Exmouth to Coral Bay

Exmouth – Saturday 17 to Monday 19 September 2011

Exmouth is a great little coastal town that is situated on the northern tip of the Ningaloo Marine Park, the town has both navy and air force bases, fishing is one of the main industries, but the majority of tourists come to see the fantastic coast line along the Cape Range National Park, where the reef meets the beach. 

Cape Range National Park

Some of the locals running wild in the park

We drove down through the national park to a bay called Turquoise Bay and the water is as clear as and the colour is as the name suggests, a real turquoise colour.  Just fantastic, the reef is about 20 metres off the beach and the weather was around 30 deg with water temps about 23deg, so it was not hard to get and have a look around.  The coral and fish were just spectacular, heaps to look at and some great colours.  Saw a beautiful big turtle swimming along, as you get close to them they certainly can move.

Planking at the Lighthouse

The beautiful coast line

After this we headed further down the coast to a place called Oyster Stacks, here you get in off a rock ledge and you are amongst it all, another great place to snorkel with heaps to see.  On the way back home we called into Jurabi Turtle Centre, didn’t see any turtles but did see about 5 whales just outside the reef carrying on a real treat, best whale display in the wild yet.

Turquoise Bay



Just when you thought it was safe to enter the water



Relaxing in the water, crystal clear and warm

On Sunday we went into the villager as the markets were on, now these were great markets only 6 stalls so it was quick easy and painless. A look around the few shops that were open then a drive out to the beach to check out the sun and sand. That afternoon I set up the outside lounge and watched the Philip Island 500, very comfy and a pleasant afternoon, wrong team won but I had a relaxing afternoon.

My lounge area to watch the car races

Sunday night the wind come up about midnight and blew, in the morning it was still blowing and did so all day.  We checked out the shops once more, being Monday they were all open, had a great coffee then looked around the coastline again. 

Exmouth to Coral Bay - Tuesday 20 September 2011

Not a big drive today only 150km down the coast to Coral Bay, another little village on the Ningaloo Reef.   Here you can snorkel to the reef from the main bay in the village.  Coral Bay has two caravan parks, a resort, basic shops and about 4 diving and fishing charter companies.  The place is owned and run by two families, amenities wise there is little, all water is artesian bore water and the power is a couple of generators over the hill. But the place is packed and beautiful.

Again the water is crystal clear and warm, the sand is so soft it was nice just to sit on the beach and soak up the sun.  From the weather reports south from here  the temps drop to the low 20’s, this will be a shock as we haven’t had temps like that since arriving in Cairns in July.

Coral Bay - Wednesday 21 & Thursday 22 September 2011

Wednesday we went for a sail and snorkel on the Coral Breeze catamaran, we sailed out to the outer reef and anchored while we snorkelled for about 2 hours.  It was so warm with plenty to see, some great coral formations, lots of beautiful fish and a massive manta ray .  Back on board we had a sausage sizzle then sailed up the coast to another dive spot, right on the edge of the reef and the open sea.  Just fantastic, like the other dive spot  there is plenty to see and admire on this beautiful reef.

Relaxing on board the Coral Breeze

Good old Sausage Sizzle you can't bet them

Just chilling out

The afternoon was spent on the beach and watched the norwest snapper fish feeding, it is incredible all these snapper come in an swim around your legs while they are being feed. 

Fish feeding Coral Bay

Thursday was excitement day, and payback day, over the past few weeks I have been on a fishing charter (those who know me know how much I just love fishing and I have ridden a camel).  So today Marlene was going Quad Bike riding, and just not for 30 minutes or an hour it was for 2.5hours up over the sand hills and along the beach.  What a ball, we headed off out of Coral Bay north along these sandy bush tracks then up the side of a sand hill and of course if you go up a huge sand hill you have to come down the other side.  A little daunting at first but all was OK.  We then took off up the beach for about 20km and stopped to snorkel at a place called Oyster Bridge, here there were a huge amount of oysters on the rocks.  We snorkelled for about an hour then took off back down the beach over a couple more sand hills and back to the village.  A very enjoyable morning, back home for the afternoon to catch up on the admin and get ready to head further south to Carnarvon for a few days.

Cruzin the Beach

Out amongst the sand hills

Made it home safe