Day 6/24 (Oct 25, 2009): Today started with driving - we almost slept in getting up at 5:30am. Around noon we reached Carol Bay, the start of our next 4x4 adventure along Ningaloo Reef into Cape Range National Park. Ningaloo Reef isn't as well know as the Great Barrier Reef and people say it is a bit less diverse BUT it has the huge advantage that most of it is within easy reach from shore - swimming distance. Since we needed to make some more miles today we didn't stick around town for too long except for buying a pressure gauge and a small electrical compressor to be able to deflate/inflate our tires. The next 120km of track were mostly on soft sand. We learned later - TOO late - that we should have spent a day in town to go snorkeling with the Manta Rays!!!! Apparently they have a manta ray nursery in a bay just north of town and you are almost guaranteed to see some. Anyhow, we didn't know and continued on on deflated tires (20psi) through some vast areas of grasslands and huge sand dunes. Seeing an Australian .JPG)
Bustard as well as emus and kangaroos along the way. We stopped for a short break at some deserted beach to go for a quick snorkel. Most of the coast was very rugged with sharp dead coral along the edges but if there was a beach it was just beautiful. I was already in the water snorkeling away while Jeff still fit his mask on in the shallows. A shark swam up to him and nosed him on the leg - just checking out if he'd be ripe enough to eat but I guess his legs were too skinny for the shark's taste. He moved on. Now Jeff was in a dilemma - should he follow me knowing there will be more sharks or stay safe on the beach. Well, he followed. We didn't get to see another shark, neither anything else of interest. It was a bit, no make that VERY, windy again and the visibility wasn't great. The reef itself was too far out at this spot and got pounded by ocean waves. Oh well there'll be better places up north. Following the track winding its way along through the grasslands and dune we came through Ningaloo .JPG)
Station - most of this area is actually private property but the owner allows people to drive through and even offers some nice camping in secluded bays etc. for a small fee - no facilities whatsoever and you are supposed to bring your own toilet. We continued on and I was hoping to make it all the way to Cape Range NP. But Jeff was tired of driving along the sandy track and we called it a day early. We stopped at Lefroy Bay, a beautiful wide bay with a nice white beach and turquoise water. Good camping spots in the dunes along the beach - but also very soft .JPG)
sand and I was a bit worried we won't make it back out the next morning but we lowered the tire pressure even more. I am sure we were still on private property but nobody came by to collect any money :-) We seemed to have the bay all to ourselves - in the far off distance one could see the top of a big trailer but not a sole was around. We tried out snorkeling once more but again nothing great to see within easy reach. Also, the wind had picked up even more and it started to seriously cloud over. I did some beach combing along the beach before dinner. We were now a day behind my schedule - being behind doesn't make a project manager happy.
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Bustard as well as emus and kangaroos along the way. We stopped for a short break at some deserted beach to go for a quick snorkel. Most of the coast was very rugged with sharp dead coral along the edges but if there was a beach it was just beautiful. I was already in the water snorkeling away while Jeff still fit his mask on in the shallows. A shark swam up to him and nosed him on the leg - just checking out if he'd be ripe enough to eat but I guess his legs were too skinny for the shark's taste. He moved on. Now Jeff was in a dilemma - should he follow me knowing there will be more sharks or stay safe on the beach. Well, he followed. We didn't get to see another shark, neither anything else of interest. It was a bit, no make that VERY, windy again and the visibility wasn't great. The reef itself was too far out at this spot and got pounded by ocean waves. Oh well there'll be better places up north. Following the track winding its way along through the grasslands and dune we came through Ningaloo .JPG)
Station - most of this area is actually private property but the owner allows people to drive through and even offers some nice camping in secluded bays etc. for a small fee - no facilities whatsoever and you are supposed to bring your own toilet. We continued on and I was hoping to make it all the way to Cape Range NP. But Jeff was tired of driving along the sandy track and we called it a day early. We stopped at Lefroy Bay, a beautiful wide bay with a nice white beach and turquoise water. Good camping spots in the dunes along the beach - but also very soft .JPG)
