Australia’s Coral Coast and Ningaloo Reef

We left Sydney and the Surry Hills neighborhood for a flight across the vast hinterlands of Australia to Perth and Western Australia.  Our possessions continue to be pared down from all that we brought from Sarasota ten months ago.  All that is left are two backpacks and a roller-board…and our two day packs :).  The flight on Virgin Australia is a long one, just at five hours.  We have thirty days to explore Western Australia which frankly is not enough, but we will see what we can do!

dsc02973We are taking an 11 day road trip north along the Western Australian coast to Exmouth.  The drive is called by some the 11 day ultimate road trip It weaves from Perth to Exmouth, through Western Australia’s beautiful Coral Coast. …from trekking through the awesome gorges and ocean front at Kalbarri, hanging out with the 3.5 billion year old stromatolites at Hamelin Pools, to swimming with the sea life along Ningaloo Reef!

Our first stop for a night is just north of Perth in Hillarys.  It is a cold, windy, storming night, so no dinner along the harbor here tonight!  We did enjoy an Indian dinner at Angihiri.  I tried a dish I haven’t had before, Lamb Rara…perfect heat!  After a great dinner we headed back home to power up the heat as we are looking for a low in the upper 40s!

Day 1 – Perth to Geraldton

Hangover Bay
Hangover Bay
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The Pinnacles

It is a cloudy and very windy 58 degree morning as we leave Hillarys for the 454 km drive north up the coast.  The waves along the coast are raging.  We fueled up at the Voyage Kitchen for breakfast with the tasty veggie board selection! An excellent interesting place with good food and coffee.

We made a brief stop at Hangover Bay…had too!  A beautiful spot with enormous pure white sand dunes and beaches.  Australia does everything large… like these dunes!  But then just another 1km up the road brought us to the Pinnacles….and no pun intended, but it was “the pinnacle”, or damn close to it.  I think this is one of the most interesting sites in Australia.  These limestone formations are just miles from the Indian Ocean in an area that quickly turns to desert. There are a few theories as to how they were formed.  They are made of limestone derived from seashells and marine life many years ago.  There seem to be thousands of them interspersed across the desert.  It is less than a 2km drive through this area but it took us over an hour and many rolls of film (at least quite a bit of the memory card). 

dsc04107 dsc04109Next stop, the very small town of Cervantes.  This area is know for the Western Australia Indian Ocean rock lobster.  A rock lobster processing plant is here and attached to it is the Lobster Shack, a very popular spot.  Many people told us to visit here so we made the obligatory stop and split a lobster.  Not the Maine lobster we love, but more like the Caribbean lobster, yet still delicious!  

dsc02966 dsc02783Getting late in the afternoon, but time for one more stop, the Lesueur National Park.  This is an 18km drive through an interesting geologic area.  It is spring here and this area is known for its wildflowers.  There are over 900 species in the area, the most diverse area of wildflowers on earth. We may have just missed the peak but still outstanding beauty!

We end our day just north of Geraldton in Sunset Holiday Park in Sunset Beach.

Day 2 Geraldton to Carnarvon

dsc04616 dsc04278We had a good night sleep listening to the pounding surf.  Our accommodations were right on the beach.  We hit the road around 8:30 am ready (kinda) for the 490km drive north to Carnarvon. The drive passed through many wheat fields, more wildflowers, and miles and miles of scrub…reminding us a bit of the Red Centre of Australia, perhaps with a bit more vegetation.  A lot of red, a lot of iron in the soil.  The region is known for iron mining and has some of the purist iron ore in the world!  The area is absolutely vast with most of it seemingly unpopulated.  The further north we go, the more scrub, red soils and outback appearance!  We did stop in the small town of Northampton at an IGA for some snacks, lunch for later and some drinks.

dsc02990 dsc04181We pulled in relatively early to our place for the night in Carnarvon.  The Carnarvon area is known for its produce farms, mangoes, citrus, melons, and many types of vegetables.  Early in the last century, it was a stop for ships to load wool, livestock, wheat and other goods destined for Perth.  The town has the “mile long jetty” with train tracks down the center that jut out into the Indian Ocean. It was used to load and unload ships.

dsc04354We caught a beautiful sunset off of Pelican Point and a meal at the Port Hotel in this seaside town.

Day 3 Carnarvon to Exmouth

img_5428 img_5457We headed north out of Carnarvon in the morning and made about a 50km detour to the “Blowholes” where water is forced many meters up into the air through sea caves.  The landscape is amazing, comprised of ancient large pitted coral all along the coast. From here we drove south to a protected beach and an area with clear water filled with coral.  A bit too cool for me to snorkel here but the story is there are many turtles.  dsc04237We did, however, see eagles nesting on a small nearby island.  It is an isolated place, unpopulated with the exception of some beach camps that, back in the day, may have been pretty cool…now filled with a few campers.

