8/8/2015
Took it very easy in the
morning, enjoying the bacon & eggs and BP coffee, charging up all
my devices, sorting through all the photos from Karijini and Mount
Bruce and uploading the huge blog post. Had a lovely chat with two
young women, both in high visibility work cloths (Saturday morning!).
Turned out both are working as field technicians for an FMG
exploration team in the Pilbara. They, together with some drillers
and other crew are working on FMGs various leases all around the
Pilbara. Two weeks on, one week off for the length of the exploration
campaign, think it was from April to November. They don't see the
office in Perth at all, what a job!
Later on I spoke to one of
the owners of the station and learned a bit more about it.
The drive towards the
coast was quite nice, quickly stopping at Nanutara Road house for a
coffee to keep the energy levels up.
The landscape was changing
dramatically – from the red, hilly and rocky Pilbara to the flat
Gascoygne region. I pulled into Bullara Station for the night – a
very interesting place! Laid back, working cattle station again, but
everything looks like it is from the early 1900s. The 'hot' shower
works with a wood fired burner next to it (or not!), the main meeting
place is a campfire or on this particular night the old shearers
shed. They had a BYO meet up in the evening as well and were roasting
to lambs on a spit.
I joined in and had a
lively conversation with some true Australians – mostly in their
50s and 60s. The roast was absolutely sensational, and I had some
despite having had steak with freshly caught Exmouth prawns (gifted
to me by the lady cooking next to me!) and a huge bowl of salad in
the late afternoon.
In addition, I managed to
drink the whole bottle of wine that I brought to the shed, not really
noticing it before it ran dry. As mentioned above, I had a great time
with lovely people indulging in some open and honest conversations,
so no regret there.
That night I clearly felt
that my body does not like to be poisoned by alcohol at all. Dry
mouth despite drinking heaps of water and a rough hangover when
waking up.
Distance traveled: 368km
9/8/2015
Two of the other campers
here on the station have a professional coffee van setup and were
selling coffee – just next to my spot. Happy days as the coffee was
really good too. Enjoyed the warmth it brought along as it was windy
and cool in the morning. Could only leave after I had a second
coffee, best bought coffee for many thousand kilometers.
Continued on to Exmouth to
visit the information center to get some local knowledge for this
area. Booked a boat dive trip for tomorrow, booked a camp site (all 4
campsites are almost at capacity!) and got a map and tips for the
amazing Cape Range National Park.
Drove to the national park
(huge!) and went snorkeling at two different sites: Turquoise bay and
Lakeside. Both were amazing, but due to the low tide I was almost too
close to the coral for my taste at Turquoise bay. I saw two turtles
separate from each other, both were staying really close for several
minutes allowing me to have a good look at them. Apart from them and
wonderful corals I could see masses of fish, from small to large,
pristine white to neon and really colourful. Outstanding places for
snorkeling!
The Cape Range National
Park is very long and they got about 10 or more nice beaches to
visit. Visited several of them that were recommended to me and then
had to start driving back to Exmouth as I was warned several times
about the amount of wildlife on or next to the road at dusk in this
area.
When I came back to
Exmouth and had some phone reception again, I got he bad news that
tomorrows dive trip is canceled due to a strong wind warning. Bummer.
At the camp kitchen I met
Thomas, a German teacher on a sabbatical who is traveling on a
motorbike and had some electrical issues yesterday and Simon, an 28
year old Austrian (!) who used to be in the Austrian military for 5
years and spent 3 years abroad on various campaigns for the UN. He is
4 wheel driving around Australia to unwind and get back to normal
life. Heaps of interesting and funny stories this evening, I
thoroughly enjoyed it!
Distance traveled: 286km
10/8/2015
Woke up and felt the
strong wind shaking the van. Went back to the information center to
get the refund for the dive trip that was canceled and informed
myself about other possibilities. I've decided to book the dives in
Coral Bay for tomorrow as Christine was able to book me a spot in
Coral Bay Caravan park for tomorrow as well. Funny enough, the
caravan parks in Coral Bay are even more pricey than in Exmouth.
I saw a a lot of wildlife
on my drive to Vlamingh Head lighthouse, the SS Mildura shipwreck and
Bundegi beach today and saw the huge Naval Communication Station
Harold E Holt, very low frequency transmitter and antenna system.
