Ningaloo Dreaming - Coral, fish and a crocodile!

Hi everyone.  This week we have seen and done some amazing things.  And I have taken about 300 photos!

Monday saw us up and away from the trailer early and over into the Cape Range National Park.  We headed to the Tantabiddi Boat Ramp where we were booked on a one hour Glass Bottom Boat trip to the reef.  The reef is about 20 metres out from the shore line and the corals and fish that we saw were truly amazing.  We saw a green sea turtle that was huge and another not so big one.  The fish were astonishingly bright and colourful as was the coral.  It was hard to get off the boat when it ended.  We then headed to Turquoise Bay so Rachel and Mal could snorkel.  There is a drift snorkel area there where you drop into the water at the south end of the beach and the current takes you to the north end.  They don't recommend that kids snorkel there but Rachel proved to us that she could (easily) swim against the current so it was a goer.  They had an awesome time and did the drift snorkel circuit three times before the temperature of the water (not so warm) drove them out to the beach.  We had some lunch off the back of the car and then went to the bay itself where Eloise had a bit of a go at snorkelling with Rachel's help and she managed to see a few fish.  Then we drove to the end of the park at Yardie Creek and found a great place for Mal to fish from.  It wasn't long before he caught 2 fish.  Great excitement and whoops of joy.  The first fish in was a coral cod - absolutely gorgeous and we threw it back.  The second fish in was a whopper that took some landing on the beach and lots of interest from other fishermen.  It turned out to be a Crocodilian Longtom.  It has a mouth like a Freshwater croc - it seems there is no getting away from these beasts on our camping trips.  As Mal hauled it in, it did the death roll and wound its long mouth tightly shut - very handy.  It lay still on the beach and pretended to be dead while everyone had a good look and went oooh and aaaah.  It was 90 odd centimeters long, irridecsent green and had teeth like you wouldn't believe.   Mal unhooked it ( a mean feat) and managed to put it back in the water - it lay in the shallow water upside down with a bend in it and looked to all the world to be dead.  Everyone worked their way closer to it and when Mal put his hand in to the water (wrapped up in his fishing towel) to turn it over, the sneaky bugger shot off like a rocket - real crocodile behaviour.  After such excitement, and many photos, we called it a day and headed back to the ranch for dinner and a warm tropical night.

Mal with his Longtom

Tuesday - Today we moved down the coast to the southern end of Ningaloo Reef to Coral Bay.  What a gem of a spot.  We took a tour to see the Green Sea Turtles that love to call this place home - the only catch was that the only way in to the cliff area to see them was via quad bikes.  Mal was in heaven of course and Rachel went on the back with him while I was left to cart Eloise around on the back of mine.  Not my idea of fun but the girls had a fabulous time and I spent the morning with Eloise yelling from behind - go faster mum, put your foot down mum....  We saw the turtle up close and it was all worth it.  They were stunning and I could have watched for ages.  We rode a little further and Rachel and Mal went snorkelling again.  The guide had an underwater camera and took some shots of Rach in the water - they are very special shots that I will treasure for a long time.  The water was quite cold but she saw so much and they managed to photograph most of what she saw.  We bought the photos on a CD.  A very fun day out.

Wednesday - A bit of a rest day today.  Mal went fishing and reeled in some whiting.  We cleared emails and went to the beach.  Rachel and Eloise snorkelled and I enjoyed the sun.  We did some school work in the afternoon and the girls wrote up journals from the last couple of days.
Thursday - Off again and we headed for Carnarvon where we walked the famous One Mile Jetty and rode the Coffee Pot train back the other way.  Blowing a gale and a cold gale at that.  We scuttled back to the car and kept driving to Denham which is part of Shark Bay World Heritage Area.  Our campsite was a stones throw from the beach and Mal disappeared to the jetty with some other men to go squiding.  Wasn't long before the kids were over there too and the squid were being pulled in.  The wind got up and was really howling which forced them all home and into bed.  It blew and blew overnight but the tent held strong like a fortress and I loved falling asleep to the sound of the waves crashing against the shore.
Friday - Up early and up the road 25 kms to the famous Monkey Mia.  We were all non plussed after visiting here.  It is marketed very well and yet it is almost a con.  The dolphins that come in are all from one family and they now have 3 generations of this family that visit the beach each day.  They often only have 6 or 7 dolphins that visit the beach and we couldn't believe the attraction for people to want to feed them a fish.  Of the 100 or so people that were lined up by the rangers in a very straight line with their feet in the water only 3 were chosen to offer a dolphin a fish.  Astonishing that people pay big dollars to stay at the resort there and line up in the water when the dolphins come in (sometimes once a day, sometimes 3 times a day).  Not a place that the Crawford's were very taken with.  Also not happy with the misinformation given by the workers there regarding dolphin behaviour and feeding patterns in the wild.  It was in stark contrast to everything else we had heard at Ningaloo and in Exmouth and our cynical natures managed to make some not so quantum leaps towards the deduction that the info given at Monkey Mia suits the ongoing visitation of dolphins - it would be pretty bad if the dolphins stopped coming after the whole place has been developed around this premise.  Hmmm.  We spent the afternoon at Denham at Ocean World which is an open marine environment with a guided tour from Marine Rangers and it was excellent.  We all learned so much about marine animals and it was enthralling.  The tanks were all open at the top so we could stand around them and see in.  Refreshing after the commercialism of Monkey Mia.  Still blowing a gale and we happily retreated to the tent after dinner.

