Ningaloo dreaming

      

We have just been to Ningaloo (Cape Range) National Park, where we went snorkelling in turquoise waters, and saw a rainbow of fish every different shape and colour.

Ningaloo is the largest fringing coral reef in Australia, and attracts thousands of tourists every year just because of its reef. It became World Heritage Listed this year.

I saw parrot fish, angel fish, clams, coral, rays and so much more.

We went drift snorkelling at turquoise bay, named because of its turquoise water, drift snorkelling is really relaxing and fun, all you have to do is float and let the current take you along while you view the underwater city bustling beneath you!

We went on a whale watching cruise, and saw so many whales, some with calves as well.

This time of year all the humpback whales come here to breed and give birth.

The amount of tail slapping, belly flopping, big breaching and overall whale-“ness” was amazing it’s definitely a thing that YOU must do.

 We saw the large Potato Coral on the cruise as well, also named the “bungle bungles” because of its shape, there were also 3 turtles that we saw slowly gliding along in their relaxed fashion.

There was a myriad of fish every single shade that you can think of!

Now there was Monkey Mia and we saw a whole new set of things! The Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins were soooo beautiful, gentle and amusing they can bring tears to your eyes (for all different reasons). We found out that some of those dolphins have learnt to use a             sea-sponge, as a tool, to sift around the bottom of the ocean for flathead without scratching their nose! We went to Francois Peron National Park and saw heaps of familiar and new animals at this lookout like; manta-rays, turtles, pied cormorants and …… DUGONGS!!!!  We went on a wildlife cruise and saw some dolphins and calves really close up and some dugongs as well.

By Maeve

In the Ningaloo Reef we saw heaps of animals,

including turtles, fish ,starfish ,sea cucumbers and crabs. We went on a glass bottom boat and went up really close to whales breaching. We went drift snorkelling and I felt scared at first but then I got used to it. After a while I saw a brown stingray and I started to panic. I went back and had some fruit and shapes. We went out really far and there was dead coral and I thought it was a grave. The next night we went to the other camp and had dinner with our friends. While we were there we went ghost crabbing and I caught a golden crab. We then let them go.

In Monkey Mia we saw a variety of dolphins and dugongs. We went on a boat tour and saw dolphins riding the engine waves. We went to a lookout and saw rays, dolphins, dugongs, cormorants a turtle and a whale. The dolphins got up close to us and one was feeding it’s calf. 

by Ellen

Look Dad, an Emu

and it's chicks!

Maeve took these from the boat

The aqua water and the reef...just beautiful, and so close

Look at the colour of that water!

Crossing the Tropic of Capricorn...five months in the tropics...farewell warm weather.

At Monkey Mia.

Smile for the camera!

Mmmm...I could get used to this! Sailing at Monkey Mia.

On the catamaran.

Colours of the Pilbara

Leaving Broome, heading south, we passed the edge of the Great Sandy Desert, which could be seen as sandy flats amongst the flat coastal grasslands and heath. We stopped at Eighty Mile Beach, which lived up to its name: a huge swathe of pristine coast line, white beach that appeared to go on for ever. (Thanks Aunt Marian for pointing us in the direction of this beach). The full moon made for a huge tidal flat, with the waters edge having to be several hundred metres from the dunes. From here we headed to Karijini NP, via Port Hedland, a large industrial town, with little appeal, and few signs to tell us how to leave it. We were stuck here for a few hours trying to find a car part. This was an unsuccessful search for a trailer wheel bearing cover (for which ½ a disposable paper coffee cup has done a sterling temp job for the last 1,000 kms!) Thankfully we were able to eventually find our way out of Port H and aimed for Karijini, hidden within the iron-rich Hamersley Ranges. The ranges rise up, with magnificent orange-red colours, out of the green Spinifex - a stunning landscape, with carpets of flowers in every shade of mauve and blue, yellows and whites. We passed some massive mines, the roads being busy with mining vehicles and road trains. Had any of the burly blokes or sheilas looked in at us they would have seen me driving, with Russ, glasses perched on his nose, concentrating on his knitting! We must have looked a sight! (Hey! We’re an EEO family, and he promises to tell this tale in all its gory detail in a later entry). It is here in the Pilbara that Lang Hancock, and later James Hardy made their fortunes, and where hundreds of miners and local indigenous people sacrificed their lives for the blue asbestos found in the range. Whole mining towns and roads are now fenced off due to the health risk of the residual asbestos. Karijini is a series of small gorges that drop below the landscape, and are accessed via some steep descents. Once within, the hard, shiny incredibly smooth rock walls form a wall around a magical environment, with swimming holes beneath small water falls. The walls are striped, in blues, browns, oranges and yellows. It was almost as if we had entered a Japanese garden, so perfectly laid out were the tufts of sedge in the shallow water ponds, with the surrounding edges of rock looking as if they had been cut in perfect angles to form the ponds. It was here that we saw snake number 29, a 4metre long Olive Python that was unfortunately dead. Back up the top, and snake number 30 slithered in front of us metres from our camp. It was a beautifully coloured Yellow Headed Whip Snake, sporting a yellow head, bright green body and a stunning orange-red tail. Nellie had seen it first earlier in the day and we had difficulty believing her description. It wasn’t until it slithered in front of me later in the day that we believed her. From Karijini we headed to the start of the beautiful Coral Coast, visiting Cape Range NP, Exmouth and the stunning Ningaloo Reef. The North West Cape communications base is in Exmouth, and in fact, Exmouth didn’t really exist until the Americans arrived in the early 1960s, just after the Bay of Pigs / Cuban Missile crisis. The Cape has water on 3 sides, and was the perfect spot for a VLF (Very Low Frequency) Transmitter. This allows the base to communicate with submarines way out in the middle of the Indian Ocean. It consists of 13 huge towers, forming the second highest human-made structure in the southern hemisphere. Tower Zero is higher than the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower. The surrounding landscape is beautiful heath land, with limestone ranges, white sand and incredibly aqua blue ocean.  Maeve and Ellen are going to tell you in the next blog entry what we did and saw at Ningaloo and surrounds.

