We are getting excited about heading further north and getting closer to some long dreamed of places like Kalbarri and karrijini so on Friday 14th April we departed Geraldton and made our way to Kalbarri. Here we stayed at the Anchorage caravan Park which is nice but was very noisy from other camps as it was packed being school holidays.
Friday afternoon after setting up, we did a short trip to see a few of the coastal sites stopping at the grandstand 1st and then over to island rock where we did the walk from there to natural bridge. It was still quite windy because of the cyclone well to the north and the seas were rough and crashing on the rocks at the base of the cliffs all along the coast which did look awesome.
Saturday we went into the main part of Kalbarri NP and our 1st stop was Z bend. I don’t really know why it’s called that as I couldn’t see any bends looking like a Z but it was still a beautiful spot. We did the walk all the way down into the gorge which the kids loved because it had lots of rocks to scramble over and between and ladders to climb down then back up again.
When we where in Kalbarri the Murchison river which runs through the gorge was in flood after rain out near Meekathara so it was really moving and the walks that went through the bottom of the gorge were closed, but we were still able to atleast follow the trails down to the edge of the river.
After finishing the z bend walk we had lunch then headed to nature’s window. This is an easy walk but you just need to be careful on the last part walking around the rock to the window itself. It was really busy here as expected but we joined the queue to get a photo through the window and had a bit of a look around at the river below us on both sides and the other rock formations near us. By then there were more and more people coming down, so we got out of there and drove around to the Skywalk.
The Skywalk was nice but could be a bit much if your afraid of heights. The platforms hang right out over the edge of the gorge and give a great view up and down the river in both directions. You can see right back past nature’s window as well. At the Skywalk there are lots of bronze animal figures off the sides of the path some showing creatures that lived here millions of years ago which the kids thought was pretty cool too. Once we had finished here, we headed back to camp for the rest of the afternoon and the boys had heaps of fun playing with some of the other kids camped near us.
That night I headed back out to nature’s window to try and get some night shots of the Milky way coming up over the window which was fun except for a couple of other people hogging most of the area with multiple tripods each. I still managed to get a position I was happy with though.
Sunday we headed back out to the national park, this time to Hawks head and Ross Graham lookout. Hawks head as the name suggests is a rock formation that sticks out of the side of the gorge that sort of looks like a Hawks head. I think a little bit of imagination is required to see it though.
From there we went to the Ross Graham lookout and also followed the track down to the waters edge. The track usually goes a lot further but is under water at the moment due to the amount of water in the river.
Monday 17th April, we drove south again to check out the pink lake at port Gregory. Hooray a pink lake that is actually pink. We have been past several so called pink lakes on our trip and this is the 1st one that is actually pink. It is a beautiful sight to see, the still water almost glowing in a nice shade of pink. The edges of the lake are like walking on rock but it’s actually salt which was cool to see.
After a splash in the water with our feet and some photos, we drove back around the lake and then into another lucky bay. An absolutely beautiful spot when you drive down onto the beach and up the beach a short way, there is an awesome calm area protected from the surf by a line of rock about 50m from shore. We parked up on the beach and had a lovely swim and snorkel. I spotted a baby flathead and a school of whiting while snorkeling which was cool. The kids splashed in the water and played in the sand until it was time to head back to camp in the afternoon.
Back at camp we caught up with some friends that had arrived in Kalbarri earlier in the afternoon.
Tuesday morning we went down to the foreshore for the pelican feeding which turned out to be a bit of a bust as no pelicans turned up so instead all the kids got to feed the seagulls.
After that we went down to blue holes for a swim. This is another brilliant spot just on the outskirts of town with sheltered rock pools between the beach and the outer edge of the rocks which protect the area from the waves. There were lots of fish to be seen swimming around and plenty of pretty shells to collect. We headed back to camp for lunch then had a quiet afternoon and a bit of a rest.
