The kids were up and out of bed, playing with Kai and Morgan on a windy morning – exploring the camp site. The adults stumbled out of bed and packed up – there may have been a hint of competition about the packing - and we were back on the road to Exmouth. The drive was fun though as we were slinging commentary backwards and forwards between the Williams and Bremmer cars via the UHF radios along the way.
The sea hid itself from view for the vast majority of the drive to up the peninsula. We started to wonder where we were and if there really was a sea there at all. Termite mounds made a triumphant return in the landscape and the cattle, wild and farmed, had been replaced with goats. Goats have much more street smarts than cows we discovered. We eventually arrived at Exmouth and booked into the Big 4 caravan park there, much to the kid's delight. After ½ hour of mucking around and debate over whether the sites we had been allocated were appropriate or not (it is hard not to be offended when you arrived and are granted two sites immediately next to the toilet block when there are many other grassy, shady sites sitting mockingly empty!), and weighing up all the factors, we settled on a couple of sites near the salubrious camp kitchen. Kel took the kids to the pool, which looked lovely but was freezing. Spoiled by warm oceans, the kids quickly tired of this and started to chase each other around the pool area. A bowl of oranges came to grief, following an attack with malicious intent. The cruel and unusual (and highly amusing) punishment of washing oranges in the camp kitchen followed. The night wrapped up with a kids movie and some cake baking!! (Kel clearly misses her oven!).
Next morning we got prepared for some pretty rough camping out at Ningaloo Reef in the Cape Range National Park. A little perturbed by the ‘no bookings taken’ camping scenario (or the alternative to book 48hrs in advance) we tried to get away early in the morning. Apparently, sites are allocated at the gate and it is first in first served for the non-bookable ones. We crossed our fingers that people were returning home (it was the end of the school holidays) and set off.
Made a quick stop in Exmount on the way - oh yeah we are back on the Big Things map. Here is a conundrum - is a Big Thing qualified to be a Big Thing if it is infact smaller than the thing it represents? Ningaloo is famous for its Whale Sharks, who visit in winter. This year they had an extended season and according to the locals we missed them by only two weeks.
We shot over to the Cape Range National Park, past the extremely tall naval radio array and the lighthouse and snapped up the last two sites at the eight site ‘Lakeside’ camping spot – about halfway inside the park. Our camp host, a volunteer that gets to hang out for free in exchange for monitoring numbers and collecting fees, was a fellow in his early fifties called Colin, who Rich learned pretty much a minute after meeting him was big into kite-surfing. Rich struck up a deal with Colin for kite surfing lessons with payment to be made in bottles of wine.
We set up camp at the windy but beautiful Lakeside spot, marvelling at the bright blue water, while a big kangaroo looked on.
Kel headed back into town to get some shopping and find a JP to get herself out of Jury Duty (that’s a whole saga on its own), while Rich looked after the kids and got his first kite surfing lesson using the training kite on the beach under the tutelage of the ever watchful Colin. Colin was impressed with Rich’s skills and invited him to try the larger real kite later in the day over at Ned’s Beach where Colin was planning to go kite-surfing.
After much waiting and endless “When are Kai and Morgan getting here?” questions from the kids, the Bremmers finally arrived at about 3pm. Kel arrived from her errands soon after. Kel went into teacher mode and got the kids doing some schoolwork while Rich and the Bremmers headed over to Ned’s Beach. Rich had his second lesson, this time controlling the kite and body dragging through the water, while John practiced on the training kite. Although this also went very well, it did end with Rich needing to be ‘rescued’ after the kite crashed and deflated while he was in the ocean.
We had dinner and then went turtle / crab hunting – but the wind and cool night time temperature made it a little uncomfortable outside – we had now all pulled our jumpers and long pants out of storage.
After a gusty night, we woke up and after breakfast agreed to check out the visitors centre and then head over to Turquoise Bay. Turquoise Bay was truly beautiful – with amazing blue, crystal clear water and white sand. It was also very well protected from the wind. The coral and fish were also pretty good and the kids and adults all had a great time playing in and out of the water.
After Turquoise Bay and back at the camp, Rich was sniffing around for another Kite Surfing lesson, but instead was invited by Colin to try out his catamaran. Rich and John hopped on and took the cat out into the bay. Both were a bit rusty but were able to put it together and make a few gybes and make themselves look good in front of their wives, that was until they nearly nosedived the catamaran. Upon their successful return to shore – putting the boat in exactly the right spot, Colin told them that their catamaran skills were ‘atrocious’. We all headed over to ‘happy hour’ where we watched videos of Colin catarmaraning ‘the right way’, and kitesurfing etc., and then had a movie night in the Bremmer’s caravan.
On our third day, after an unsuccessful attempt at snorkelling in the Lakeside area, Rich convinced Kel and the kids to accompany him to Sandy Bay, near the end of the park, where Rich had learned Colin would spend the morning kite surfing. Colin had mentioned that he would give Rich another lesson at the end of his session. We arrived and Kel and the kids played in the lovely blue water while Rich was dragged (sometimes in control and other times not) through the water by the kite. Colin thought Rich was doing well and strapped the board to his feet to try as well. After several spectacular faceplants, Rich was able to put it all together and get to his feet several times – albeit for only a couple of seconds each time, but it was good progress.
Back at camp in the afternoon, Kai had been bugging his dad to go fishing. John and Rich strung all the fishing rods and they all went for a fish out on the beach. After snagging themselves on the reef / rocks a few times, Kai yelled out he had something on his line (surely just another snag) – but then wound in a little beauty! Kai was now more keen than ever.
Next morning, Kel got up early and also took advantage of Colin's toys, borrowing the sea kayak and setting off in search of turtles. There had been a few turtles sightings between our group over the last couple of days. As it turned out, paddling and staying upright in the windy conditions required a fair bit of concentration!
Kai was again bugging his dad to go fishing again, but John had to run some errands in town so couldn’t take him. Rich offered to take all the kids fishing again – so off they went. After fishing for around five hours in beautiful, calm conditions, Kai was the one getting all the luck, landing two decent sized fish while everyone else watched on. Rich was ready to call it a day, but was holding Ariel’s little pink rod (as she had lost interest hours ago) when suddenly, SUCCESS, a little tiddler! Even though Dylan was unlucky this day, he really enjoyed his morning fishing. When it was time to call him in for lunch after five hours of fishing he was reluctant to come. Ariel had bursts of interest – usually when somebody caught something – but she still enjoyed this experience too. The stingrays sliding around the sandy shallows provided some excitement too.
This was our last night, so after dinner we decided to see if we could find any turtles coming onto the beach - apparently it is mating season woohoo. We drove to the north end of the park, past hundreds of kangaroos all standing at the side of the road in the darkness. John had had an unfortunate encounter with a kangaroo a couple of nights ago. Suffice to say that with John’s accident fresh in our mind – we drove veeeeerrrrrrry slooowwwlly. Kel ‘roo whispered’ from the driver’s seat. We arrived at our destination – but after a walk along the beach we unfortunately unable to locate any of the turtles.
Next morning was Kel’s birthday, so after the customary present opening, with very original presents from the visitor’s centre, Rich cooked up a ‘big breakfast’ that we all shared.
We had to say goodbye to our friends again, they were going to stick around for another day at Ningaloo, but we had to get on the road and move south to Coral Bay. So after brekky we packed up and said our goodbyes, watching our spot being taken as we pulled away. Kel used her birthday privileges to insist on returning to Sandy Bay to check for Ariel’s hat. Ah, success, there it was, wedged on a pole with all its hat pins in place – thoughtfully placed there by a kind stranger.
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