Day 28 Exmouth (3 October)

We have had a fantastic day.  We started with a snorkel at a site known as Oyster Stacks (3kms south of Turquoise Bay and 66kms from town in the national park).  It is one of the best snorkels we have done (I think better than Turquoise).  Access is via rocks but not difficult and straight away you are in the 'aquarium'.   There is so much coral and fish life it is unbelievable.  Whilst we didn't see any different fish the ones we saw were big.  The water temperature was OK, a little cool but because there was so much too see you didn't notice.  Unfortuantely we weren't aware that the best time to snorkel there is mid to high tide and we got there just as the tide was going out so it was fairly shallow (hence lots of people leaving as we got there plus the wind had picked up).  Didn't stop us enjoying immensely though even though it meant we could only do one snorkel safely without damaging the coral or ourselves.  It is definitely a must do and we will do again when we return.  After this snorkel we headed to Yardie Creek (91kms from town) where along the way we saw a wedge tailed eagle sitting on top of bush near the road.  We jumped out to take photos and it flew off and gave us a magnificent display of its size, it was huge.  It was very windy at Yardie Creek but we still opted to kayak in the gorge.  It was lovely, we saw four black footed wallabies (one with joey) and as they are rare this was very special.  Its amazing how they can climb around the sheer rock faces!  The water was extremely salty which surprised us and in parts mangroves were clinging along the edge.  It was a pleasant easy kayak heading into the gorge but a different story coming back straight into strong headwinds - we were exhausted by the time we got back.  The on the way home we saw an echidna crossing the road in front of us - its bizarre becuase the last time we were here (about 4 years ago) the same thing happened.  We jumped out of the car again with camera in tow and John took the video below.  Very lucky I think to see an echinda.  What a day!

Day 27 Exmouth (2 October)

Day of the turtles.  I saw a turtle!  Today was lovely and calm and we took advantage of the lack of wind and went kayaking (on the west side).  It is an idyllic area, white sand and beautiful turquoise water with reef close to shore.  We paddled around for a while and shortly after John and Coco went into shore I saw the turtle.  It was close to the surface and at first I thought it was a seal (as if up here) and as I paddled closer I saw its head out of the water, it was amazing and it was big.  I floated with it for quite a while - it was so close I could have touched it with my paddle before a wave pushed it closer to me and it slowly took off with me after it but I lost it.  I have never seen a turtle so close and for so long it was great. I wish I could have photographed it.  Shortly after that from the shore we saw two more turtles a little further out then one about 10 metres from shore.  We were at one of the turtle rookeries and were wondering if they might be coming into to lay their eggs soon.  We believe they lay from October to April.  A little later I was snorkelling and saw another turtle but I must have spooked it and it took off too quickly.  Not a lot of fish life, saw two big spotted boxfish, a large wrasse, stingray and bright blue fusilers (think that is what they are).  Tomorrow also looks like a nice day so we will go into the national park and snorkel the oyster stacks - a well known site.

Days 24-26 Exmouth (29 Sept - 1 Oct)

Some cooler days at 26-27 degrees and fairly windy. One night got down to 8 degrees! On a couple of days we packed a picnic lunch and checked out conditions for snorkelling/kayaking on the west coast on the Exmouth peninsula (Cape Range National Park side).  Unfortunately it was too windy but we did discover some good spots when the weather picks up.  This kangaroo in the dunes was as curious about us as Coco was about it!  There are a lot of emus around, some with babies and the photos were taken behind the visitor centre.  The father emu takes care of the kids.  We visited the Jurabi turtle centre which was quite interesting and indicates the start of the turtle rookeries.  Visited the Mildura wreck which would be great to snorkel/kayak around on a nice day.

Days 21-23 Exmouth (26-28 September)

