Coral Bay - Port Hedland

The past week we explored, among other things, the underwater world of Western Australia. We travelled from Carnarvon to Port Hedland (about 1400 km). We have been to (and camped on) amazing beaches, snorkeled with sharks, rays, incredible fish and beautiful coral. It is no wonder why they call this part of Australia the 'turquoise coast'. When on the road, we have also passed many mining sites and mining villages, which is typical for this part of Australia. As Erik often says: "this is real life Discovery Channel!" ;-) Below we will add an overview on the map of this part of our road trip in order to give you an idea where we are at this moment:

When we were writing our previous blog post, we just came back from our 4x4 adventure to the biggest rock in the world: Mount Augustus. Below the picture we took of Mount Augustus at sunrise (at 5 am), just before we headed back to Carnarvon (450 km).

Sunrise at Mount Augustus

Eight hours later, we were back at Carnarvon with our 'hubby'. It was an amazing car, we liked the power of this mining 'monster' on the offroad tracks. Nevertheless, when we were at the petrol station, we also realized how fuel consuming this car was. Or in other words: how fuel efficient our small camper van is... ;-)

It took us ages to fill up the tanks... ;-) 

Downside of a V8 4.2 liter turbo... ;-)

We stayed one day in Carnarvon after which we headed north to Coral Bay. We stayed four nights in this nice small town. We enjoyed the beautiful beach and snorkeled in the bay.

Entering the beach in Coral Bay

Beautiful blue sea

Enjoying a day on the beach

White beaches and the blue sea

Snorkeling in Coral Bay

We saw so many fish!

As many of you know, Erik's favorite meal is to prepare something on the barbecue. Since the camp kitchen in Coral Bay had three barbecues, we used the barbie many times! ;-)

T-Bone steak

Fish filet from the barbecue

We also made a nice hike along the dunes (where we also picked up some geocaches!) in Coral Bay and we passed a shark sanctuary as well.

Spotting some rays and sharks

Steep climb, but worth the view!

Shark sanctuary

The absolute highlight of the past week as a full day snorkel trip to the Ningaloo reef. We met the owner of Ningaloo Marine Interactions (Fraser) in the pizzeria of Coral Bay. Fraser told us that he is doing a PhD studying the manta rays, and besides that, he is running a business showing tourists the beauty of the Ningaloo reef. He could tell so passionate about his work that we decided to book a tour with him, and it was the best decision we made! We were with a group of 10 persons and we had so much fun! The crew was very experienced, introduced us about the amazing wildlife and we visited many snorkel sites. We saw reef sharks, a manta ray, dolphins, turtle, sting ray, lion fish, beautiful coral and we even snorkeled with a tiger shark! 

Ready for a full day of snorkeling!

Totally excited to go into the water ;-)

Ready? Go!!

Beautiful clam

Coral in many different colors

Hello! :-)

Beautiful fish

Big and small, and so many colors!

There he is: the manta ray!

The manta ray we snorkeled with was about three meters wide, but they can reach up to seven. It is amazing to see how they actually 'fly' in the water. 

Erik on expedition

Although we did not expect to see so many sharks, when we snorkeled above the 'cleaning station' of reef sharks, we saw at least 20 of them. At this place, they get 'cleaned' of parasites, dead skin cells and bacteria. The movie below shows what we saw when we were floating above the reef sharks. 

Picture of the reef sharks

Very old turtle

Wobbegong shark

Our group snorkeling towards the tiger shark

Tiger shark!!! 

Lion fish

Our group: such nice people

Ready for the last snorkel? Yes! :)

Erik enjoying swimming with the fish

Warming up with a warm cup of tea

After this amazing tour we had dinner with an Ozzie guy and American girl who joined the same tour. The next day we drove to Exmouth. On our way, we saw many termite hills. 

Picknick time! 

Some termite hills are really big

Landscape between Coral Bay and Exmouth

In Exmouth we had lunch at a very nice bakery and we did our (X-mass) shopping in the supermarket for the next couple of days, because we planned to camp on the beach and stay in Cape Range National Park. We drove from Exmouth to the entrance of Cape Range, payed our camping fees at the 'honesty box' and drove to the camp at Osprey Bay. On our way, we spotted many kangaroos! 

Mom kangaroo with her small kid

Cutie

Preparing dinner at Osprey Bay Camp

Unfortunately no bbq at this camp... ;-) 

The next day it was quite cloudy and that's why we decided to make some hikes in the National Park. Unfortunately no clear blue skies on the pictures, but the temperature was nice for this exercise. We started with the Yardie Gorge trail with spectacular views and we saw some nice wildlife along the way.

Start of the walking trail

Spot Erik ;-)

We made it!

Rewarding view at the top

Quite high cliffs...

Large nest

After this hike we made ourselves lunch at Sandy Bay and in the afternoon we made another hike, the Mandu Mandu walk. The start of this hike was a little boring, but we were rewarded amazing views once we climbed out of the gorge. It is unbelievable that with heavy rain the whole gorge can be filled with water.

River bedding (now walking trail) 

Wallaby

Having a good time

View on the river bedding all the way to the sea

Big kangaroo collecting his X-mass dinner

After our hike we drove to a bush camp at Kurrajong, where we prepared our dinner and watched the sunset.