sand and I was a bit worried we won't make it back out the next morning but we lowered the tire pressure even more. I am sure we were still on private property but nobody came by to collect any money :-) We seemed to have the bay all to ourselves - in the far off distance one could see the top of a big trailer but not a sole was around. We tried out snorkeling once more but again nothing great to see within easy reach. Also, the wind had picked up even more and it started to seriously cloud over. I did some beach combing along the beach before dinner. We were now a day behind my schedule - being behind doesn't make a project manager happy.Day 7/26: The wind was howling all night blasting our tent with sand. I didn't sleep well. There weren't any birds around to wake us up but instead we had rain. Not much and it stopped shortly after. The sky was grey though when we got up with no sunrise to enjoy. The wind was still blowing. On the bright side we had kangaroos watching us having breakfast and navigate the car out of the soft sand - no problems. Before continuing on we wanted to get some pressure .JPG)
back into the tires. We got exactly ONE tire done before the piece of junk died on us. Great!!! Oh well, we still had enough air to continue on and it would still be a while before we hit a surfaced road again and the next gas station in Exmouth. Less than a couple hours and hundreds of cute looking Wallaroos later we entered Cape Range National Park and approach the crossing through Yardie Creek. One should only attempt the crossing at low tide but off course we didn't have a tide table. Luckily we hit it just right. Small problem was only the rental RV which was stuck in the soft sand on our side of the creek going south - blocking us from traveling north. We helped them with digging it out and deflating the tires enough so they could continue. The couple was from Holland and had started out from Darwin 3 weeks ago on their way to Perth and then Sydney. Lucky for us that we never managed to inflate our tires this morning. Crossing the creek wasn't a problem at all and we stopped on the other side to hike up Yardie Creek Gorge (1.5km) - the only .JPG)
permanently filled fresh water creek draining most of the Cape Ranges into the Indian Ocean. Apparently the creek sustains a lot of rare water birds as well as a group of the very rare Black-footed Rock Wallabies. We saw neither but an emu with her chick. It was still a nice hike up .JPG)
along the canyon edge maybe 30m above the creek overlooking the ocean and open plains of the Cape Ranges (which aren't very high mountains). By now the sun actually came out and it warmed up hugely. Finally, it was time to go snorkeling. Cape Range National Park has several nice beaches with good snorkeling so the travel guides say. And they were right. We hit the "Oyster Stacks" first. Access wasn't as nice -navigating over sharp dead coral in your fins but the snorkeling was great!!! HUGE coral, tons of fishies, a couple turtles, no sharks and all that right off the beach, protected .JPG)
by the outer reef from any ocean swell. Only problem, the water wasn't really that warm and without wet suits we didn't last more than ~20min, warming up on the beach in between runs. There were a few other people on the beach as well - this part of the park, north of Yardie Creek, is accessible by paved road from Exmouth further in the north. After a couple snorkeling runs we continued on by car for 10min to the next site - Turquoise Bay and the "famous" drift loop. Here you had a beautiful white beach right up to the ocean and the coral starting 10m or so out from shore. Unfortunately, this site isn't a secret either and we had a full bus load of German tourists exploring the beach and snorkeling sites when we first got there. Plenty of room for all of us and the snorkeling was worth it - you walk down to the south end of the beach, enter the water and than just drift back over the coral pushed by the current and get out at the other end. What a nice way to spend the day - lie on the beach and hop into the ocean to cool down and see some colorful fish and coral. Eventually we had enough of the sun and started looking for a campsite for the night. As mentioned, Cape Range NP isn't a secret and although it wasn't busy by most standards even a single neighbour seemed too much to us right now. Fortunately the park has a lot of campsite, all of them somewhere along the coast. Unfortunately it was still off season and most of them were closed for maintenance. All the spots we drove into were already occupied by a few or more campers - so not really what we were looking for. At the end we decided to cross over Yardie Creek once more and check out the 4x4 only accessible campsites south of the Creek. There we found what we were looking for - campsite in the dunes, nobody there, rocky beach full of fossilized corals .JPG)
and shells to explore on one side and red bush and termite mounts on the other. Apparently Cape Range was pushed up from the ocean floor some hundred thousand years ago and you can find proof of coral all over the range still. Rugged shorelines are not so good for washing dishes though - especially in the dark with crabs running across your feet and water crashing on the rocks. Nobody came by again to collect any camping fees - usually camping in NP's cost you $7 per person per night. Only living sole we saw besides the crabs were an emu who walk right past our tent while we prepared dinner. Soo cool!!!! I could have just spent the rest of our vacation right here.