Hi to Marian & Laurie from Eighty Mile Beach! (Maeve is not really drinking from my wine glass!)

And as the sun slowly sinks into the west...

Looking down into Dales Gorge at Karijini NP

A "Japanese water garden"

WIldflowers of the Pilbara

Sturt's Desert Pea! 

..

Broome broome broome.

A clean sweep of Broome? Loved it! The girls enjoyed their camel ride. Our adventure up to Cape Leveque allowed us some time at Middle Lagoon, to sit, relax and swim. This is a lovely place, quiet, on a large aqua blue lagoon, with views out to the Indian Ocean. From here we were able to watch whales breaching and spouting. We visited Beagle Bay and the beautiful Sacred Heart church, where the locals used mother of pearl to decorate the altars. The Trappist monks had come to this area in1888, and were followed by the Pallottine monks from Germany. The simple church was built in 1915, whilst the monks were under “house arrest”. It took two years to build and decorate. The Sisters of St John of God arrived in 1907 from Ireland, and were in charge of the “Stolen Generation children” taken to Beagle Bay.

 We relaxed at Kooljamon Camp at Cape Leveque for 5 days, enjoying the pristine environment and the dramatic landscape. The water was again crystal clear and  a stunning blue. The red Cape cliffs give way to pink dunes which melt down to the white sand of the beach. The girls had a tribe of kids to play with and enjoyed making jewellery from the beautiful shells they collected off the beach.

Dropped in to One Arm Point (another Aboriginal community just around from the Cape) to visit the Trochus shell farm owned and operated by the local community. The farm produces shell used mainly for buttons on Italian designer gowns and the like. Unfortunately, we had a reality check there at the local boat ramp, where we had gone to see the reef sharks swimming in the shallows. On arrival, the girls found a large, sadly beautiful sea turtle (1metre in length) tied up to a beach shelter, still alive. It was dying, with a cut to it’s throat, and had been left in the hot sun for some time. We were all very distressed, but, this was Aboriginal land, and turtle hunting season! We wet it down with sea water to reduce its painful demise. Had it been different circumstances, we would have taken it immediately to a vet. We and the family we were with, talked to the kids about different customs etc…but it was hard to reconcile this cruel practice! Talking to some locals later, we discovered that this was not the usual practice.

Back to Cape Leveque and a beautiful dinner at the restaurant…in the middle of nowhere…Duck a la orange, Crispy skin Barramundi with capers and roast pumpkin canneloni….mmm! With a view to die for, on an open deck, looking out at the sunset. Blown away both literally and metaphorically! The next two days had us in the middle of some very windy weather and a grass fire that closed the road and filled the sky with red dust and an orange smoke haze. The wild conditions made the small tourist planes landing directly overhead at Cape Leveque very interesting, but fun to watch. (Why do all bush pilots out here look no older than 16 or so?)

On the way back to Broome we dropped in on the tent embassy that some of the locals have established to protest the proposed mega natural gas pumping facility at James Price Point just north of Broome.  Given the majesty and beauty of this whole Kimberly coastline you can understand their concern at the likely effect of such a development on their Country, notwithstanding the economic benefits it is likely to bring to at least some in the community. 

We stopped back in Broome for the annual Shinju Matsuri festival-of-the-pearl parade, with Sammy the festival’s dragon mascot. This is a Japanese festival, with a Chinese dragon in Australia! Very colourful. Heading down the coast tomorrow, to Eighty Mile Beach, then Karajini Gorge before we stop at Cape Range and the Ningaloo reef. We are excited about possibly going on a whale watching cruise! Stay tuned!

Broome sunset

Camel anyone?

The red sand highway

Sacred Heart

What Senior Executives really do on holiday!

The knitting circle. Russ & Ellie learning to knit

Cape Leveque beach

An Osprey

At the protest site

Norforce join in the parade

Sammy the dragon

The "Stairway to the Moon" symbol