Wednesday was Rick's birthday! He left the van at around 3:30am to drive out to the Cape Range National Park Ranger's Station to await his arrival in the hope of securing a camp site. Rick was the second vehicle in the queue and by 8am when the Ranger arrived there were 13 vehicles waiting. He managed to have a bit of sleep while waiting. Not exactly the usual way to spend one's birthday! He managed to secure us a site for two nights at Mesa Camp which was near the beach and had 15 sites. There are about ten camp areas in the National Park and some of them only have room for 3 small tents and some are accessible by 4x4 only. Across all the camps in the Park, there are only 90 sites.
After settling in we drove to the beautiful Turquoise Bay where Rick went in for a snorkel with the fish. There were hundreds of silver fish called Common Darts ... very beautiful, sleek fish with three dark dots along their sides. There were also large bream just poking their noses into the sand looking for food. He managed to get really close to them all ... Turquoise Bay is a sanctuary zone and the fish probably realise they are safe there.
On Thursday we booked our seats to go on a glass-bottom boat on Friday morning and we extended our stay at Mesa camp for another two nights. We then drove to Mandu Mandu Gorge to do the 3km walk and climb. I didn't learn until after we had been through it, that the gorge climbs here are rated 1-6 according to difficulty and Mandu Mandu was rated as a 4. The walking was fine although we had to be careful as the ground is covered in river rocks ... very easy to twist an ankle. Then started climbing, and climbing, and climbing ... not for everyone! And, what goes up ... must come down. The trail at times was really scarey and very tiring. Never again! After lunch we drove to the very southern camp in the Park called Yardie Creek. Yardie Creek can be crossed by four wheel drive if the weather and tides are just right. We then returned to Turquoise Bay where we both snorkelled with the fish until about 4:30pm. On the drive back to our van we had a very close encounter with a kangaroo ... being a National Park they are everywhere!
Very early on Friday morning we received a call to say that it was too windy to take the glass bottom boat out and would we like to join the cruise on the following morning. We said yes thanks, and couldn't understand how come we actually received that phone call ... the weather conditions must have been 'just right' for mobile. As it was early and we were up and dressed I decided to bake some bread by hand for lunch. The dashboard of the truck was the perfect place to 'prove' the dough. While I was busy with the bread 'The Wrecker' fixed the footrest on his chair that he broke the night before. The bread turned out to be really nice even though I almost set fire to the van by using 'bake paper' in our gas oven. In the afternoon we drove half way back to Exmouth to get our emails and make some calls and then Rick went swimming while I tried fishing. No luck with the fishing and Rick said he couldn't even see any fish this time.
Saturday turned out to be another windy day, so we drove to Charles Knife Gorge. The scenery here was beautiful and I was glad we didn't have to do any climbing. We had been told earlier to go to the Kailis Seafood place on the way back as they had prawns there for $15 per kilo. We called in but could only get $29 kilo tiger prawns as they didn't have any of the local ones. We did some shopping in Exmouth on the way back and bought a snorkelling set for me as I had been borrowing Rick's.
After settling in we drove to the beautiful Turquoise Bay where Rick went in for a snorkel with the fish. There were hundreds of silver fish called Common Darts ... very beautiful, sleek fish with three dark dots along their sides. There were also large bream just poking their noses into the sand looking for food. He managed to get really close to them all ... Turquoise Bay is a sanctuary zone and the fish probably realise they are safe there.
On Thursday we booked our seats to go on a glass-bottom boat on Friday morning and we extended our stay at Mesa camp for another two nights. We then drove to Mandu Mandu Gorge to do the 3km walk and climb. I didn't learn until after we had been through it, that the gorge climbs here are rated 1-6 according to difficulty and Mandu Mandu was rated as a 4. The walking was fine although we had to be careful as the ground is covered in river rocks ... very easy to twist an ankle. Then started climbing, and climbing, and climbing ... not for everyone! And, what goes up ... must come down. The trail at times was really scarey and very tiring. Never again! After lunch we drove to the very southern camp in the Park called Yardie Creek. Yardie Creek can be crossed by four wheel drive if the weather and tides are just right. We then returned to Turquoise Bay where we both snorkelled with the fish until about 4:30pm. On the drive back to our van we had a very close encounter with a kangaroo ... being a National Park they are everywhere!
Very early on Friday morning we received a call to say that it was too windy to take the glass bottom boat out and would we like to join the cruise on the following morning. We said yes thanks, and couldn't understand how come we actually received that phone call ... the weather conditions must have been 'just right' for mobile. As it was early and we were up and dressed I decided to bake some bread by hand for lunch. The dashboard of the truck was the perfect place to 'prove' the dough. While I was busy with the bread 'The Wrecker' fixed the footrest on his chair that he broke the night before. The bread turned out to be really nice even though I almost set fire to the van by using 'bake paper' in our gas oven. In the afternoon we drove half way back to Exmouth to get our emails and make some calls and then Rick went swimming while I tried fishing. No luck with the fishing and Rick said he couldn't even see any fish this time.
Saturday turned out to be another windy day, so we drove to Charles Knife Gorge. The scenery here was beautiful and I was glad we didn't have to do any climbing. We had been told earlier to go to the Kailis Seafood place on the way back as they had prawns there for $15 per kilo. We called in but could only get $29 kilo tiger prawns as they didn't have any of the local ones. We did some shopping in Exmouth on the way back and bought a snorkelling set for me as I had been borrowing Rick's.
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| Looking back towards our site and the beach |
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| Turquoise Bay |
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| River rocks at the base of the Mandu Gorge |
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| Yours truly ... not happy! |
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| Yardie Creek mouth |
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| Charles Knife Gorge |
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| Charles Knife Gorge and the river bed at the base |
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