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back into the tires. We got exactly ONE tire done before the piece of junk died on us. Great!!! Oh well, we still had enough air to continue on and it would still be a while before we hit a surfaced road again and the next gas station in Exmouth. Less than a couple hours and hundreds of cute looking Wallaroos later we entered Cape Range National Park and approach the crossing through Yardie Creek. One should only attempt the crossing at low tide but off course we didn't have a tide table. Luckily we hit it just right. Small problem was only the rental RV which was stuck in the soft sand on our side of the creek going south - blocking us from traveling north. We helped them with digging it out and deflating the tires enough so they could continue. The couple was from Holland and had started out from Darwin 3 weeks ago on their way to Perth and then Sydney. Lucky for us that we never managed to inflate our tires this morning. Crossing the creek wasn't a problem at all and we stopped on the other side to hike up Yardie Creek Gorge (1.5km) - the only .JPG)
permanently filled fresh water creek draining most of the Cape Ranges into the Indian Ocean. Apparently the creek sustains a lot of rare water birds as well as a group of the very rare Black-footed Rock Wallabies. We saw neither but an emu with her chick. It was still a nice hike up .JPG)
along the canyon edge maybe 30m above the creek overlooking the ocean and open plains of the Cape Ranges (which aren't very high mountains). By now the sun actually came out and it warmed up hugely. Finally, it was time to go snorkeling. Cape Range National Park has several nice beaches with good snorkeling so the travel guides say. And they were right. We hit the "Oyster Stacks" first. Access wasn't as nice -navigating over sharp dead coral in your fins but the snorkeling was great!!! HUGE coral, tons of fishies, a couple turtles, no sharks and all that right off the beach, protected .JPG)
by the outer reef from any ocean swell. Only problem, the water wasn't really that warm and without wet suits we didn't last more than ~20min, warming up on the beach in between runs. There were a few other people on the beach as well - this part of the park, north of Yardie Creek, is accessible by paved road from Exmouth further in the north. After a couple snorkeling runs we continued on by car for 10min to the next site - Turquoise Bay and the "famous" drift loop. Here you had a beautiful white beach right up to the ocean and the coral starting 10m or so out from shore. Unfortunately, this site isn't a secret either and we had a full bus load of German tourists exploring the beach and snorkeling sites when we first got there. Plenty of room for all of us and the snorkeling was worth it - you walk down to the south end of the beach, enter the water and than just drift back over the coral pushed by the current and get out at the other end. What a nice way to spend the day - lie on the beach and hop into the ocean to cool down and see some colorful fish and coral. Eventually we had enough of the sun and started looking for a campsite for the night. As mentioned, Cape Range NP isn't a secret and although it wasn't busy by most standards even a single neighbour seemed too much to us right now. Fortunately the park has a lot of campsite, all of them somewhere along the coast. Unfortunately it was still off season and most of them were closed for maintenance. All the spots we drove into were already occupied by a few or more campers - so not really what we were looking for. At the end we decided to cross over Yardie Creek once more and check out the 4x4 only accessible campsites south of the Creek. There we found what we were looking for - campsite in the dunes, nobody there, rocky beach full of fossilized corals .JPG)
and shells to explore on one side and red bush and termite mounts on the other. Apparently Cape Range was pushed up from the ocean floor some hundred thousand years ago and you can find proof of coral all over the range still. Rugged shorelines are not so good for washing dishes though - especially in the dark with crabs running across your feet and water crashing on the rocks. Nobody came by again to collect any camping fees - usually camping in NP's cost you $7 per person per night. Only living sole we saw besides the crabs were an emu who walk right past our tent while we prepared dinner. Soo cool!!!! I could have just spent the rest of our vacation right here.Day 8/26: Again a relatively late start for us at 5:45am - possibly because there were neither birds nor rain to wake us up. We crossed Yardie Creek yet again for the third time - without getting stuck and drove to Mandu Mandu Gorge. The morning started off overcast again. We saw ton's of western grey kangaroos and/or common wallaroos on the short drive to the gorge. Those animals are really tame and you can stop almost right beside them - good for pictures. Mandu Mandu Canyon is similar to Yardie Creek except for no water - so the 3km hike first goes along the canyon floor before circling back along the top. While walking along the canyon floor we .JPG)
noticed some movement in the steep .JPG)