Preparing pre-X-mass dinner

Merry X-mass!

The next day we woke up with a clear blue sky, and that meant: snorkeling and beach-time! Not a bad activity on Christmas day. ;-) On the beach, we enjoyed watching the crabs digging their holes and we even saw a turtle swimming by.

Look at the ball of sand in his claw

Life's a beach

Turtle!

Since there are many beaches along the west coast of Exmouth, we decided to move on to the next one. We went to Oyster Stacks for some snorkeling. The day before we already looked up when it was high tide, since it was only possible to go snorkeling here when the water level is high enough.

Erik at Oyster Stacks

So beautiful!

These fish were huge!

Tiny blue anemonefish in the coral

After this nice stop, we headed to another beach, Turquose Bay. Here we made ourselves lunch (pancakes!) and were surprised by the amount of people here. Apparently all Ozzies celebrate X-mass on this beach in Exmouth. :-) It was however a lovely beach, and the name of the Bay is well chosen. 

Pancake time!

The water is so blue!

At this beach, we went into the water for a snorkel as well. The water was clear blue and we saw many fish. We also saw two reef sharks: one was swimming and the other one was chilling in the sand. However, it felt so different not having a guide next to you. :-p

Me is happy

Turquose Bay

After a full day on the beach (and two days on a bush camp without a shower), we decided to stay at a caravan park and to make our X-mass dinner there. In Western Australia, the most beautiful places to camp are always with limited facilities (only a toilet and some picknick tables). There's no electricity or running water, you have to be self-contained. However, the views and locations are amazing. We really like these bush camps, but after one or two nights we value the luxury of a camp site with running water (a shower!), a camp kitchen, barbecue and electricity (to recharge our phone). Our X-mass dinner this year was a tuna mac'n cheese, and it tasted delicious!

Main course X-mass dinner 

No barbecue, haha!

After our dinner we watched the sunset at the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse and we did an attempt to see the turtle nesting on the beach. Unfortunately, and maybe due to the full moon, we did not see any turtles coming out of the water. However, it was still very nice to watch the stars and be on the beach during X-mass. 

Sunset at the lighthouse

The next morning, we were welcomed on our camp site by an emu. These animals are so funny. :-)

Shalom emu!

After some shopping in Exmouth, we visited the other side of Cape Range National Park. We took the Charles Knife Gorge Road, which was already gorgeous ;-) in itself. The road was very steep and we felt like we were in the Alps in that sense. The views were amazing and cannot be captured in a picture. In reality, it was so immense and impressive. We parked our van near the Thomas Carter Lookout and made a hike (Badjirra loop walk trail) to the Shothole Lookout. Although it was very hot (about 35 degrees), it was definitely worth it. We took 4 liters of water with us, two sandwiches of the bakery and we had a lot of fun!

View on the way up

Start of the walking trail

Nice route

Almost at the canyon

Amazing view and great spot for our lunch

We felt so small in this rough environment

View from Shothole Lookout 

On our way down

View from the other side

After this nice hike we hit the road again. Since our next destination, Point Samson, was about 600 km away, we camped at a 24h rest area on the side of the road with some other backpackers after about 250 km.

Roadtrippin'

Cooking dinner at the rest area

The next day we continued driving and of course we made many stops along the way for a coffee, a picknick in order to make the long drive more comfortable. :-)

Picknick time!

In the afternoon we arrived at Point Samson where we checked-in at a campsite. We enjoyed the sunset with a nice Australian pale ale beer. :-)

Enjoying the sunset

Australian pale ale

The next day we took it easy and we looked around in Point Samson, Wickham and Cossack. In this area, there is a lot of mining activity and we felt like driving around in 

Quite a big mining truck

Locomotive

Cossack mining town

Mining site

Train station at mining site

Also along the way, we saw some trains coming from the mining sites with so many wagons. The train can have a total length of 2.5 km! It's unbelievable.  

Iron ore (used to make steal)

Mining site 

After looking around in these interesting towns, we moved on to our next destination: Port Hedland (and that's where we are right now). The drive was not so long this time, about 200 km, and very beautiful. We made a stop at a road house for a nice and cold drink (and one second we felt like we are in the U.S.A.). The temperature is going up the further north we go (between 35 and 45 degrees)!

Road between Point Samson and Port Hedland

Roadhouse

One of the many road trains

Port Hedland is also a mining town and has a harbor to transport all the raw materials (iron ore, salt, etc). Since it is holiday season, there was not much to do and the town was very empty. We made a short walk through the town, including the harbor and checked-in at our camp site.

Harbor of Port Hedland

Many large ships (felt a bit like Rotterdam harbor)

Our original plan was to drive all the way up north to Broome, but we decided to go from here (Port Hedland) to Karinjini National Park, and drive further down south via the outback all the way to the south coast of Australia (about 2.000 km). We will be celebrating New Years Eve in Karijini (we booked for two nights an eco lodge tent: we go 'glamping'!). Since this National Park is really in the middle of nowhere, this means that we will not have reception with our phone. Unfortunately, we won't be able to send or receive new year wishes. Therefore: we would like to wish all of you all the best for the new year!!   

Big hugs and (new year's) kisses, 

Erik & Annemarie