Half-lap Day 92: Shark Bay

The wind blew all night, and while the tent flapped around a bit we were fairly well protected in our little corner and we didn’t ever worry that things would blow away. It was our coldest morning in a very long time, we were rugged up for breakfast and even when the sun was up it was still quite chilly.

We had a relaxed morning at the caravan park, talking to our neighbour, patting dogs, playing with toys. The day did warm up a bit as it got later, although it didn’t get really hot. Late in the morning we got organised and went for a drive back down the peninsula, stopping first at Eagle Bluff. There was a lookout high on a cliff, looking down a sloping hillside into a bay. We’d heard that you could see sharks and rays and turtles swimming in the water down here – the wind was ruffling the top of the water quite significantly, and at first we couldn’t see anything. The water was clear underneath the rippling surface. We looked out towards Eagle Island, which was covered in birds, and noticed a dark shape swimming in the water nearby. We watched it cover the channel between the island and the shore, and as it got closer we could clearly see that it was a shark. It was clearer at times as it swum close to the surface, then just a dark shape again when it was lower in the water. We watched it for quite a while, once again amazed at its elegance in the water. We walked along a boardwalk that followed the cliff top, read the interpretive signs, and looked out for more marine life. We could see brown shapes, a lot of them, moving along one channel in the water, but couldn’t see anything clearly, we think were probably rays. LiAM and I saw another black shape moving near some seagrass – we watched it for a while, then it stopped and seemed to be feeding on the bottom. We used my telephoto lens, LiAM’s binoculars and another couple’s stronger binoculars, but couldn’t get a clear view of what it might be. We thought it could be a large turtle and thought at one point we saw patterning – but it didn’t ever come up for air, even when it started moving again. We watched it for a while longer and eventually thought it might be a ray – some of them are patterned. We tore ourselves away eventually and walked back down the boardwalk, seeing a few more shapes in the bay – exciting even if we weren’t sure what they were. Tony had made some sandwiches while LiAM and I were still watching the water, so we had some lunch before moving on.

From there we drove down to Shell Beach. Millie wasn’t very keen on more sightseeing, we convinced her to come and have a look though and she really did love it. There was a large expanse of what looked like sand, between the edge of the foliage and the edge of the water. It was ridged, like sand dunes, and as we walked over it we discovered that it was mainly shells. The shells here were broken up and we could see bits of sand mixed with them, if we dug down a bit deeper though there were only shells. When we reached the slope that led down to the water, the surface of the ground was completely covered in shells, mainly whole. The water was clear and a bit choppy due to the wind. It is possible to swim here (although the water is very salty) – there were lots of jellyfish blobbing around in the water though so we didn’t go in. We sat on the beach and ran our hands through the shells – they are mainly little cockle shells, and at first glance they all seemed to be the same, white and the same cockle shape. As we sifted through them though we discovered lots of different colours – shades of white, pink, yellow, grey, orange – and shapes – conical shells, bigger and smoother shells, and lots of different sizes. We made a collection of all the different types we could find and laid them out on an area that LiAM cleared of shells. Our favourite was a glossy pinkish spiral shell, with silvery lines through it. Caitlin lay in the shells and had me bury her in them, all except her head, which looked pretty strange. They were deep enough to treat them like sand and make big piles or holes, and it felt really cool to run our fingers through them. It was interesting to watch too, as people came to the beach many of them just lay down on the shells like we were, just enjoying the sunlight and the view across the water and the feel of the shells.

We decided to checkout Whalebone campground on our way back, which is where the people we met yesterday had seen the dugongs. Millie stayed in the car, she’d had enough by now, while Caitlin, LiAM and I wandered down to the shore and along the rocks. We didn’t see any dugongs but it was a beautiful bay, with headlands either side. Tony walked up to the top of one of the headlands and we joined him. Looking across the water was cool, seeing the darker patches where the seagrass was and getting a feel for how big the bay is – we couldn’t see land if we looked to the southeast, where the bay ends.