From here, we took an 11km drive north on an unsealed road along the beautiful barren coast to a small rock marker, a memorial for the HMAD Sydney II.  The ship sank, along with a German ship, doing battle in WWII, in 1941.  All of the 600 plus Australian sailors were killed and many of the German sailors. The fact that all Australians died, and not all of the Germans who tell the story, make the story suspect of what actually happened.

dsc04260On the route back to the main road we did see feral goats perched on their rocks like bold sentries.  I thought they were cheesy statues out in the middle of nowhere, but they were the real deal.  Backtracking to Highway One, it is nearly noon before we take the turn back north for the three plus hour drive to Exmouth.  However the stop in this area was well worth it!

img_3117We bunked for the night at the Exmouth Holiday Park and had a good dinner at The Whaler, seafood gumbo with soft shell crab and red emerald snapper. We stopped at the visitor’s center to rent some fins for the next day.  A small world story…the young lady working at the visitor’s center, Ashleigh, knows a friend of Tracey’s from Streetsboro High School, Valerie.  Valerie and her husband lived in Exmouth in the early 2000’s.  Her husband, Rich, was the commander of the solar observatory here for the US military.  So we had some great recommendations for snorkeling and dinner in Exmouth and the Ningaloo Reef area.  

Days 4-5 and the Ningaloo Reef!


dsc04298-1We were on our way around 8 am to head to the Ningaloo Reef. We drove around the north part of the peninsula and back down to the south of the western coast.  We stopped at the “top” of the peninsula on the way just to get a glimpse of the vastness of nothing, but water to the north.   Just off the shore about 100 yards we saw a couple of breaching humpback whales! No whale watching boat required!

dsc03145Sandy Bay is a beautiful stop with great beaches and very few people.  We stopped here for a walk and rest on the beach before heading to the Oyster Stacks for snorkeling at high tide.  We arrived about an hour before high tide.  This was an absolutely beautiful place to snorkel!  There were many colorful corals and fish along Ningaloo Reef right off the shore!  This is one of my favorite snorkeling spots in the world now, having been to dozens of Caribbean Islands and the Great Barrier Reef.

frame-09-10-2016-09-56-51 frame-09-10-2016-11-11-03We headed down to Coral Bay about 90 minutes south of Exmouth for a couple of nights.  This area, too, has snorkeling among the coral reef right off the beach, as well as, whale watching, swimming with the humpback whales, and manta rays.  We enjoyed relaxing in this area with some walks along the beaches and turquoise waters.  The snorkeling was good at Coral Bay…swam with a turtle for a bit!  Of course we also enjoyed a couple of good dinners here of fresh seafood both at Bill’s Tavern and a beautiful dinner under the stars at Fin Cafe.

Day 6 Coral Bay to Shark Bay

dsc04508 dsc04390Up and on our way at 8 am! A long day of driving and a few stops along the way.  We made good time and cut about an hour off the drive.  We piled into Hamelin Bay at 12:15.  Wow, what a step back in time. Sort of, a cross between Green Acres, a Tim Conway skit on Carol Burnett, and a Lucy and Ethyl episode.  The Caravan Park with a few cabins were quite remarkable.  The “park” used to be a telegraph station and help launch the unmanned NASA Gemini spacecraft.  We quickly checked in, went to our “cabin” and decided to eat our lunch on the road.

img_5561 img_5571We are near the westernmost area of Australia and spent the afternoon exploring.  First stop, Shell Beach, a fantastic beach, claiming the whitest beach on earth that is the result of the cockleshell and only one of two pure shell beaches.  It is all shell, apparently 10 to 15 meters deep.

img_5582 img_5592Goulet Bluff was another scenic stop along the peninsula, then Eagle Bluff.  Just when you think you could not be amazed again, you are…again and again.  The shallow, clear, turquoise water makes this a gorgeous spot and also a good viewing area for marine life.  We were able to see a couple of shovel nose rays from above.  They look a bit like sharks but have the large ray fins up on the front of their body. 

dsc04442 dsc04454We continue to the small town of Denham, which lays claim to the westernmost pub and hotel in Australia.  The town also has old buildings, including the church made out of the cockleshells.  The scenic areas don’t quit, as we stopped by the “little lagoon” just on the north end of Denham. We didn’t make it out to Monkey Mia to see the dolphins feeding but made it to the Francois Peron National Park.  Near the entrance of the park is a former sheep station and you can tour the remnants of the station as well as the whole sheering process.   There is also a naturally heated hot tub (40 degrees Celsius) of continuously flowing artesian water on the property that you can use. 