Our campsite at Denham

Saturday - Today we travelled to Kalbarri.   We stopped on route at the Shell Beach World Heritage Site where the beach is made up entirely of cockle shells.  Absolutely astonishing.  And then, just down the road, were the Stromatolytes at Hamelin Pool.  More astonishment.  Today we drove through very threatening skies and gale force winds, but not a drop of rain!  We set up in the van park ( not very nice but no other options here) and huddled in the tent against the cold.  This was a shock after being warm for so long.  I am back in jeans, my singlets have made a reappearance and I now have my Possum Fur jumper firmly in my sights at all time.  Won't be long before we need the heater overnight again.

Shell Beach - Shark Bay

Sunday - Father's Day!! Mal received  his new bait box and his fishing magazines and his badge which says "Fab Dad" which he wore all day, and we headed out to the Kalbarri National Park.  We walked to Nature's Window and to the Z Bend.  Just lovely in the sun and the wind has died down a bit.  Still need long pants but back to 3/4s.  In the afternoon we visited the Rainbow Jungle Parrot Breeding Centre.  It was so lovely.  The parrots fly around in a free flight aviary and they are so beautiful.  We sat quietly in the aviary and they flew all around us and over our heads.  We were the only visitors for a long time and the owner came and gave the girls almonds to hold up for the parrots to come and take from their hands.  Rachel managed to do it but Eloise was too frightened of them and couldn't hold the nut still in air for long enough. We took a drive down the coast road and went to many of the lookout areas and saw heaps of whales jumping about in the water.  The wind came back today and the day was cold.  We had fish and chips for dinner for Father's Day and jumped into sleeping bags for an early night.

Nature's Window

Thanks for all the messages of despair over my photos!  My girlfriend Lynwen who left Broome on Saturday to come down this way, stopped in the rest area and her family did a thorough search of the area with my directions.  She even made the people resting there check under their vans!!  She has posted signs in the toilet door in case anyone finds it - they had no luck with their search.  I have closure now that she has had a look - if she couldn't find it at least I know that it is not lying there in the dust waiting to be picked up.  If it was there, it is gone now so unless it turns up later, which is very doubtful, there is nothing now to be done about it.  Lynwen did tell me about her husband's pocket knife which got lost in his backpack and couldn't be found anywhere.  Two years later when he went to put something on top of the wardrobe the pocket knife fell out of the backpack!  If you ever see a little blue USB pick it up - it might be mine!

The good, bad and ugly for this week - the good would be the fish and marine life that we saw at Ningaloo Reef, the bad is that the weather is much colder here and we have become wussy having been in the tropics, and the ugly would be the commercialisation at Monkey Mia.
Dream Stealers - not very many this week - we get lots of comments about how we are mad going south and how cold and wet it is - well, it is colder but we have warm clothes and a heater for overnight and so far, the only rain we have seen was a short lived rain shower that helped clean the car while we were driving between Denham and Monkey Mia.  Mal has reminded these folk that we are not hanging around in caves with clubs in our hands and just because we are not in a caravan, we do have a heater that keeps us warm when we need to use it overnight.  We must be looking more like seasoned roadies now as we are attracting less Dream Stealers who are keen to destroy our plans.

A resting chair in the Kalbarri Nat Park - an extra photo just because I can!

We are still having fun and we are enjoying our time out here in the vast country we call home.  This week coming will see us hit the big smoke of Perth and then we will have just 4 weeks left till we are due home.
Until next time,
The Crawford Crew