Wednesday we left Kalbarri and made our way to shark bay. We set up the van at a free camp near the bottom of the bay with a nice view over the ocean. Once setup, we unhitched the car and drove up to shell beach for a swim. The beach as the name suggests is completely covered by shells. Most are small white fragum cockle shells with a few spiral shells mixed in. The water was crystal clear and a bit warmer that we have been used to further south. After a swim we didn’t hang around at the beach as the flies were really bad, so we headed back to camp.
Thursday 20th April, we stayed at camp for the morning and watched the solar eclipse. Where we are it was about 90% of a total eclipse which was very cool to see.
Once the eclipse was over, we jumped in the car and headed to steep point, the most westerly point in Australia from camp it took about 2 1/2 hours to get there as the road in was very badly corrugated in sections and the last 30km had sand dunes and much tighter tracks to go through. Part of the track goes along the beach and there was even corrugations on the beach!! I’ve never seen that before.
There is camping sites in the NP near steep point and they are amazing spots right on the beach but the track is definitely not suitable for a full size caravan. You could get a camper trailer in without to much trouble as several people camped had done.
When we finally reached steep point, we stopped had a look around and of course took some photos. Around steep point is all cliffs, so we headed back a little way to one of the beach areas for a little play until it was time to head back towards camp. It’s a long drive in and back and we all felt a bit rattled by all the corrugations by the end but it was worth the drive and we enjoyed exploring the area.
Friday we headed further up the peninsula, past Denham and into Cape Peron NP to hopefully find a camp spot at big lagoon. This camp ground can’t be booked so it’s a case of getting there early and hope someone is leaving. Lucky we saw someone packing up so we waited and took their spot when they left. Big lagoon is a lovely spot right near the water and where we could swim in the calm water and watch the sunset from the lookout.
After setting up, we drove back into Denham for lunch and met some friends so the kids could play in the park. They even had some emu’s join them at the playground.
When we got back to camp in the afternoon we had a swim and enjoyed the sunset before dinner and bed.
Saturday we met up with our friends again in the morning and travelled together up through the corrugated and sandy tracks to Cape Peron. It was good doing the day trip with others as it provides a little bit of support if anything happens as the tracks were reportedly in pretty bad condition. We had a look around the top of the cape and saw 2 dolphins swimming past. We then headed just around the corner to skipjack point lookout which has amazing views over the shallow water below. While there, we saw a shark, stingrays, dolphins (probably the same ones) and a turtle.
From skipjack point we moved on to Bottle bay a few KMs back down the coast and parked on the beach for lunch and a swim. While we were having lunch, we noticed a tour bus just up the beach and all the passengers were out snorkeling around one spot so we decided to go and see for ourselves.
We snorkeled out to where they had been to find a beautiful small outcrop of coral with plenty of fish and some almost fluorescent green coral. We floated around checking it all out for a while and eventually headed back to the cars to go on to our last stop of the day.
The last stop was Herald night on the eastern side of Cape Peron NP and the track in was the softest of the tracks we drove on for the day but we had no issues as we had the tyres down already. We stopped on the beach and watched a group trying to get a very large boat down and struggling to get it through the soft sand entrance to the beach even using a 2nd car to help pull the ute that was towing the boat. After that bit of entertainment, we started heading back towards camp passing a very bogged new ranger on the way. We didn’t stop as they already had a couple of cars there helping. After a big day it was early to bed for all of us.
Sunday we left Cape Peron and stopped at Carnarvon for the night just to break up the drive and stock up on groceries at the Woolies.
Monday 24th April we continued up the coast and arrived at lagoon campground which is south of coral bay. Once you turn off the highway it’s all dirt with the 1st part being a good wide road with some corrugations until you reach the station buildings. From there the track gets narrower and rougher with the last 2km just a track over a field of rocks which was very slow going with the caravan in tow. Our site was nice and big and right beside the lagoon and only a short walk to the beach. Laying in bed in the evening we saw dozens of crabs running around on the mat and on the sand around the van which was pretty cool.
