20150718 WA Exmouth

20150718 As we entered Exmouth on the Ningaloo Coast the first thing that jumped out at us was the new canal development which to me is not very appealing when you a situated on a beautiful coast line.  The town centre is relatively new with no history and uninteresting but it did meet our need to gather a few items.

 

 

 

 Arr the catch of the day and he doesn't even like fishing, you can't catch fish like that back home and going by some photos posted in the area of fish we think it is a Coral Trout and Estuary Cod. 

Sorry Des I can't lie, he dug them out of the bin, and NO not to eat, even though it wouldn't surprise me, he kept them for bate to catch some crabs, hopefully.

 

Walking along the beach just out of town contemplating weather to take a chance and stay the night, will we, wont we, but while we were there the police had turned up twice, maybe not.  Des questioned a guy cleaning fish weather the rangers come out here, I dealt they work on the weekends so you should be safe he said.

No we decided not to chance it so we left for the Ningaloo National Park only when we arrived at the ranger’s hut it was closed, shit now what do? 

A couple we meet at the station turned up and asked if we would like to go for a drive with them, I’m not paying he said stuff them so we locked the van up and climbed on board for a sightseeing expedition.

After our sightseeing trip we noticed there was no one in sight for miles so we thought, why not stay here the night, so we settled in for the night with a beer and wine.  As it turned out we ended up hitting the piss while sitting in the middle of the road in pitch black taking blurry photos of ourselves with the odd backpacker driving past.  We love these sneaky free camps.

19-07-2015  Vans were pulling up early hopping to be the next in line for a camp site along the coast line so we were up and left early before the rangers turned up and caught us camping, Yaa we got away with another free night camping.

Stopping at one of the inlets for a walk along the beach and I still do not understand why are charged to see a beach.  This bloody government names the coast line a heritage area so they can charge people just to go on the beach, its bull shit if you ask me, I'm gonna protest, arr that's right we didn't pay, hehe.

The whale shark is the world’s largest living fish growing up to 18m in length and a 12m shark can weigh as much as 11 tonnes,  its mouth is more than 1m wide and they have a life span of more than 100 years.  They give birth to live young which hatch from an egg case while inside the mother’s body.

 

If you're keen you could take a swim of a life time with the wale shark at the cost of $380, that would be so cool only there is no guarantee of finding them, but you do have the opportunity of returning for free within two years, as if we’re coming back.

The Vlamingh Head Lighthouse and WW11 Project

The Lighthouse was built in 1912, it is just over 12 metres high it worked by kerosene, the light was visible to 22 miles on a clear night.  

The lighthouse keeper

I was the only white woman there and a Mr Campbell who had a station about 20 miles from the lighthouse however he was single too so my nearest white woman was 60 miles away and it was nearly two years before I saw white woman again.

 

This is one of four radar stations established on the north west cape during WWII and it was to provide early warnings of Japanese air attacks, particularly the US submarine refueling operation in the Gulf of Learmouth.

 

These are the original sandbags around the radar tower which are from World War 11.

Taking in the view from the lighthouse where below lies a caravan park which is also home to the original lighthouse keepers cottage.

Thirteen Tall Towers
In 1960 the world watched in trepidation as the U.S & the USSR both armed with nuclear weapons faced off like gladiators.  Part of the Americans missile system was their fleet of nuclear-powered submarines but the US Navy had a giant gap in the communications network.  The towers you see were the result of the effort to plug that gap. The very low frequency transmitter cover an area of 400 hectares and tower Zero in the centre is 389 metres high & sits on massive concrete foundations buried up to 17 metres deep. 

 

We stopped at the information centre where the big prawn stands thinking it was a seafood shop only it turned out to be the history of prawning in Exmouth, one of the notes actually says “prawns is a must to do for visitors to Exmouth” and yet there are no fresh prawns here, they are all exported to China, what a down fall for the town.

Pebble Beach was named because of the different colored pebbles that cover the beach and can only be accessed by 4WD.  We risked it and camped the night so I take advantage and walked the beach.

21-07-2015 Not wanting to push our luck we left Pebble Beach in search of another camp spot heading further out of Exmouth and thinking the rangers wont come this far out, hopefully. Turning off the road we found vans camped on the beach and after talking to a couple who had been here for a week we decided to camp up.
 

Des sets up the fishing line and hooks his finger in the process, I told you he is not a fishermen but he sure knows how to swear.

Loving to walk on the beach as I do I took the opportunity to catch up on some much needed exercise when about 4 ks along I came across this sick turtle stranded on the beach.  I couldn't leave her there so I put her back in water hoping she would take off only she swam in circles.  I was heading home when I noticed my Polarised sun glasses missing, I turn back and searched the beach but couldn’t find them, so much for my good dead for the day.  I returned the next day only to find her washed up on the beach again so I returned her once more and I didn't find my sunnies, not happy.

Killer Craba Cathcart scored a couple of WA crab pots and some bate, so lets see if he has better luck catching crabs.👄

Check out our camp spot for a few days  as we sit around the fire eating jaffels cooked in the fire followed by lots of drinks.

We had every intention of leaving but Killer kept on catching crabs so we stayed another day.  He walked back and forth all day and ended up catching 18 crabs.  
















And that was Exmouth