Some of the antennas are 387m high!
There were a lot of wild
emus next to the road, huge wedge tailed eagles and ospreys (look
really small next to a fully grown eagle) in the air. Coincidentally,
I met Thomas the German on his BMW bike at the beach near the SS
Mildura Wreck.
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| Not too many European number plates can be seen over here! |
Exmouth is famous for the
Navy Pier dive – a land based dive ranked among the top 10 dives
along the pier where you can see huge groupers, grey nurse sharks,
coral trout, angelfish, butterflyfish, moorish idols, bannerfish and
more. Unfortunately, the pier was partially destroyed this year in
March by cyclone Olwyn and is not reopened yet for diving. The other
thing Exmouth, or the Ningaloo Reef in total, is famous for are the
whale shark. It is already very late in the season and they haven't
seen any for almost a week, so I'll have to give snorkeling with the
largest fish in the world a miss. This time!
Had a quiet afternoon,
enjoying some coffee, doing some shopping, reading and listening to
some rewild yourself podcasts. The harsh wind and the cloudy sky made
snorkeling not too inviting.
Distance traveled: 58km
11/8/2015
Super early start to drive
the roughly 2 hours to Coral Bay and be there in time for the dive
trip. Very windy again, beautiful sky full of stars in the morning
when I left and a nice sunrise while driving. The wildlife seemed to
hide from the wind too, the only two close encounters I had were
sheep near Learmonth airport – both times the whole flock of sheep
crossed the road, but as I saw them from a distance, I just lifted
the foot off the gas and made it without hassle.
Met Niall again, the
Englishman who was supposed to dive in Exmouth on the same trip as I,
but which was canceled. We had a good chat and subsequently teamed up
as dive buddies. He's in his late forties and has been living in
Melbourne for some years. These dives were the first ones after his
open water course. They gave us the thickest wetsuits they could
find, but it was still bloody cold on the boat and in the water. The
strong wind made it really uncomfortable and the water was only 20
degrees. BUT, the dives were sensational to say the least. The
Ningaloo Reef is beautiful, very dense coral growth, a lot of
wildlife and good visibility underwater. During the first dive, I saw
two green turtles, both which were asleep, hidden between corals.
There were swarms of fish, very colorful. The hard corals, some of
them looking like interlocked antlers with pointy, blue ends, provide
great hiding places for a lot of little fish. The parrot fish were
active munching away on the corals and producing sand, making the now
already familiar biting noise. The dive was quite shallow but that
allowed us to be down there for 47 minutes, and I had still more than
100 bar in my tank. Niall was struggling a bit – had too much
positive buoyancy and used his hands way too much for swimming, which
I mentioned to him to help him conserve more air.
Back on board the hot
instant coffee and tea was a treat to get some warmth back into our
bodies. The skipper moved us out further to get to the spots were the
manta rays were located by the little observation plane. We jumped in
the water and floated a few meters above a big manta for a few
minutes. The visibility away from the protecting reef was poor and
the manta not motivated to interact or leave the bottom, so we only
saw the dark shape of it looking down. We got back on board the boat,
went to another spot and tried it two more times, but without
success. The were just not into it today. Too bad.
After some cold cuts and
salads for lunch, the boat moved back to the reef and we did our
second dive. This one blew every other dive I've done so far out of
the water: huge swarms of fish, trevally that were schooling, at
least three quite big grey reef sharks close to the cleaning station,
us swimming through thousands of little fish and all in very clear
water. Again, only a shallow 10.3m dive, but 48 minutes of pure
excitement (including the only 20 degrees cold water). Niall was
doing a lot better at this dive as he got the right buoyancy and
didn't have to fight to stay neutral in the water as much. I would
have liked to stay even longer, as I had still plenty of air (95 bar)
in the tank.
Back at the dive shop I
decided to extend my stay here in Coral Bay to wait for warmer and
calmer weather and probably do another day tour with Ningaloo Reef
Diving. The hot shower (but with bore water, yuck) helped a lot to
get warm again. I had a huge feast in the evening and cracked a good
bottle of Wynns Cabernet Sauvingnon 'The Banker' open to celebrate
another wonderful day!
Distance traveled: 152 km
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