Sunday 13 October 2013 - Exmouth

Sunday 13 October 2013 - Exmouth

We finally said goodbye to our home amongst the dunes. After being so slack at recording what we did, I’m going to try and list some of the highlights:

• Snorkelling – Turquoise Bay was one of the best spots, in the nice little sheltered bit. The day I did the drift on the southern side there was heaps of swell and wind, so I got a sinus cavity full of salt water. I did see some awesome bommies though! The day the wind dropped off was pretty magical too. I’d taken the girls to Turquoise Bay in the morning while Glenn took advantage of the great weather and took the boat out for some ‘serious fishing’. When we got back, we all went out in the boat and found an awesome bommie to snorkel over. Glenn wasn’t keen on the cool water, but I didn’t find it too bad. It was just magic out there and so clear that the girls could also see the fish in the water, but not quite as well as if they got in and snorkelled themselves (I’m still trying to convince Yasmin to try it!).

• Sundowners – after we’d settled in, the girls got used to heading up to ‘the tables’ for an afternoon drink. Everyone would converge from between 5-5:30 till the sun set around 6:30pm, sometimes earlier if the wind was cold. We had a really nice bbq one night, where everyone brought a salad to share but cooked their own meat. 

• The people – we met some absolutely fascinating and lovely people. A couple from Sydney, both retired; he’s Lebanese and the biggest softie with the girls, she’s an ex-teacher and a lovely combination of kindness and intelligence. They’d go to the water tap most days for an hour or so just to watch the wildlife (roos, emus and apparently echidnas but nobody we knew saw one!) and they’d go to bed in their bus around 6:30 every night. A middle-aged couple from Innisfail who’d been travelling for 16 months already after selling up their business; he’s a fridgie by trade and went fishing with Glenn a few times, she was our ‘social coordinator’ at the campground, always smiling and up for a chat. A semi-retired couple from Darwin; she’s on leave from her stressful job and he’s retired, both friendly and after spending the same amount of time at Cape Range as we did, commented on how much Sienna had changed since they first met her!

• The scenery – the range behind us has stacks of stunning little gorges carving through it and it looks a little bit different all throughout the day as the sun rises behind it and then sets over the ocean, giving it a golden hue; the reef looks magnificent in the middle of the day, especially at low tide; the low-lying scrub around the dunes where we were camped, dotted with roos and the occasional emu.

• Yardie and Pilgramunna Gorge – both stunning, although Yardie Gorge was particularly dramatic as you could see the reef from the top of it. Yasmin walked the whole way, which was quite a bit of rock clambering and challenging walking for the last bit.

• The laid-back relaxed pace. WA have camp hosts in a lot of their national park campgrounds, so everything is very orderly and civilised, without feeling too ‘managed’ and it gives the place a real sense of community.

• Taking the kids to play in the sand dunes, especially Sienna – she loves to potter!

• Watching the turtles (in close) and the whales (way out) in the water. On our last day, the wind howled in the morning, then the weather put on a show for us and Glenn took the girls fishing on the beach (boat was already packed up). Reef sharks, turtles and rays all zoomed around. Glenn caught a most delicious spangled emperor for dinner that night too!