canyon walls - and there they were - those very rare, extremely shy Black-footed Rock Wallabies, 6 or 8 of them. Jumping around in the cliffs or watching us watching them. Since it was still early we were the only humans there enjoying those very agile and pretty looking roos. They were curious about us but didn't seem to care. I am sure as the day gets hotter they start hiding in the rocks out of the sun and you won't see them again. We felt a bit special seeing them do their thing - even saw mama and little joey in her pouch. By the time we finished the hike/watching rock wallabies around 9:30am the sun had burned away all the clouds and it started to get hot again. Time for snorkeling. Next spot to try out was Mandu Mandu South - oh and that was by far the most beautiful beach to date. Not a sole in site, white sand, turquoise water and corals starting 5m of the .JPG)
beach. Unfortunately the tide was still too low and we couldn't get on top of the coral much. It still was great and we spent quite some time "frying" on the beach enjoying the solitude. While snorkeling, I saw an octopus swim away from me - not quite the same size as the Pacific Northwest version mind you. Some time later our paradise was invaded by another family and we headed on towards Exmouth stopping in at the Visitor Centre and Jurabi Turtle Centre - neither of them that exciting - until we finally arrived back in civilization. We meant to book a snorkeling/diving trip in Exmouth to see more of the reef but due to it being off-season those weren't going regularly and we would have had to wait a couple days to get on one. That would have killed my schedule completely and we decided against waiting (I still think it was the right decision but we also have to go back to Cape Range National Park some day!!!). Here we also learned that Manta Rays are best to be seen in Coral Bay - where we started 2 days ago. We set up camp at a private campground this evening with hot showers!!! Washing off all the salt and sand from the last few days should be good - except that the shower water was actually slightly salty as well, no wonder they have signs in the washroom "No Drinking Water". After an early dinner - not in the dark for a change - we went up to the "famous" Cape Range Lighthouse (not sure what's it famous for) to watch the sunset and then back to the Jarubi Turtle Centre to catch some sea turtles lying their eggs on the beach. Each spring between Oct and Dec Green Sea Turtles and Loggerhead Turtles come up the beaches in the park to lay their eggs in the sand under the cover of darkness. If you sit very still and make no noise you might be able to see them. It was dark by 7pm and we got tired by 7:45pm so needless to say we didn't get to see any turtles :-) I wish though we had stayed a bit longer on the beach. We just managed to crawl into our tent at the campground when the neighbours showed up making a lot of noise for the next 2 hrs not even trying to keep it quiet. Guess what nationality they were !!! The other neighbours from Australia were already in bed and trying to sleep the same as Jeff and I. Darn Germans.
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noticed some movement in the steep .JPG)
canyon walls - and there they were - those very rare, extremely shy Black-footed Rock Wallabies, 6 or 8 of them. Jumping around in the cliffs or watching us watching them. Since it was still early we were the only humans there enjoying those very agile and pretty looking roos. They were curious about us but didn't seem to care. I am sure as the day gets hotter they start hiding in the rocks out of the sun and you won't see them again. We felt a bit special seeing them do their thing - even saw mama and little joey in her pouch. By the time we finished the hike/watching rock wallabies around 9:30am the sun had burned away all the clouds and it started to get hot again. Time for snorkeling. Next spot to try out was Mandu Mandu South - oh and that was by far the most beautiful beach to date. Not a sole in site, white sand, turquoise water and corals starting 5m of the .JPG)
beach. Unfortunately the tide was still too low and we couldn't get on top of the coral much. It still was great and we spent quite some time "frying" on the beach enjoying the solitude. While snorkeling, I saw an octopus swim away from me - not quite the same size as the Pacific Northwest version mind you. Some time later our paradise was invaded by another family and we headed on towards Exmouth stopping in at the Visitor Centre and Jurabi Turtle Centre - neither of them that exciting - until we finally arrived back in civilization. We meant to book a snorkeling/diving trip in Exmouth to see more of the reef but due to it being off-season those weren't going regularly and we would have had to wait a couple days to get on one. That would have killed my schedule completely and we decided against waiting (I still think it was the right decision but we also have to go back to Cape Range National Park some day!!!). Here we also learned that Manta Rays are best to be seen in Coral Bay - where we started 2 days ago. We set up camp at a private campground this evening with hot showers!!! Washing off all the salt and sand from the last few days should be good - except that the shower water was actually slightly salty as well, no wonder they have signs in the washroom "No Drinking Water". After an early dinner - not in the dark for a change - we went up to the "famous" Cape Range Lighthouse (not sure what's it famous for) to watch the sunset and then back to the Jarubi Turtle Centre to catch some sea turtles lying their eggs on the beach. Each spring between Oct and Dec Green Sea Turtles and Loggerhead Turtles come up the