Tuesday we drove down a bit further along the coast to see if the beach was any better for swimming than where we were but unfortunately it wasn’t but we did see a turtle cruising through the water only a few metres from shore. After that we went back to camp and the kids played on the beach while I tried to go for a snorkel but the waves were just too rough to manage it. Because the beach and water wasn’t calm like we had thought it was going to be along this part of the coast we decided to leave the next morning instead of staying for the extra 3 nights. I had managed to get some signal just up the road and got a booking at North Lefroy campground which is another 100km or so further north and close to Cape range Np on the Ningaloo coast.
Wednesday morning we left lagoon campground and on our way to North Lefroy, we stopped in at coral bay for a quick look. It’s a very busy spot with a beautiful beach but I can see why people call it coral PAY as almost everything is far more expensive than normal. Yes it is a remote area but some things were just ridiculous.
After a look around, we drove back to the highway and up to the turnoff to the Campground. The road in was really rough, heavily corrugated almost the whole way so we had to take our time and even then everyone and everything got a bit shaken around. Although it was a rough drive in, it was definitely worth it. Our camp site was 20m from the beach which was beautiful and flat and perfect for swimming for the kids and snorkelling for us.
Thursday and Friday we spent around camp swimming, snorkeling, playing on the beach and just relaxing in this beautiful spot.
Saturday 29th April it was time to leave our beachside camp and continue on to Exmouth. We made our way back along the rough track to the highway and stopped to pump the tyres back up to highway pressures. I had only done 3 of the 6 wheels when the compressor decided to die on me oh ho. We waited for a few minutes.and thankfully another traveller who stopped to let their tyres down on their way into the camp lent us their compressor to finish the rest of the tyres.
With the tyres sorted, we drove the 100km up to Exmouth and checked in at the Ningaloo resort caravan Park to stay for the next 5 nights. We also caught up with some friends and had dinner with them at the whalebone brewery. The pizzas were really good.
Sunday we had a bit of a later start than planned as we all slept in but once we got going we made our way out to milyering visitors centre in Cape range Np and hired some boogy boards that have viewing windows in the for the boys to ride on when we went snorkeling over the reef.
From there we went just down the road to the lakeside snorkeling area. OMG what a beautiful spot. We snorkeled out with the boys in tow on a boogy board each and the coral started about 10m off the beach. We swam around over heaps of coral sections and saw an amazing amount of fish from the little blue ones hiding in the coral to the hundreds of large fish of all different colours. We saw rainbow ones, black ones silver ones yellow ones and more. We even saw 2 large rays just laying on the bottom hiding in the sand. They would be easy to miss if we weren’t looking out for them as they were mostly covered in a thin layer of sand. We spent over an hour swimming and floating around the reef. The kids thought it was amazing and loved being able to look through the window in the boogy boards and clearly see the coral and all the fish.
When we finally came back to the beach it was starting to rain so we walked back to the car and drove back to camp as I had a few things to do like screw the inverters back into place in the car and caravan as the corrugations had shaken them both loose and give the car a badly needed bath.
Monday it was back to the national park for some more snorkelling. We headed to the oyster stacks 1st which was an amazing spot. The coral starts literally 5 metres from the shore and continues right to the edge of the reef a few hundred metres out. We still had the boogie boards so we towed the boys around the reef. The oyster stacks are even more beautiful than the lakeside area. There is much more coral with less gaps between them and seemed to be more fish life too. We even got to swim along with a turtle which was so cool.
We stayed here as long as possible until the tide got too low to safely swim and then made our way to turquoise bay for a look. It is a beautiful sandy bay area where you can either drift along in the current on one side of the point or stay in the bay area which has less movement. We didn’t stay long as there is nowhere near as much coral here and headed back to lakeside for another swim.
By the time we finished snorkeling at Lakeside again we were pretty pooped so we dropped off the boogy boards at the information centre and headed back to camp.
Tuesday was the day we had been waiting anxiously for. We were up early and dropped the kids off at our friends and walked down to the front of the park to await our pickup for the whale shark tour. On the way out to Tantabiddi where the boats are moored, we watched a video on the area and a few safety things for the day. On arrival at the Tantabiddi boat ramp we were taken out to our boat in a rubber ducky.
