We farewelled Karijini and headed west, stopping at the entertainingly-named town of Tom Price for lunch, a tasty pie from an Aboriginal community-owned bakery. We were aiming for Bullara, a working cattle station that has gone all out on the farm-stay / tourism business angle. In yet another example of our fantastic time management, we had a hard deadline of 6 pm, which seemed totally doable when we left in the morning. Then we had a few distractions in Tom Price, but we were still reasonably on track. Until for some reason Google Maps took us on a dirt road through major mining sites, which had a 80 km/h speed limits and HEAPS of corrugation. It made for a tense drive as we kept a close eye on the ticking clock, but thankfully we made it by the skin of our teeth! We had booked in for their famous Friday burger night, which also had some live music which was a lots of fun. Of course, all 3 children refused the burgers (SIGH) but we'd been prepared for that, bringing tortillas and hummus to throw at them.
We had a quite morning in the sun, and I of course took the opportunity to wash clothes - it had been days!! We also explored the very cool decor (?) at the station, which had taken a very rustic approach to their general vibe. We also had some very yummy scones 😋.
The bathrooms in particular were very cool - old water tanks converted to toilets and large open roofed showers with bucket showerheads and really great water pressure.
The next day we headed north west to hit up the carwash in Exmouth to get some of the red dust off Frankie and Vivi. Honestly, I'm not sure we're EVER going to get rid of all of it - I wonder how much it costs to detail a caravan?!?!?
After doing our best with the dust we headed back down eastern side of the peninsula then out to the coast to the little town of Coral Bay. When researching where to stay to visit Ningaloo I had read that Exmouth was a bigger town, whereas Coral Bay was more of a small beach town. So I had it in my mind it was like a town on the south coast or central cost, like Hussky or Avoca. It wasn't quite like that, as it was really just two caravan parks, a few apartment blocks, some shops and a pub. It felt very seasonal - there wasn't even a primary school, so I don't know how many people are there in the winter. But everything was in walking distance, the pies at the bakery were very tasty, and the pool at the caravan park was the perfect temperature for Josie to be able to stay in for hours at a time. She has compared every pool to the Coral Bay pool since we left 🤦♀️😝.
Unfortunately the timing of our trip to meant we were a few weeks too late for the migration of the whale sharks that the Ningaloo reef is famous for. But thankfully it was the season for humpback whale mums and bubs to be heading south for the summer, so I had booked us in for a humpback whale safari on our second day in town. We got up early enough to be on time for our planned departure, with plenty of time to get the perfect size wetsuit and flipper combo for all 5 of us. I also decided to get some travel sickness tablets, just in case Josie or I got seasick. Given I've had a few cases of seasickness over the years and I was super keen to see the whales, I decided to take one before we boarded the boat, which turned out to be big mistake.
Ningaloo is a fringing reef, much closer to the coast than the Great Barrier Reef. In many spots the reef is just off the beach, which makes for very easy snorkeling. Generally the whales can be found outside the reef, but the guides wanted us to get a bit of practice snorkeling before trying to find some whales to hang out with. So we headed about a kilometer offshore, getting a safety and info briefing as we went. I started to feel really, REALLY drowsy, but I didn't want to miss out on the snorkeling so once we got to a particular spot on the reef and pulled up we all jumped in the water.
Unfortunately, even with her wetsuit Josie was a bit too cold, so she and I got back on the boat while Bob and the big kids headed out, and the very accommodating guides made sure he and I could swap out half way through the swim so neither of us missed out.
Part of the package was a professional underwater photographer, so most of the shots below were taken by a lovely young American marine biologist named Ellie.
After this first snorkel it was time to start searching for whales. There are a lot of conditions and rules for how people are allowed to engage with the whales, especially the calves. The boat was working with a spotter plane, so we spent the next hour or so followed up leads to try to find the perfect opportunity to jump in and swim alongside of them. I spent ALL that time struggling to fight off the effects of the motion sickness tablet...
We kept almost getting the opportunity to jump in to swim with the whales only to be denied at the last minute. The young people who were on the tour with us were very disappointed, and we were a bit bummed, although my reactions were somewhat blunted by the motion sickness tablets. As we searched we caught a few sightings of whales, and even some dolphins, but every time we thought we'd finally gotten the perfect set up to allow us to swim something went wrong, generally the whales going too deep or too far out to sea.
After countless false starts the captain finally advised we weren't going to get the chance to swim with the whales, but that there were manta rays inside the reef that we could swim with, so we headed that way. The guides were really keen for both Bob and I to be able to get in the water so one of them, a lovely young man Chris, worked really hard with Josie with a floatation device to get her to be able to swim over to see the manta rays, leaving us to swim with Toby and Nora.
The manta rays were simply stunning - they were huge and graceful as they danced and swayed and twirled.
After getting to share the water with these amazing and majestic creatures we jumped back on the boat and sailed towards another reef formation to get one more snorkel opportunity that promised a decent chance of seeing some turtles. Unfortunately, by this stage me and the kids were too cold and tired to face pulling the wet wetsuits back up, so we made Bob promise he'd tell us about it and waved him off.
As one of the longest fringe reefs in the world, Ningaloo stretches almost 300 kms along the coast from north of Exmouth to just south of Kalbarri. It is possible to drive from Coral Bay to the northern parts of the reef but it is along the beach and pretty tough 4WD driving. So we decided to take the safe approach and drive all the way up to Exmouth and then into Cape Range National Park, then back down along the coast to visit Yardie Creek for a tour.
A limestone range runs parallel to the reef, and Yardie Creek is a freshwater source that carved a gorge in the range tens of thousands of years ago. The fresh water of the creek is at times cut off from the ocean by a sandbank, but at other times the sandbank is washed away as it had been by a cyclone earlier in the year. As a result the plants, animals and fishes of the creek are used to surviving in and around salty water.
Our tour guide, Jade, was a lovely young woman who had studied marine biology, like so many of our tour guides. Its been really interesting to see how many marine biology grads have found employment in the tourism industry.
The creek is home to a rare marsupial, the black-flanked rock wallaby. The wallaby is endangered, primarily due to loss of habitat and predation by feral animals like cats and foxes. A program to eradicate these animals in the area as been quite successful with numbers rebounding in recent years.
There were also many birds along the creek, including birds of prey such as ospreys, who return to the same nest year after year, building up the most amazing structures over decades.
On the way back along the creek Jade told us about some of the archaeological finds in the area, including an Aboriginal artifact of shell beads that were discovered in a rock shelter at the nearby Mandu Mandu Creek. The beads have been confirmed to be at least 32,000 years old, and as such are some of the oldest known jewellery to be found anywhere in the world.
Jade also had an example of a fossilised megaladon tooth that had been found in the area - apparently they're not all that uncommon a find, and it was VERY cool!!
At the every end of the tour Jade even let the kids have a turn steering the boat, which was entertaining and terrifying all at once!
After the tour we drove back up the coast and dropped in at Osprey Bay for another quick swim and snorkel. As with all of the beaches along the cost it was just stunning!
Our next big adventure was a trip to 5 finger reef, a few kilometres south of Coral Bay. This time we did brave some 4WD-ing, the wisdom of which we were quickly questioning!
I'm not going to lie, I was freaking out pretty hardcore, and it did take us as while to work out how to get our way out of the sand - but between youtube and maxtrax we managed it eventually.
Back in the caravan park the girls had one final swim while I did some blogging, and the handiest of men Bob sorted out our cracked grey water pipe!
