For The Love of Travel

First stop, Turquoise Bay in Ningaloo Marine Park. Known as one of the most beautiful WA beaches, its the perfect spot to spend the day relaxing, swimming and snorkelling. You be the ‘judge’! The white sandy shores give way to clear waters harbouring a plethora of marine life. There’s an area called “Drift Loop’, at the sandy point at the southern end of the bay. A natural current flows from south to north, taking you over beautiful corals.

Bloodwood Creek: I put the drone up at the scenic lookout north of the carpark, and got views of the lagoon and beyond to the outer Ningaloo reef. Didn’t see a humpback whale unfortunately!

Yardie Creek and gorge: there’s a 2 km walk overlooking the ancient Yardie Creek gorge. With amazing views of red limestone cliff faces and the opportunity to see an array of birds and wildlife (I didn’t)….but I did get spectacular views into the creek and out to the reef at the other end.

Kori Bay where you can swim and snorkel away from the crowds……

Mangrove Bay and sand flats: I could have gone to the bird ‘observation hide’, but I’m not really a ‘twitcher’….far preferred droning over the sandflats, which yielded this image….

As I’m not into snorkelling (always get water in mask and invariably seeps into snorkel!), a glass bottom boat tour of the reef was just the ticket in Coral Bay- you walk out 100m in the shallow water to get into the boat, that then travels over lovely coral gardens and a multitude of fish. Pristine waters, a lovely 26 degree sunny day….ahhh!

Charles Knife Canyon is 22 km south of Exmouth. The drive takes you on a winding road up to the top past rocky gullies, small gorges and open spinifex bushland. The views on top are of the rugged terrain of the Cape Range and the waters of the Exmouth Gulf.

There’s a discarded piece of waste, a Woodside oil tower of 83 metres, that contains toxic fire retardant foam just sitting near the biodiversity hotspots of Ningaloo Reef and Gulf. Its slowly sinking after Woodside has failed to maintain it. Despite being ordered by authorities to remove it, Woodside has failed to do so to date.

Another threat to the environment and wildlife, is being presented by the proposal to build an industrial port at Qualing Pool, Exmouth Gulf – an important humpback whale nursing and resting area prior to their arduous migration to Antarctica.

A 12 km drive travels along the floor of the spectacular Shothole Canyon – rugged limestone walls leading back to the Exmouth Gulf. The name of this canyon is derived from the shotholes left in the terrain, following explosive charges set for seismic studies during oil exploration work in the early 1950’s!

New Beach /Bush Bay is 40kms south of Carnarvon, a mangrove paradise. I returned, after the rains we had a couple of days ago, to take some more photos. The road was open, yippee. Had a natter with Mick, who is originally from Mandurah but now ‘lives on the road’. He’s been camping here for a few weeks and made this bespoke hat (brim of hat has been punctured and curtain cord a-fixed with a little knot) to ward off flies – works a treat apparently.

Dwyer’s Leap is 9 mins drive from Carnarvon, on Babble Island, a scenic viewpoint where sand erosion barriers have been established along the river to prevent sand movement.