From Tom Price after our mine tour we headed West.
Thru Paraburdoo (great names!) another mining town.
We had a free camp at Beasley River (of course no water)
The next day we continued on to Exmouth out on the West Coast.
Thru the widflowers.
Along the airstrip (road) that can be used by the fying Doctor aircraft.
We thought we might stay here but we may have been given a job.
Into Exmouth a town with a WWII history but now more a tourist centre.
Exmouth is the gateway to Cape Range NP and the northern end of the famous Ningaloo Reef.
Yardie Creek at the southern end of the Cape Range road.
Great white sandy beaches for swimming and snorkelling.
Lots of wildlife around. This Perenitie Monitor Lizard was about 1.5 mtr long.
Just magic.
As I said WWII history and there is this huge low frequency radio station at Exmouth.
Used for transmissions to submarines.
The Park has been 1080'ed for fox and feral cats. Both a threat to turtles that nest on the beaches.
Apparently the local wildlife is fairly resilient to 1080 (roos, emus lizards etc)
A turtle resting hole on a beach. Not nesting time now.
The wreck of the Matilda a 1907 cattle ship just off shore on the reef.
Lots of these Corellas at our camp site at Cape Range NP.
We did lots of snorkelling here but sorry no photos.
From Exmouth we headed south to Coral Bay.
A busy camp here but a good site.
Coral Bay a tourist town at the place where the Ningaloo Reef is very close to the shore.
Swimming and snorkelling from the beaches just magic. We were here for 4 days and did snorkelling everyday. We saw rays, turtles and the full range of Nimo's. Also great coral formations.
We did a trip in a glass bottom boat and a snorkel on the outer reef.
Great sunsets again.
After 4 days at Coral Bay we headed south again to Carnavon.
Boring flat country but still plenty of these.
Lots of wildflowers also.
Carnarvon is the vegetable growing region of WA.
Also an old satellite station once used by NASA.
And a fishing harbour.
We took a day trip north to a place called the Blowholes.
Thru very flat a salty country. Rio Tinto has a salt mine out here.
Called the blowholes for obvious reasons. Huge cliffs all along the coast.
But flat inland!
For about 1hr we followed these 2 adult and 1 baby Humpback whale along the shore.
At times the whales were less than 50mtrs away. A real thrill, but, sorry, no good photos!
The power companies attach these wheels to the powerpoles for the birds to nest in.
That's it till next week.
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