In front of Vlaming Head Lighthouse.

           Week twelve:  Exmouth  

      
 After a long, long drive (640km) we arrived at Exmouth at last.  We can see why people prefer to see the Ningaloo Reef from Coral Bay, as it is a fair drive to get into Exmouth proper, and then there is quite a bit of extra driving to get into the Cape Range National Park, which is where the beautiful, beautiful beaches and snorkelling spots are.  As it was school holidays, we had no hope of staying at any of the lovely camping spots within the National Park, so had booked into the Ningaloo Lighthouse Caravan Park.  This was quite handy to the National Park.  We were also this week in a much quieter spot, well away from the school holiday crowd, surrounded by grey nomads there for the Winter:  a lovely group of friends.  Each year they fundraise for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, doing such things as having a regular craft morning each Friday and holding sausage sizzles.  Their comraderie was again inspiring. 




Emus come every year and have a drink and a wander around the Park.
This is Valma in front of her painting studio, what a lovely way to while away your days. 

 There are many wonderful things to see in this area - gorges, a river cruise, beaches and boat cruises...however, we pretty much focused on the beaches and the snorkelling!  We have seen lots and lots of gorges previously so opted out of doing those drives; and the day long Whale shark boat cruises were out of the question for Matthew (and at around $1100 for a family, frankly quite prohibitive).  We did a 2 and a half hour glass bottom boat on Matthew's birthday and that was more than enough. The beauty of the beaches called us, and we spent a lot of time taking turns snorkelling and marvelling at the beautiful fish to be seen just off the beach.  So, be warned...lots and lots of photos featuring the gorgeous colour blue ahead!!

Heaven!!

Charlie refused to wear the snorkel gear he had asked us to buy him,
preferring instead to use his swimming goggles.

At Torquoise Bay he was able to watch fish, just off the shore.

Our big three year old! The swimming cap is to hold in the ear plugs
 - we want no more ear infections, thank you very much!

Mummy playing shark :)



sorry...we don't have an underwater camera...but this is the smile
 of a person who has just seen many, many beautiful fish swimming around coral!



Tony preparing to snorkel at Lakeside. 
 We also snorkelled a lot at Oyster Stacks. 

Above: two peas in a pod.  And here: Our two cuties on a bit of a colder day...

 We did have a couple of days of overcast and drizzly weather, at Exmouth.  This will become the norm now, as we head south.  We have been blessed to have such great weather while up north.  The boys might actually finally get to use their special raincoats!

Here we have another photo of a Sturt Desert Pea...but look closely:  these ones are unique to Exmouth and are actually pink instead of black! 

Some of you may know that Matthew turned three while we were in Exmouth.  Of course, lots of photos were taken to mark the occasion...so we have put some of them in a collage.  At the bottom is our friend Sue, who with her husband Peter and gorgeous dog Jake, we cross paths with often on the trip.  Here, she is giving Matt a hug in lieu of family back home...it was a BIG hug!!

On our trip down to Carnarvon today, we crossed once more the Tropic of Capricorn (having crossed it already in the Northern Territory).  This was a momentous moment (but the sign was a bit of a let-down) as where we live is on the Tropic of Capricorn in Queensland...this meant we were literally on the opposite side of Australia to home!

Finally, Tony got a bit bored while we were at the beach one day.  He had his beautiful Nikon camera in his hand so...

The most gorgeous photo...just a seagull,
but so sharp and such vibrant colours!!
I LOVE it!

We are in Carnarvon until Thursday, when we will head down to Monkey Mia for a few days, to hopefully fulfil Charlie's dreams of feeding a dolphin. We are getting closer to Perth...and everyone tells us, closer to the cold!!  By the way, Patchy's Corner has been updated at last...he's been resting on the bed a lot lately so there haven't been that many photos of him...we shall have to make sure he gets out a bit more!

Cheers and see you next week!