beaches in the park to lay their eggs in the sand under the cover of darkness. If you sit very still and make no noise you might be able to see them. It was dark by 7pm and we got tired by 7:45pm so needless to say we didn't get to see any turtles :-) I wish though we had stayed a bit longer on the beach. We just managed to crawl into our tent at the campground when the neighbours showed up making a lot of noise for the next 2 hrs not even trying to keep it quiet. Guess what nationality they were !!! The other neighbours from Australia were already in bed and trying to sleep the same as Jeff and I. Darn Germans.Day 9/27: Today we said goodbye to the Indian Ocean and Cape Range National Park to head inland. But not until we saw some of the high country in the park which is only accessible from the east side. First stop was Shothole Canyon - a much bigger and deeper canyon than Mandu Mandu or Yardie Creek on the west side. The road followed along the dry canyon floor all the way to the end. We parked the car and found a little trail (climbing over the chain with the sign "trail closed") to head up to the top of the range. The map I had showed a lookout on top of the range but not the trail how to access it. The one we found seemed to lead into the right direction - .JPG)
up. Once we scaled the canyon wall - bit corroded in places but mostly a really good trail it flattened out into a high plateau with spinifix grass and some low eucalyptus and cottonwood bushed in small depressions. We followed the visible trail for a while and eventually even saw a sign pointing us towards the lookout. It still took quite a while to actually get there and it wasn't that high of a lookout either. The most annoying thing - there was a paved parking lot on the other side of that lookout, we could have driven here instead of hiking for 1.25hrs one way. Oh well, it was a great hike and we kept scanning the area for "Thorny Devils", a small spiky looking lizard which apparently is quite common in this park. Obviously, they are also very well camouflaged and we didn't see one. Back at the car we returned to the main road only to turn off into Charles Knife Canyon were the road followed along the canyon rim - quite an impressive .JPG)
canyon. I am sure the road would continue on to THAT lookout we hiked into but we didn't bother to find out. It was about lunch time by now and we headed back to the coast for some fresh Tiger Prawns from the Exmouth Fishing Company. With our bellies nicely filled we hit the hwy again for the long drive to Karijini National Park via Millstream Chichester National Park. The later promised some nice water holes to FINALLY wash off the salt from our skins and it was only a couple hundred kilometer detour. We followed Brand Hwy for couple hundred kilometers before turning off towards Pannawonica. The scenery was spectacular with red sand, green bushes, yellow grass, flood plains and table mountain ect. - just as you would imagine Australia's semi dessert - we now are entering the Pilbara Country (eventually I'll get some more pics loaded up .JPG)
onto Picasa). We intended to gas up in Pannawonica, a small mining town at the end of the paved road before traveling through nowhere land for another few more hundreds of kilometers. Unfortunately we got delayed by a nasty accident on .JPG)
Brand Hwy and didn't get to town until 1 minute to 5pm. We rushed into the gas station just as another customer was leaving the premises. Most gas stations we encountered so far were open late but they also were on more of a busy route and not at the beginning of nowhere. Needless to say these guys closed at 5pm - SHARP. I am not sure how they managed to lock everything up in between the customer leaving and us arriving but they had. So I put on my broadest smile and drooping look begging them to PLEASE give us some gas (otherwise we would have been stuck in town over night - although I didn't say that). The old bitch behind the counter wasn't moved by my performance but luckily the old guy was - I seem to have a "thing" with old men. So he opened up the pump again and we gave him a good tip. Not that we really had to because we did arrive before 5pm!!!! After a quick stop at a grocery store for food and ice - which was open "late", guess mining people get off shift at different times of the day - we left the "friendly" town and headed off into nowhere. From here on it was dirt road all the way to Millstream Chichester NP - about 100km away and the sun started dropping towards the horizon quickly. Remember what I said about dark roads and kangaroos? The road was in good condition though and we could go at a good pace. Nevertheless it was dark by the time we reached our destination. Finding a campsite was also challenging. Remember the "off season" issues I mentioned before. Well, here they seemed to have closed most of everything down - not closing in a physical sense but by removing all the signs at turn offs etc. So really hard to find an even smaller track heading off the small track that goes through the park in the pitch dark. At the end we managed - and although we were alone when we arrived at the Stargazer Campsite, another couple with a tent trailer pulled in shortly after us - also complaining about the missing signs. They were Australians and we all hit the tents shortly after arrival. Lying in our tent with no cover on we were watching the stars above us listening to the night desert concert for a while.
