Ningaloo Marine Park

October 2021

Exmouth, Coral Bay and Carnarvon.

Red Bluff, North of Carnarvon

Exmouth sits on the north-eastern edge of a peninsula named North-West Cape in the Exmouth Gulf. The western side is flanked by Ningaloo Marine Park and Cape Range National Park also occurs on the west – collectively known as the parks of the Coral Coast. What a team they are, both supporting unique wildlife habitats including existing and ancient reef, rugged limestone, spectacular deep gorges, cave systems and pristine beaches. Have I sold it yet? The town itself is about a 30-minute drive to some of the fantastic snorkelling beaches and Cape Range NP. Ningaloo Marine Park stretches along 260kms of coastline from Exmouth south to Red Bluff (~130km north of Carnarvon).

A handful of marine megafauna are the drawcard for many people visiting Ningaloo Marine Park including whale sharks, manta rays and humpback whales. The mighty whale shark can be seen from April – June. Following the massive spawning of coral, the world’s biggest species of fish congregate to Ningaloo to feed. Ningaloo is one of the only places they appear regularly in large numbers. Dugongs, manta rays, potato cod, sharks, dolphins, humpback whales (July – Oct migrating) and turtles can be found as well. We landed here in late October so missed the ‘big fish’.

One day 1 fishing off Town Beach Craig caught 7 large whiting with his cast net. Bait fishing turned into dinner!! We returned to camp find the Bensleys set up right next to us! Mali and Skye proceeded to play together for days. Homeschooling went out the window. We took Mali, Skye and her sister Zara on a bike ride one morning to allow Kate & Stuart to get some work done (these guys are on a spontaneous road trip and are both WFH full time!!). We explored the parks of Exmouth, including the water park which we decided was too cold given the cooler temperatures and wind in Exmouth at this time of year.

Mali and I visited the Ningaloo Aquarium and Discovery Centre. We stood in the cyclone room and experienced how loud it would have been to live through a cyclone. Captain Read wasn’t allowed to read any of the information in the discovery centre about the history of the area because Mali dragged me straight into the Aquarium. I was rather impressed, and I spent my university years working in an aquarium. It was small but the little creatures in the tiny tanks were gorgeous. Upstairs was a range of taxidermy and live reptiles, which was pretty cool. The displays were brilliant and the story of the Stefano shipwreck was eye opening. I would definitely recommend this place.

We spent the day exploring the west side of the cape. We snorkelled at Turquoise Bay (the water is still my favourite colour), which was so windy, cold and choppy Mali aborted her attempts and Craig and I tagged for our opportunity to enjoy the drift snorkel. We saw so many large, spectacularly coloured tropical fish. Sorry, no pictures as I have not been able to purchase a new gopro since Broome (long story). We laid in the warm sand, in a nook protected from the winds at Lakeside Beach and ventured up to Vlamingh Head Lighthouse offering panoramic views of the Cape (and very strong winds).

I was lucky enough to scuba dive the Navy Pier, which is one of the world’s top ten shore dives. Dive one was quite disappointing – VERY poor visibility and great difficulty keeping the dive group, and even buddies, together. Nevertheless, dive 2 was so much better. We saw schools of huge trevally and barracuda, massive cods and groupers, loads of tropical fish hanging around the structure and grey nurse, reef sharks, wobbegongs, moray eels, nudibranchs and octopus. Upon surfacing we could see something splashing around in front of us – turned out it was 2 turtles mating. Yahoo!!

We also visited Yardie Creek (90km from Exmouth around the other side of the Cape), which is a spectacular gorge where colonies of black-flanked-rock-wallabies camouflage into the canyon walls. To no surprise at all, Mali spots one jumping about and spends considerable time explaining to her two blind parents where it is – perhaps this old biologist needs to retire. We also accessed the opposite side of this NP from the Exmouth side a few days later with our new friends, the Bensleys. About 20kms south of Exmouth is Charles Knife Canyon Road and Shothole Canyon Road. This area was so spectacular and given we had no idea what to expect we were pleasantly surprised. Charles Knife Canyon Road winds up to the top of the range and each lookout just got better and better. Sections where you could walk out to the cliff edge and probably slip off, unlike more populated states in Australia, were not fenced or bordered off. There was simply a sign stating the obvious. Several lookouts along Charles Knife Canyon Road gave spectacular views of the gorge with its stunning ruggedness. Just north is Shothole Canyon Road (required a 4WD) which winds its way along a very rocky track to a small picnic area with a stunning lookout. The scenery was spectacular. We realised the sun was setting so we scampered off to the Whalebone Brewing Company for the best local pizza.

Exmouth is full of marine wildlife tour operators and there is a lot of construction in building new houses. There is also a school and a thriving little community. I have a feeling we may be back next winter.

Only 150km south we moved on to Coral Bay, a small coastal settlement focused on wildlife tourism. Our campsite was about 50m from the beautiful, calm turquoise beach so immediately we donned our wetsuits and headed across for a snorkel. It was super windy but the snorkeling right off the beach was great! Have I mentioned how windy it is? Well, they call it Blovember for a reason and it is now November so we lucked out on the timing. We walked up the beach to the shark nursery where about 20 odd baby sharks were swimming in the shallows. A short drive up and over the dunes brought us to Five Hands, which is hands down the best snorkel site so far. I spent 20 minutes watching an octopus waiting for a fish to get close enough to gobble up – clearly the octopus has more patience than me (besides, I was getting cold bobbing up and down on the surface). Coral Bay was fairly booked out so we only managed to squeeze in 2 nights.

Another 240km south and we arrived in Carnarvon, a small town on the mouth of the Gasgoyne River and sitting right in between Ningaloo Marine Park to the north and Shark Bay Marine Park to the south. We enjoyed what the locals affectionately call the ‘fruit Loop’ and tasted a lot of the local produce – the river is almost completely dry but the farms are fed by ground water. We visited the Space and Technology Museum and this was a highlight. On 21 July 1969, the day of the Apollo 11 moon landing, the Casshorn antenna which stands beside the OTC Dish relayed Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon from NASA’s Honey Suckle Creek Tracking Station to Perth’s TV audience via Moree earth station – the first live telecast into Western Australia. The Carnarvon Tracking Station (no longer standing) was built to support NASA’s Gemini, Apollo and Skylab programs. It was the last station to communicate with the space capsules leaving the earth’s orbit, and the last to make contact before splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. At the height of the operation it had a staff of 220 people. The old machinery used back in the 60s and the interactive activities for kids was outstanding. We spent almost 3 hours here.

We left the caravan and went on a one-night camping trip up to Red Bluff (130km north) - an absolutely incredible place. Craig has wanted to surf here for years and was thrilled to be able to surf here. The break was so far away I struggled to determined which surfer was Craig with the binoculars. We drove further north to Quobba Station and Gnaraloo Bay for a snorkel and some lunch. The camp site was so rugged, rocky and remote but simply beautiful. The landscape here continues to astound me. Breathtaking rocky slopes and cliffs, white sandy beaches and spectacular blue turquoise ocean are nothing like I have ever seen on the east coast.