Once we got back to our tent I had a nap, the warm afternoon and several early mornings had me feeling quite sleepy. I hung out in the tent after I woke up, catching up on a few things and enjoying the quiet. The kids played with their toys in the annex and wandered around the caravan park patting dogs and chatting to people. The wind had died down a bit by now and it wasn’t quite as cold. Tony and the girls walked over to the supermarket and Caitlin found the clearance shelf, she was keen for me to go back and have a look at it with her. We had dim sims and mashed potatoes for tea and then got ready for bed, reading for a while before falling asleep more easily now that the tent wasn’t flapping in the wind.

Half-lap Day 84: Exmouth -> Cape Range National Park

The rain started again during the night, it was quite loud in the tent and we were worried about whether our repair job on the leak was holding up, so we didn’t get much sleep. Tony got up and checked it at one point and there was a small amount of water coming through, not enough to cause a problem, and by then we were wide awake and couldn’t get back to sleep for ages.

We slept in a bit later than I would have liked on a pack up morning (I like to be up by 6 so I can blog then get on with packing, today was closer to 7). When we had set up the day before, the weather forecast said the wind was coming from the South East, so we’d set up so that the tent was on the eastern side, so that the annex would be protected. The rain and wind came in though from the west, so a lot of our chairs were damp and it was very hard to keep stuff in the annex dry. We usually put it down first and try to get the tent packed up as quickly as possible – today we left the tent and the annex until last so that we could keep things dry. We packed the car and moved everything out of the tent – discovering that water was also coming in through the two end corners – we left the door open to dry out the floor as much as we could before we had to pack it up. The kids went up to the kitchen to watch videos on their iPads, and they did the dishes for us while they were there. There were a few breaks in the rain but it kept starting again, and by the time we had everything packed Tony and I were both completely wet. We’d managed to keep most of our clean clothes and our bedding dry though, so we figured it didn’t matter so much if the tubs or the chairs were wet, we could dry them out later and we could still be warm if we had dry clothes and blankets.

We covered our mattress with a tarp before we put the tent down, and once everything else was done we took down the annex and folded up the tent. Tony siphoned the pooled water off our roof before taking it down, so we have fresh rainwater to drink at Cape Range (there was quite a lot up there, despite doing a lot of work to make the roof flat, we never manage to get rid of all the places that water can pool). We hitched up and got the kids and headed out, leaving by 11 which was not too bad considering how much the rain slowed us down.

We stopped off at the IGA to get supplies for the next few days, and bought petrol, then headed out of town – north along the cape and then turning to the west then down the south side of the cape. It was very grey and wet and the clouds were hanging low. Just before we turned to the south we could see very tall antenna, lots of them, reaching up into the clouds. The tops of them were obscured by the cloud cover, and it looked like the antennae were holding up the sky – or else that we were driving towards some sort of portal to take us to another dimension. It looked quite eerie. (On my map it said ‘VLF antenna’ – not sure what that means, but at least we weren’t imagining them!)

Driving in to the National Park it was still raining and looking pretty miserable, so we decided to drop in to the Discovery Centre and see if the rain eased off later. I got lots of information on snorkeling, and we browsed the gift shop for ages, buying a few gifts for people and LiAM and Millie got a couple more souvenirs. We watched a DVD about the reef and marine area, and read lots of displays about all the animal life we might find in the water and the national park. We could see the ocean out the window and it looked exciting, even in the rain. We were there for about 2 hours, and eventually decided to continue on to our campsite even though it was still raining. Tony made us some sandwiches in the carpark and then we went on.

For the first 2 nights in Cape Range National Park we are staying at the North Mandu campground. Our site is right next to the path to the beach, and the path is only about 80m long. Once we’d backed into the spot we ran down to the beach to get a quick look – the beach here is covered in smooth round stones, some are white, some pink, some grey and all shades in between. The waves here break out on the reef, a few hundred metres from shore, so the water near the beach is calm and protected. While I stood there looking at the water a turtle popped it’s head out – so, so exciting. The waves breaking beyond the reef were huge, and the wind was blowing the spray backwards off the top of them – it was an incredible sight.

