Point Samson to Exmouth

Day 155

Woke up and it’s another beautiful day and so decide to hit the beach and have a swim.

Off on the bikes and around the headland to Honeymoon bay with a lovely little beach.

Theres hardly anyone else around and we feel like we are on our own private beach and we set up and are both straight in for a swim. The water is lovely and we happily splash around for a while, sunning ourselves on the beach in between swims.

Head off on the bikes again and cycle around a bit, have a look at the marina and head back through the town (a shop and a pub) to the campsite for some lunch.

Hot and sticky still so head down to main beach with the intention of a swim but the tide is out quite a way and we don’t fancy traipsing across the rocks to get to the water. Instead we relax in the shade for a while during which time Carmen is mauled by midges all over her arms and legs (they always seem to go for her and never touch me).

The bites start to come up as we retire to the pub for a well earned drink and by the evening they have gone all red and swollen like she’s got chicken pox or something.

Like most of the port towns in the Pilbra region it’s a mining port and the pier (which may not be the longest in Australia as I claimed previously) is used solely for loading huge tankers with Iron Ore. You cant even get on to it which I think is a bit of a swizz, especially when they light it up like a Christmas tree at night. It even looks like it has rides at the end of it!!

Day 156

After a bad nights sleep with the itchy bites (I slept fine BTW) we are up and off for pastures new.

Call in at Cossack, which is just outside Point Samson and is now a ghost town after being dissolved as a municipality in 1910 and abandoned by the 50’s. Some of the buildings remain and have been restored as a museum and a B+B and quite nice they are too. In its heyday it would have been a nice little town full of pearlers and gold prospectors but now it’s all a bit eerie and we were glad that we hadn’t been staying here.

A short drive and we in Karratha, a town billed as ‘Having almost all of the conveniences of a modern city’!! We could hardly wait.

To be fair there were a good range of shops and we spent our money in a sterile, air conditioned shopping mall that could have been anywhere.

Just up the road to Dampier and yet another port used for exporting Iron Ore. It seems that large chunks of Western Australia are being dug up and shipped over to China!

The port is busy as well and we have some lunch whilst watching the huge ships being filled with thousands of tonnes of rock before heading onwards.

Our next real town is Exmouth but is too far to go today so we drive about 400KM and pull into our second free camp in week in the middle of nowhere at a rest stop 70KM past Nanutarra road house.

I only mention the road house because we stopped for fuel there and when I am in paying and the card machine is dialling home I get chatting to the guy and he asks how far we are going tonight.

‘Just to the rest stop’ I say and immediately I get a feeling that I am in a movie about a petrol pump attendant who prays on passing travellers. When we do arrive at the rest stop we are both relieved to see there are quite a few other people there and park well up the back just in time for our last  sunset over the Pilbra.

Day 157

Still alive in the morning we head on the further 200KM to the town of Exmouth on the Eastern side of the North West cape (If that makes sense?).  Just North of here is the start of the little known (Well I hadn’t heard of it) Ningaloo marine park which some people would argue is home to Australia’s best coral reef formation (20KM long so only a tenth of the great barrier reef) as well as Whales, turtles and (between April and July) the world’s largest species of fish the Whale shark. What makes the reef so good here is that it is very close to the shore and can be accessed straight from the beach in many places. We were both looking forward to finally doing some snorkelling after carrying the gear around for 5 months!

Pull into the visitor information and find out that it is a long weekend for the Queens’ birthday (and she is in Australia for it as well) and so it is likely to get busy so we decide not to stay in the town and head a further 20KM, around the top of the cape and down the east side to the Lighthouse campsite.

Now I like a lighthouse as much as the next man (probably more) and so was a bit disappointed to arrive and find it’s called the lighthouse campsite because you can see the lighthouse up on a hill, miles away!

Keen to get in amongst the reef we head down to the beach in our bathers but its low tide and the coral (and mainly rocks) is barely underwater so we can’t really swim over any of it.

We sunbathe for a while and notice lots of turtles in the water and upon further inspection see that they are mating (well it is mating season).  We feel very privileged (and a bit embarrassed) and sit and watch as one after another swims right past us, occasionally popping their heads up to have a look around (at us).

We return to the campsite and notice a family of birds with the young ones being fed by mum and dad right out the back of Polly. Ahhh lovely

Overloaded with nature we retire to a chilly (below 20 Deg) bed and sleep.

Day 158

Im up and have my snorkel on before breakfast this morning as we are going into Cape Range National Park to do some snorkelling on the reef. Drive into the park (good use of the annual parks pass) and stop at the visitors centre to have a look. Get chatting to the woman there and she tells us that it is a good year for turtles and we should see some (we already got an eyeful yesterday!).

Head on to Turquoise bay and it is beautiful, a bit breezy perhaps but the sun has certainly got his hat on. Just off the beach and we are into it, lots of hard and soft coral and an abundance of brightly coloured fish. We paddle about for a while and only get out when we (I) am getting cold.

Back in to Polly and a chance to window shop the campsites to see where we might like to stay. You can’t book here so its first come first served in the morning and we have heard of people camping out at the ranger station from 4AM to make sure they get a spot! Have a look at most of the campsites in the Northern end of the park and narrow it down to a shortlist, all of which we would be happy to stay at.

On the way back we call in at the Jurabi Turtle centre which confirms what we had already suspected that it is mating/nesting season and that if we are very lucky we might see them coming up onto the beach of an evening to lay their eggs in the dunes.

Day 159

Up and into Exmouth to stock up for a few days in the National Park. Call in at the marina to have a look and see some good potential fishing spots off the rock walls and make plans to come back and try our luck. Next stop is tackle world to get a few new lures and some advice on the local fishing which all sounds very promising. A quick stop at the hardware shop to get a nut for Polly. Now I literally only neede one tiny nut for the weather faring on the front windows but of course you can’t buy just one nut and so I come away with the smallest packet of nuts they have (100! The bloke wouldn’t even give me just one out of a packet)

Call in at what is described as the surf beach but there is no way I am taking the board in here, the break is over the reef and if you came off Im guessing you would have some nasty injuries to show for it. Also just off this beach is the wreck of the SS Mildura, which became beached on the rocks and never made it off and which is apparently another great fishing spot (if you have a boat to get there).

Continue along the coast to Bundegi beach and stop for a swim, with crystal clear water it is like swimming in a giant ocean swimming pool and with the beach umbrella up we happily while away the afternoon.

Back at camp we make the most of the facilities on our last night and pack Polly up for an early start in the morning to get into the park.