in the Cape Range National Park. A young Dutch couple were hawking in the car park at the tourist info centre for tickets on a Whale Shark tour. There are several tour operators in town but this mob (Ocean Wise) are actually Marine Biologists doing research on the sharks and significantly funding it with tourist passengers on the charter vessel they use. A great price was negotiated and we found a great place to stay at Yardie Ck Homestead just outside the gates to the Cape Range NP.

Dutch couple Karl & Cindy selling tickets. They came on our tour. Hope they visit us in Melbourne someday.

Ginnie was so excited she didn’t sleep as soundly as usual! The mini bus picked us up at 7.45am for the short trip to the jetty for transfer to the charter boat. These trips are expensive because apart from the marine charter costs there are spotter planes that pin point the location of the Whale Sharks and transmit this info to the tour boats. They start their spotting routes at 10am and at 10.01am we were told we were nearest to the first sighted whale sharks! There was an instant buzz of excitement as it often takes some time to get near the slow moving creatures. We quickly grabbed our goggles, snorkels & flippers ready for the signal to enter the water. They have a clever routine of getting ahead of the Whale Shark, dropping two staff as spotters into the water who then raise their arms when the gentle giants are sighted… then its the first group of 10 into the water as quickly as possible.

It’s hard to explain swimming out to where the Whale Shark approaches and watching an 8 metre dark spotted form suddenly loom out of the distance coming straight towards you. Aussie law requires a 3 metre distance between you and them, so as that big mouth approaches you swim quickly to either side. They move at a lazy pace so swimming beside them is no problem. Around and under them, dozens of other fish are feeding and hitchhiking. These are the biggest fish in the ocean and we encountered only juvenile males as these are the only ones who come this close to the reef at such shallow depths.

These creatures are quite illusive and the research continues to try to understand where they breed and migrate to in their travels as well as other aspects of health and behaviour. Sadly thousands are harvested on the asian continents for the prestigious shark fin soup, medicines and also products like fish oil tablets… do know know the source of the tablets you have? …they usually don’t tell you that. Because they are a fish they do not need to surface, so the shallow swimming behaviour at Ningaloo Reef is a rare opportunity to get close to these creatures. If spooked they just disappear deep below the surface and are gone from view indefinitely.

Here is Ginnie’s group in the water. She is in the middle of the group waving at you!

Our day was a spectacular treat as sometimes only one sighting occurs. We encountered at least 5 sharks and enjoyed multiple sessions viewing them which meant about 2 hours was spent swimming with these beautiful creatures. After hours of swimming, diving and grabbing photos we anchored inside the reef for one of the best buffet spreads you could imagine. Refreshed by the food we then had an hour or so of snorkelling the reefs under the boat where fantastic coral formations, a dazzling array of reef fish, a blue spotted lagoon sting ray and even a white tip reef shark were spotted by both of us. As the boat moved towards home two large turtles raced under the front of the boat. They may be clumsy on land but are amazingly quick in the water!

It was fabulous day and all the more enjoyable because of the passion of the staff many of whom are engaged in Masters or PhD level study on Whale Sharks. It was great to know our tourist dollar was also contributing to future understanding and preservation of these amazing animals.

Another exhausting day at the office 🙂

The next morning we headed for our booked camp sight in the Cape Range NP. There are several sights to camp on the water but the recent flooding has meant many roads and camp sights were damaged so there was considerable pressure on the available camp sights. People were lining up at the gates at 6am for 2 or 3 hours only to be turned away. Fortunately we managed to make an online booking and secure a great sight for the two days that suited our itinerary. As we entered, the park the ranger told us there had been an early morning punch up at her booth with frustrated tourists competing for the few available spots – beware the grumpy Grey Nomad!

Anchored on Ningaloo Reef

A great day of snorkelling at Kurrajong, Turquoise Bay & Oyster Stacks which are some of the best spots in Australia. The treat for the day was getting to swim with two turtles who seemed quite relaxed about our presence. As we returned to our camp sight  we had an amazing encounter with a pair of Dingos on the roadside who also appeared to ignore us (even me advancing with my camera) but took off as soon as a second vehicle slowed to observe them. We had great yarns to share with fellow campers gathered on the highest sand dunes for traditional “drinks at sunset”.

On our last day in the park we drove to the southern most site: Yardie Creek Gorge.

Yardie Ck Gorge is the only permanent water in the Cape Range NP

We stopped for lunch on our way way back to Exmouth at the Lighthouse at Vlamingh Head where we were enthralled by the sight of an emu kneeling down to drink at the base of nearby water tank. I have never seen an Emu drink and it is a sight to behold. Their knees fold backwards then they scoop water into their mouths and raise their head to swallow each mouthful!

Big bird and small bird eyeing one another off for access to the water!

The lighthouse hill affords fabulous 360º views of the reef and surrounding coastline including a huge array of antennas installed during the cold war years (1967) as a Naval Communication Station for a vast area of previously unmonitored ocean. This is the world’s largest very low frequency (VLF) transmitter and the second tallest structure in the southern hemisphere.

View from the lighthouse. When the Humpback Whales migrate you can see them breaching from here.

After grabbing water & essentials in Exmouth we headed back down to the turn off which would lead us inland to Tom Price and the fabulous gorge country of Karijini NP. Our quiet campsite in a paddock “somewhere”, treated us not only to a glorious sunset (and sunrise) but also one the clearest solar displays we have yet seen as there was no moon and no artificial ground lights (cars, towns, etc). Karijini here we come.

The Milky Way at our campsite.