We went back to our site to get the tent set up – it actually wasn’t raining much now, just sprinkling really. The website had said the site was 4.5m wide, but it looked wider – I measured it and it was over 5, which meant we could set the tent up across it and then put our annex up (we’d thought we’d have to go the other way and there wouldn’t be room for the annex, not great if it’s going to rain). We decided it would be best if the tent was on the ocean side of the annex so we’d be more protected from the weather. This meant we had to turn the trailer all the way around – which was easy at first on the hard packed dirt, but the rain had softened the edges up and soon the jockey wheel started sinking in the sand, so it was quite an effort to turn it around and then get it close enough to the fence so that the tent would fit within the site. We managed it though, with help from Caitlin and LiAM as well.

Putting the tent up was a bit tricky because it was windy and things kept flapping around, we did it fairly quickly though. We got the annex up and tied it down with more ropes than we’ve ever used before, it seems quite secure despite the wind. I’d filled the thermos with hot water this morning and it was great to be able to quickly make the kids some noodles without waiting to get the stove out – they ate them gratefully and it helped them warm up. There was just enough water left for half a cup of tea for me too. We saw several kangaroos around the site as we were setting up – some of them were quite large, bigger than any wallabies we’ve seen for months. Very cool to have them around and close to the tent.

Once it was all set up we headed back down to the beach and saw more turtles, and some schools of some sort of fish with silver fins, it looked like they were all fishing together. Tony and Caitlin went back to the tent to get their snorkelling gear, and LiAM I sat on the rocks watching the water – and saw humpback whales breaching and diving out beyond the break. It was very cool – I’d been told we might be able to see them from shore, these guys were much closer than I’d hoped.

Tony and Caitlin tentatively made their way into the water and we saw a couple of turtles pop their heads up not far away from them (the turtles had moved on by the time they went under water though). I saw 2 reef sharks swimming between Tony and the shore. Caitlin and Tone swam around for a while, occasionally surfacing, and came out excited, they’d seen a huge variety of fish, an eel, and sea urchins. LiAM and Millie and I had seen more whales while we sat on the beach, and LiAM had seen some crabs down in the rock pools. Millie and LiAM found the most amazing looking shells – shaped like shell pasta, they were pink on top then chocolate brown around the bottom half. Underneath the long sides curled towards each other to form a long slit with scalloped edges.  

As they walked out of the water Tony and Caitlin saw a blue spotted ray. LiAM and I went to get our snorkeling gear and Caitlin showed us the easiest place to get in. The tide was going out and there was a bit of a current heading out to sea, so we had to swim carefully to make sure we stayed close to the shore. We saw fewer fish than the others had, but still a cool variety – some blue ones, stripey black and white ones, grey fish with yellow along their sides, tiny little fish, some that camoflauged into the sand below, some sea cucumbers and lots of sea urchins. Clams too, and we’d also seen them on the rocks as the tide went out. As we walked out, being careful not to step on anything, I got a sharp pain in my heel. I ripped my shoe off and checked my foot, I couldn’t see any injury and I asked the kids to help see if we could find what hurt me. LiAM said ‘there’s something in your shoe’ – there was a large conical piece of coral sticking out of my shoe, and the point of it had been what hurt my heel. Obviously I need to be even more careful walking out of the water!

Back at camp we got changed and then got the chairs organised and I set the beds up. The ground is covered in tiny, sandy rocks, so we have set up towels to wipe our feet on as we go into the tent, and no shoes allowed in the tent at all. The kids played in the tent because it was much warmer in there, out of the wind – the wind was coming from the east, so straight into our annex. We would have been warmer if we had put the tent up the other way around, facing the shore. Tony organised some food while I hung up wet clothes and put some more wax on the tent in the places where water had been coming in. We ate leftover butter chicken wrapped in rice paper rolls, very yummy. Once we’d eaten we tidied and secured all our stuff outside, then went into the cosy tent and read a couple of chapters of Inheritance. It took us a while to get to sleep because the wind was flapping the tent and annex and making a lot of noise, and it started raining again (it had been coming in sideways for some of the time we were tidying up) and it was not a peaceful environment conducive to sleep!

