Exmouth and the Coral Coast

Cape Range National Park - Coastline

After a night in a pleasant rest area at Barradale, we arrived at Exmouth which is the northern gateway to the Ningaloo Reef. Also, the Cape Range National Park is accessed from here. The popular activities here are viewing the reef, fishing and viewing marine life such as whale sharks, reef sharks and turtles. Tours to swim with the whale sharks are run but at $375.00 per person, a bit stiff for us. Exmouth is essentially a tourist town with the usual tour operators everywhere. We had 2 nights here then headed into the Cape Range National Park for some real camping.

Sturts Desert Pea Wildflower

The national park is about 40km from Exmouth and has 90 campsites in 9 areas - stretching from Neds Camp to Yardie Creek. They can't be booked and you just have to front up to the rangers office each morning at 8.00am to see if there are any vacancies. We arrived there at 6.10am and there were two cars in front of us. I think they were there all night. We were lucky enough to get the last spot and proceeded to the Mesa camp.

Relaxing on the Beach at Mesa Camp

Each of the camp areas in the park have their own hosts. These are people (usually older couples) who stay in the park campgrounds for the winter, about 4 1/2 moths, and look after the grounds and guests. Our hosts were John and Maureen, a couple from Perth in their seventies and have been doing this for 17 years - pretty dedicated but its a peaceful life and quite cheap as the DEC provide the water, fuel and camp fees. Still there are many people willing to do this and I think a waiting list for those interested.

Camping at Mesa Camp - Cape Range NP

We stayed at Mesa for 3 days which was a stretch for us as far as power was concerned. We were running our lights, TV, Austar, freezer and radio and just managed to keep the batteries charged with the solar panels. From our camp we visited the beautiful beaches and bays along the coast of the park. The water was so clear and calm, probably due to the closeness of the reef which was only a few hundred metres from the shore.Would like to have stayed here longer but had to move on down to Coral Bay.

Snorkeling at Coral Bay

Drove the short 200Km down to Coral Bay and the Bayview van park. This is one of two parks in the town. A very popular spot for West Australians as it has an ideal climate, about 330 days of sunshine each year. The park was full of kids due to the school holidays. Can't win all the time! Coral Bay is a very small community and you can walk to everything, shops, beach and water activities. Many tour operators here also, mainly taking people out to the reef for the coral or marine viewing, As the reef was so close to the shore, we were able to see enough by snorkelling out from the beach.

Snapper Feeding at Coral Bay

One of the popular activities here is the daily feeding of snapper in Bills Bay at around 4pm. Without fail the fish come in to about 40m from the beach, in calf deep water and are fed fish pellets. The fish are very tame and are quite big, at least 15" long.

Coral Bay Coastline

The coastline around Coral bay is pristine and idyllic. Sand is fine and white, the water is clear and marine life plentiful. An ideal place to spend some time away from the hustle and bustle. Activities are all on or around the water but its also possible to do not much at all and soak up the ambiance. In the short time we were there, we manged to do a bit of both.

Maud Sanctuary - Ningaloo Marine Park

A few km from Coral Bay is the Maud Sanctuary - this is a marine sanctuary and a rugged but serene coastline.
The Ningaloo Reef itself is some 260Km long,  stretching from Bundegi Beach (near Exmouth) to Amherst Point (near Coral Bay). There are 250 species of coral and 500 species of fish here. The fish are colourful but the coral although having normal coral shape, lacks colour and is mostly brownish. Exmouth, the Cape range national park and surrounds have been nominated as a World Heritage area and this may soon be granted.
From here we head to Carnarvon and on to the Shark Bay World Heritage area.