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up. Once we scaled the canyon wall - bit corroded in places but mostly a really good trail it flattened out into a high plateau with spinifix grass and some low eucalyptus and cottonwood bushed in small depressions. We followed the visible trail for a while and eventually even saw a sign pointing us towards the lookout. It still took quite a while to actually get there and it wasn't that high of a lookout either. The most annoying thing - there was a paved parking lot on the other side of that lookout, we could have driven here instead of hiking for 1.25hrs one way. Oh well, it was a great hike and we kept scanning the area for "Thorny Devils", a small spiky looking lizard which apparently is quite common in this park. Obviously, they are also very well camouflaged and we didn't see one. Back at the car we returned to the main road only to turn off into Charles Knife Canyon were the road followed along the canyon rim - quite an impressive .JPG)
canyon. I am sure the road would continue on to THAT lookout we hiked into but we didn't bother to find out. It was about lunch time by now and we headed back to the coast for some fresh Tiger Prawns from the Exmouth Fishing Company. With our bellies nicely filled we hit the hwy again for the long drive to Karijini National Park via Millstream Chichester National Park. The later promised some nice water holes to FINALLY wash off the salt from our skins and it was only a couple hundred kilometer detour. We followed Brand Hwy for couple hundred kilometers before turning off towards Pannawonica. The scenery was spectacular with red sand, green bushes, yellow grass, flood plains and table mountain ect. - just as you would imagine Australia's semi dessert - we now are entering the Pilbara Country (eventually I'll get some more pics loaded up .JPG)
onto Picasa). We intended to gas up in Pannawonica, a small mining town at the end of the paved road before traveling through nowhere land for another few more hundreds of kilometers. Unfortunately we got delayed by a nasty accident on .JPG)
Brand Hwy and didn't get to town until 1 minute to 5pm. We rushed into the gas station just as another customer was leaving the premises. Most gas stations we encountered so far were open late but they also were on more of a busy route and not at the beginning of nowhere. Needless to say these guys closed at 5pm - SHARP. I am not sure how they managed to lock everything up in between the customer leaving and us arriving but they had. So I put on my broadest smile and drooping look begging them to PLEASE give us some gas (otherwise we would have been stuck in town over night - although I didn't say that). The old bitch behind the counter wasn't moved by my performance but luckily the old guy was - I seem to have a "thing" with old men. So he opened up the pump again and we gave him a good tip. Not that we really had to because we did arrive before 5pm!!!! After a quick stop at a grocery store for food and ice - which was open "late", guess mining people get off shift at different times of the day - we left the "friendly" town and headed off into nowhere. From here on it was dirt road all the way to Millstream Chichester NP - about 100km away and the sun started dropping towards the horizon quickly. Remember what I said about dark roads and kangaroos? The road was in good condition though and we could go at a good pace. Nevertheless it was dark by the time we reached our destination. Finding a campsite was also challenging. Remember the "off season" issues I mentioned before. Well, here they seemed to have closed most of everything down - not closing in a physical sense but by removing all the signs at turn offs etc. So really hard to find an even smaller track heading off the small track that goes through the park in the pitch dark. At the end we managed - and although we were alone when we arrived at the Stargazer Campsite, another couple with a tent trailer pulled in shortly after us - also complaining about the missing signs. They were Australians and we all hit the tents shortly after arrival. Lying in our tent with no cover on we were watching the stars above us listening to the night desert concert for a while. 
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