Half-lap Day 71: Broome

I was awake at 5 again and soon got up to spend some time on the computer, which now seems to be working fine. As people woke up the kids from both families started playing together, chatting and riding bikes, and Millie and her friend played in our tent with their animals again. Once everyone was up and about we went over to their caravan and Tony cooked pancakes for everyone. They had honey with them, which we haven’t had since we left home, so that was an added bonus.

My friend and I spent an hour or so looking at maps and I showed her lots of the places we’d been and stayed. She went in to town and Tony and I started planning the next little part of our trip, and the kids played Minecraft.

The others came back and we all had lunch at our own sites, then all went to the museum in town – 2^nd visit for us. The kids asked for the quiz sheet that they didn’t get to do last time, then said they’d do all of the quizzes again because their friends were starting from the beginning. My kids remembered some of the answers and where most of the items were. I helped them in between looking at bits of the museum I didn’t get to last time. Everyone enjoyed it and we were all able to look more thoroughly at things. We all went out to the sailmaking shed and practiced the knots, and spent some time watching the DVD about the history of Broome. I had a good look at the shell collection with both Millie and LiAM, and was fascinated with the old aerial shots of Broome, which really showed how the town developed. There was a lot of information on the old tramway too, which I didn’t see last time.

We were there for a couple of hours or more, then headed towards Cable Beach, stopping at the supermarket on the way to get something for tea. We arrived just as the lifeguards took the red and yellow flags down – there were still heaps of people in the water and it felt quite safe. Our friends had bought a 10 pack of choc-coated ice creams, they and our kids ate theirs straightaway, Tony and I had a quick swim first (I just couldn’t wait to get in the water) and then ate our very melty ice creams before heading back to the water with everyone else.

The water had that soft silky feeling again, and was not really cold. There was a cool wind blowing, which meant that once we were wet it was definitely warmer in the water than out. The tide was a couple of hours past full, and the waves were big, bigger than anything we’ve swum in so far. Millie came out with me, and was holding my hand at first and then swimming around on her own – the first time she’s done that in the ocean. She was happy to bob up over the gentler waves by herself, and I stayed close enough to pick her up and jump her over the bigger waves. One of the biggest swells approached and I thought we’d need to go under it – I misjudged it though and it would have  been better to jump it, we got knocked over and Millie slipped mainly out of my hands. I managed to keep hold of her shirt and we tumbled over a bit but were fine, and she wasn’t too upset, just rather surprised (and annoyed with me for getting it wrong). She wanted me to hold her for a while after that, then tried again on her own and was happy in the waves again. Tony carried her for a while too and they were able to go out a bit deeper. All the kids had a great time, and us 4 parents were in the water too. The sun was getting lower and we were getting an orange glow across the water – I don’t think I’ve swum at a west-facing  beach at that time of day before, it felt as good as swimming in the early morning, not something that I thought could be matched.

Once Millie had had enough she and Tony got out to go and get dinner from the car. I got out soon after to take some photos of the sunset, and also got some cool silhouette shots of the kids in the water. Everyone got out soon after and played on the beach and/or went to get changed, and we watched the sun go down, with lots of clouds around which made it even more spectacular. We all sat on the beach and had a picnic dinner, along with many other groups of people. There were fire twirlers on the beach, and as it got dark someone set off some fireworks up near the rocks – all pretty cool to see. The kids played in the sand and ran around a lot, and we sat and chatted and relaxed and had a lovely evening. Eventually we gathered up all our stuff and headed back to the cars.

We dropped the men off at the pub on the way home, so they could have some kid-free time. We took all the kids back home then between us organised washing and showers and so on, and the kids played or showered or got ready for bed. My friend went to get the guys once they were ready to come home, and we all headed to bed soon afterwards, after another very fun and quite full day.