The highlight of these three days was our boat trip on Sunday to the Murion Islands, 16km off shore.  Took about an hour and a half to get there.  Along the way we saw two humpback whales, fantastic.  Unfortunately, too far away to get some good shots.  However on the way back we were able to get a closeup of a whale that was incredibly close to shore.  Amazing to see them.  The dive crew say they see many on these trips.  In fact there is a 2 week period at the end of August when sometimes they see whalesharks, manta rays and humpacks in a single dive!  Imagine that!  The dive centre we dived with also cover the whaleshark season and this season (May-July) they had 530 whalesharks sightings!  I'm sure the same one in some cases.  But still an incredible amount.   We were extremely lucky with the weather, there was hardly any wind (compared to the previous days) and the water was calm (didn't stop me from taking a Travelcalm tablet for sea sickness though).  The dive masters were very good and knowledgeable and provided all gear although we have most our ours.  I didn't dive just opted to snorkel, I hung up my diving fins a while ago and after watching the divers get geared up I am happy not to do it - too much like hard work lugging all that gear around - I think this might be John's last dive too.  The water temperature is 23 degrees which believe it or not is still chilly, even with a 3/4 3mm wetsuit!  We must be aclimatising as we are used to 18-20 degrees in Busso.  I'll let John tell you about his diving experience but my snorkels were very very good.  The first snorkel was at a site at the east side of south Murion Island, it was like looking into an aquarium, lots of fishlife and coral, large schools of a variety of fish including kingfish, angel/damsel fish, a moon wrasse and lots of other fish that I can't identify.  Needless to say it was pretty speccy.  My second snorkel was just as pretty and this time I saw a bat fish it was huge.  The third dive was called the Coral Bowl and was predominantly coral, brain coral, plate coral, gorgonan fan corals, lots of different colours, blues yellows, purples, it is encouraging to see a lot of new growth.   This was a very pretty dive and we were lucky the way the sun was shining over it showed it in its best light. The Murion Islands are within a sanctuary zone which means no fishing or spearfishing which is great.  The water depth didn't exceed 12 metres with lots of bombies closer to the surface so good viewing.  Overall it was a great day and we still agree Ningaloo Reef offers some of the best diving sites (compared to what we have seen at the Barrier Reef).  Lets hope with all the development and oil mining that is happening around here and further north that it doesn't get spoilt.  It was long day starting at 7.30am and getting back at 4.00pm and we were concerned living Coco for so long in the caravan.  Our neighbour offered to check on her during the day and let her out into the shade or turn the a/c on but Coco wouldn't let her in (she probably would have done with some persistence) so we had lots of smiles form Coco when we got home (for those who don't know Coco she smiles when she greets us).  I took her for a long walk to the beach as John had taken her in the morning at 6.00am (yes I did say John).  So today Monday was a relax day and tomorrow we are planning on doing some more snorkelling and kayaking.  It is going to only be 27 degrees tomorrow compared to the 30-35s we have had so should be a nice change.

Hi My turn but Karen has taken all the highlights! However I can add a few highlights of what I saw under the water while she was floating around on the surface looking like a tasty meal (no not for me but the sharks which abound up here!) Naturally the white tipped reef sharks are always around but on the second dive I came across a BIG Sythe shaped tail sticking out of this cave! so naturally I tried to get in closer, then this monster decided he felt cornered so he wanted OUT! Not ferocious but just wanted out so I moved aside, it was pretty thrilling and although you never know I felt very safe as there appeared to be no aggression at all. It was white all over which has made identification difficult but the closest I can get is a Tawny Nurse Shark (although they say they are brown! (maybe this was an Albino! :-) As Karen said it was like diving in a massive aquarium with more types of coral than I've ever seen beautiful swim throughs which often hid even bigger cod and grouper which would weigh hundreds of kilos! All this in around 10m so you got a good 60 minutes per dive. Anyway there was plenty other sights but I think you get the picture! Bye 4 now!

Days 18-19 Exmouth (23-24 September)

Update:  check out blog entry Days 9-10 Denham for video on shark feeding.

Day 17 -We are now 1442kms north from Busselton.  We are really happy to be in Exmouth it really is one of our favourite places.  Anther hot day and no wind.  We walked into town to pick up a few supplies and check out the diving/snorkelling tours.  John booked to dive the navy jetty on Friday - this is one of the top 10 dive sites and we are booked to do dive/snorkel tour on Sunday at Murion Islands (16kms boat ride).  Hoping to see turtles on this trip.  It is 34 degrees and no wind, went for a swim at the park pool - it was cold but yummy.  We had our prawns for lunch today - delish - ate a whole kilo between us, piggies.  Something funny happened today while I was putting some washing on the line, two emus went waltzing by, I could have touched them they were that close and they were totally unperterbed, we saw them later in town.  There are a lot of emus around Exmouth.  Apparently there is a father emu along the beach track who is very protective of his chicks and will attack dogs (an emu killed a poodle a few years ago on this track) so on the lookout. Coco loves walking to the beach as there are lots of roos that she can smell and see.

Day 18 - Expecting a hot day up to 34 degrees, got up early and went to well known Turquoise Bay for a snorkel.   Not too many people when we arrived (about 9.30am) but by the time we left it was quite busy although not overly so.  We stopped at the Milyering Visitor Interpretative Centre and saw a sea eagle had a nest on a communications tower (photo).  We had some great snorkelling went with the drift snorkel, the current was very strong today can see why some people end up in trouble.  The water was very chilly but bearable.  Saw our first sea snake (black and white striped one - we learnt at Ocean Park they are harmless), angel fish, wrasse, triggerfish, spangled emperors and some lovely coral.  It is encouraging to see some of the coral is re-sprouting with some pretty colours.  It is a spectacular snorkel and you can walk out to the reef and it is probably not more than 2 metres deep.  We are going back again before we leave.  We discovered some other good snorkeling sites while we were in the national park that we will do before we leave as well.  We don't have an underwater camera so can't show you how speccy it is, but if travelling this way it is a definite must do.  Unfortuntely as it is in the national park we couldn't take Coco and left her in the caravan, (I had taken Coco to the beach for an hour walk before we left so felt a little happier leaving her), we asked the lady next door to keep an ear out for her and to call us if there was a problem, she didn't hear a peep from her which was good - we hope she is as good on Sunday when we go to the Murion Islands.  We also checked out some other beaches that we can take Coco too and these look really good too - so we'll fit them in as well.  At this rate we will be here for months.  The chap next door to us had been out in his boat fishing today and gave us some fish (not sure what it was) we had it for dinner, it was delicious.  Sigh, what a life.