Exmouth, Australia

So yesterday was a huge bucket list tick off day. This holiday has been quite expensive when you consider what we covered in Europe – twice as far away and with less favourable currency – but we wanted to do this so have just booked and setting out to enjoy. I have purposefully not even tallied up the holiday yet as I am not ready to know! We had a great sleep and woke up with a few ‘activated’ muscle pains and me with heaps of bruises up my arms, legs and body from I think my efforts to get back up on the boat. I feel these pains and bruises were well earnt, and I would do it all again without hesitation.

We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast in our bbq area, with Vernon very capably taking charge of the bbq, then set off to the information centre to pick up a second set of snorkel gear – which was courtesy of the Whale Shark swim people for the duration of our stay. We then did a bit more shopping for food and returned home for a light lunch before heading around the peninsular, past the jetty from yesterday and entered Cape Range Range National Park to arrive about 40 minutes later at Turquoise Bay. Turquoise bay is on the Coral Coast, and also on the edge of Ningaloo reef. This means you can step off the beach and snorkel in the shallows of the reef. It is also considered one of the prettiest beaches Australia has to offer – and when we saw it I was certainly captivated.

We arrived at about 2pm, it was still very warm and there was ************e there. You walk over the sand due and see the most beautiful aqua blue water fringed by off-white sand – which is my idea of paradise. We quickly dumped our gear, grabbed cameras and enjoyed the next hour or so in the warm water, and then drying off on the sand. There were quite a few fish, Vern saw a turtle and I just rolled around in the water with delight like a dugong (sea cow) beaming with pleasure from utter sensory nirvana.

Whilst it is still very warm, it is also winter and the sun started its decent on the horizon so we needed to head towards home to avoid the sunset and all the kangaroos on the road. We saw so many dead ones on the side – and loads of live ones on the way in. So we commenced our drive home with both of us constantly scanning the side of the road for Kangaroos who may be heading to cross. Then we spotted something quite large on the side of the road, and pulled over quickly to photograph it. It was a large Wedge Tailed Eagle, which is the largest bird of prey in Australia. Their wing span is about 6 ft, and they weigh up to 6kg. To me it looked bigger than a goose and rather beautiful with its golden eyes and chocolate, tan, and beige feathers. It looked almost prehistoric with feathered legs. It allowed some reasonably close distance between us which enabled me to get some great shots with my zoom.

As we got closer to the point of the peninsular the sun was about to set so we went up to the hill where the old lighthouse is to capture the evening show. Apparently when it was built in 1912 it caused more accidents than not due to it being too far inland, and boats getting confused. Accordingly its service didn’t last long – however it is on a good high place to get great views of both sunset and sunrise. You also see the 13 VLF towers of the naval base. We got told that the American Navy considers thirteen an unlucky number, so the first one is called tower zero. It was one of the tallest man made structures in the Southern Hemisphere for many years – 387m which is just a bit taller than the Empire State building. It was a beautiful end to the day watching the golden glow of the sky as the sun sunk into the sea on one side – and the pink and blue glow this provided on the horizon to the east.

We self catered for dinner with some very delicious pork and lamb chops and salad, complimented by a just as fine Australian apple cider. We are feeling so great as our bodies recharge in this warm, relaxed environment.