Perth to Exmouth - Smithsdownunder

Details: Category: Melbourne to Perth

Australia

After spending a few days in Perth we headed north to try and find some sunshine and warm up a bit.
		It's not all sunshine and blue skies! We stopped at Coronation Beach for a couple of nights and had a bit of rain overnight!
We called into Gladstone on the way to Carnarvon as we might stop here on the way back. Its a great camping area on the edge of Shark Bay. Ali needed to check the facilities before agreeing to stay here. Any comments?
		On the way to our next stop at Gnaraloo, we passed Quobba where there are some blowholes. The sea was very rough and there were some very large waves crashing onto the rocks.
Gnaraloo is a cattle station located on the southern of the Ningaloo Reef and is well known to surfers for the famous Tombstones and Turtles breaks. Its also getting popular with other visitors, a 4mtr long salty was spotted here earlier in the year.
		After a spending a few nights at Gnaraloo, we headed further north to Exmouth and Cape Range. It was very busy with all the campsites in Exmouth full. We stopped at a campsite just outside the National Park and I had to get up very early in the morning to queue up at the entrance to the National Park for a camping spot. I got there at 5:00 in the morning and there were already 5 people in front of me. We were lucky enough to get a pitch on the campsite we had been to in the past although it was a site for a caravan and it took an hour and a half to get the tent pegs into the compacted gravel surface! Notice the large rocks in the photo to help keep the tent on the ground? It's a great spot though and well worth the effort. We ended up spending 3 weeks here.
Here are some of the creatures we spotted. These two were Black Footed Rock Wallabies living in a gorge close to the camp site.
		On our last visit here we spotted a Bustard. I wonder if this is the same one? This one was about a metre tall.
There was no drinking water available in the park but there was a bore which we used to fill our shower bags. As water was very scarse we had to share it with others.
		There were always creatures around the bore waiting to drink any spillages.
This wedge tailed eagle was in the same gorge as the rock wallabies - looking for dinner I suspect.
		We spotted this echidna and managed to get a photo before it buried itself.
The radio mast near the visitor centre makes an ideal nesting spot for a family of ospreys. These are two of the chicks waiting for the food delivery.
		One of the main attractions of Cape Range is the Ningaloo Reef. Here are some photos taken just off the beach near the camp site.