The boat called Lattitude 22 is a 20m former Cray boat that has been extensively modified to suit swimming from and whale watching. It has a kitchen area where meals are served and tea and coffee area as well. We could sit upstairs or down as well as on the bow but we stayed downstairs most of the time as it was in the shade and where the food was served.
We had breakfast on the boat as we drove out to our 1st stop of the day which was some snorkeling inside the reef. It was a great spot with lots of sea life and coral areas. We even saw a big stingray. The back of the boat has been modified to make it easy to get in and out of the water with a large flat deck almost at water level and a bar that swings down from it acting as a ladder which was good as we would be in and out a lot when it was whale shark time. After almost an hour on the reef we were all called back onto the boat as whale sharks had been located. Once onboard, we raced off towards them having a morning snack on the way as well as a briefing on what we need to do when in the water with the whale sharks.
As we approached the 1st one, we lined up on the deck in our groups until the boat was in position. The boat stopped and the 1st group was in the water. As the boat moved forward we got in position on the back deck ready to go.
When the boat was in position we heard go go go and we all slid into the water. Once in, we lined up from our guide so that we were in a good position so the whale shark would swim right past us. Before we knew it, the whale shark came into view and as it came alongside, we started swimming along with it. The whale sharks are such amazing, beautiful, and graceful creatures and what an amazing feeling to be able to swim along right next to one.
While we were with the whale shark, the 1st group was picked up and dropped back in the water further in front and after the whale shark moved past us the boat came to get us as well.
This process went on for a solid hour and a half with only a couple of breaks of 5min or so to move from one whale shark to another. In the water, swim along with the shark, back on the boat and the straight back in again ahead of it.
By the time we had finished we were completely stuffed but still so pumped to have been able to have so many swims with these beautiful animals. All up we swam with 6 whale sharks and were in and out of the water constantly for an hour and a half which was unreal. The average swim time for the whole whale shark fleet is 18 min.with 1-2 sharks so we felt pretty privileged.
After the whale shark swimming they normally do lunch while the boat goes back to the inner reef for another snorkel, but the tide was now too low to get back in the southern passage so as the water was very calm we were given the opportunity to snorkel on the outer reef. This was a great perspective on the different sides to a reef , the shallow inner and the more exposed outer parts. There were still lots of coral and fish life on the reef and we could also see long lines almost cut into the reef from the moment of the ocean. While we were there we were also very lucky to see a leopard shark cruising along. Leopard sharks are the closest relatives to the whale sharks.
When we finished our swim we hoped back on the boat for lunch as we started cruising up the coast towards the northern passage through the reef. Lunch was a yummy selection of cold meats and salads and even tiger prawns.
After lunch we gathered upstairs for a talk on the reef and some really interesting info on the whale sharks. The whale sharks can have up to 300 babies inside them at the same time, all at different growth stages from tadpoles to 55cm ready to be born. They also think that they go very deep to give birth to reduce the number of predators for the babies. They have also been known to dive as deep as 5000m below the surface.
Once back inside the reef we had a look at some coral formations from the boat while we had an afternoon snack and a beer before being ferried back to shore and on to the bus to take us home.
This has to be one of the most amazing experiences we have ever had and although it is expensive it was definitely worth it. The crew from ocean eco adventures were fantastic the whole day and made it perfect.
Wednesday we decided to go back to the oyster stacks for another snorkel as it is such a great spot so close to shore and our friends came with us. The kids played on the beach while we took turns to go for a swim. We found a turtle here again and got to watch him feeding on the seaweed that grows in with the coral.
On the way back to camp we stopped at the lighthouse which has awesome views over the area.
In the afternoon we cooked a roast for our friends to say thanks for looking after the kids so we could do the whale shark trip together.
Thursday 2nd May, it was time to say goodbye to our friends and the coast for a bit as we are heading to karrijini. So stay tuned for the next edition of our story where we check out this amazing national park and head towards Broome and then east again.
A Love of Adventures 