img_5603img_5610The westernmost pub and hotel are in Denham, the Old Pub.  We stopped
in for a glass of wine and an Emu beer (delicious by the way).  We enjoyed talking to the bartender/manager, Brittany McIntosh!  We talked to Stephen, a bloke from Fremantle (originally from South London) who was working on a construction project in Denham.  He had a couple of his workers with him, both had escaped execution in Iran and had spent two years in the Mann Island refugee camp.  Terrific people we enjoyed talking to and hearing their stories.  We ended up having dinner here and enjoyed the grilled fish of the day, Barramundi.  We ended up making our drive back to Hamelin and the caravan park in the dark, dodging the kangaroo out wandering around on the dark, Western Australian roads.

dsc04387We may have saved the highlight for the end!  We joined a lecture going on at 8 pm at our caravan park that was conducted by Patricia Cox, owner of the park and a “science artist”, Ben Beefin .  They described two important aspects of the area.  First, the area is known for the Hamelin Pools that contain stromatolites.  This is one of only a couple places on earth where you can see these origins of the earth, the fossils dating back over 3 billion years ago. These bacteria, the earliest life forms on earth still grow here in waters that are two and a half times the salinity of the ocean averages.  The earth was once covered by the stromatolites that were the origin of life, converting carbon dioxide into oxygen through photosynthesis. Absolutely amazing.  

img_5617 img_5612The “museum” we were sitting in has stromatolites growing in a tank filled with the salt water.  They have been growing since 1992 in the tank and the larger ones are not much over six inches tall.  The water must be changed out with the fresh salt water from the area every two weeks as the organisms consume the salt in the water in the process.  Scientist from around the world have tried to grow these in other salt waters, without success.

img_5622The second aspect discussed was the history of this area as a telegraph station.  Early telegraph stations were needed every 100 km and this was the station for the area.  The structures still stand from the 1800s, including the one we were sitting in for the lecture.  The talk continued into the next room, reviewing many of the telegraph and telephone artifacts.

img_5626 img_5623The next morning we walked to the nearby coral shell quarry where the shell, compacted for millions of years was used in construction of some buildings around the area by early European settlers.  Finally we walked around the pool to see the incredible stromatolites.  What is equally amazing is Patricia Cox, now 66 years young runs the operations by herself with limited help.  She hosts scientists and others from around the world in the incredible, yet very modest, setting.  Unfortunately, her husband passed away over five years ago and had such passion for these phenomena.

Day 7 and 8 – Kalbarri

img_5624We had a terrific breakfast cooked by Patricia at the Hamelin Caravan Park.  She spent about 30 minutes talking to us after breakfast, despite her having to prepare for a bus tour stopping by for lunch, prepare for a new exhibit at her museum, and clean a few rooms. An amazing lady, with an incredible attitude, who had lost so much over the past several years, her husband, her home burning down, her home and her property under water for three months due to a flood in the area. 

dsc03377We pulled into Kalbarri before noon.  This gave a chance to explore the coast to the south of the town, including Natural Bridge.  The coast here rivals the Great Ocean Road…truly outstanding! The Indian Ocean was rough, as the weather had just cleared.  The rough seas apparently bring the whales closer to shore and we saw dozens of humpback whales heading south for the summer…amazing!

We headed out for dinner at 8 pm.  The local tavern was recommended for decent grub.  Ahhh, but it is Saturday night and they stopped serving food at 8 pm.  So we went down to another bar/restaurant and arrived at 8:22.  Food stopped here at 8:30.  Just made it for an order of fish and chips!

img_5642We went back to the local tavern and met some great local Aussies.  Janice a local teacher, Marg who invited us to join their table and Terry and Cheryl.  Great people and a great night!  Terry is a newly-retired lobster fisherman and showed us around his commercial fishing boat on Sunday morning.  

dsc03426 img_5656Sunday afternoon we spent exploring the incredible nearby ranges and gorges, including Z Bend and Nature’s Window.  The wildflowers here were beautiful, as well.We spent Sunday evening at Terry and Cheryl’s waterfront home enjoying great conversation and great food, beer and wine these gracious people served up!

Back to Perth 

dsc04601It is a five plus hour drive, but more views of the beautiful coast including passing by many pure white enormous  dunes and a “pink lake”  make it magical.  Hutt Lagoon is a salt lake separated by the Indian Ocean by a beach barrier and dunes and also fed partially by meteoric water.  We will spend a night near Perth as we prep for our next great road trip through Southwest Australia!  

And a few more pics from this fantastic trip!

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