Ningaloo

NINGALOO 8^TH -12^TH MAY

Ningaloo Marine Park is a reef system that runs up the coast line starting from Warroora all the way up the coast to Exmouth. It includes the famous Coral Bay and Cape Range N.P. It has clear blue water, white sandy beaches and an amazing reef system which is home to all types of tropical fish, turtles, sharks, coral and plant life, and best of all this is just a few meters off the shore line. We had heard about Ningaloo Station from friends who had been there the year prior and they gave it a raving report saying you get your own little camp site to stay in right next to the beach and the snorkeling is excellent.  So we had decided to go to Ningaloo but first we drove into Coral Bay to see what has changed there in the last 12 years. Yep, progress is well and truly alive. To our dear friends Michael and Louise (who we travelled with those 12 years ago), you would be blown away…. The C.P has extended nearly all the way down to the water’s edge. There is resort style accommodation and a new housing area going up on the right as you go in. It is just going to grow and grow….The C.P’s were ¾ full and you were on top of each other. So we turned around and drove on out hoping that we could get into Ningaloo!!

40km up the road we find the small street sign saying “Ningaloo Homestead”, nothing else about camping… so in we turned. The first sign you see is “32km’s of gravel roads 4wd’s only”… so we stopped and aired down to make the ride more comfortable. The next sight is not the most pleasant because it is the rubbish tip and there is rubbish scattered here and there and the crows are having a field day, on we go. The road ahead starts disappearing in dust because a fire had been through recently and stripped all the land/ dunes of everything except the termite mounds and with the wind blowing it just created a dust storm….

32 km's of this. I took this on our way out so  you can see how bare the sand is on the right where a fire had been.

32km’s later we come to a rope across the road, as a gate, in we go and follow the signs to the homestead to report in and hopefully find a spot to camp. The homestead is nothing to look at; a tinned house with the generator buzzing, bits and pieces scattered around, an old caravan rusting into a comfortable position that is the office and the landscape is bare, barren and dry. But in the background you can see the blue sparkling water and it seemed to make everything OK. Up on the hill nearby is an old ruin from a light house and the light house keepers house which would have been interesting to look at but were out of bounds. We waited for the owner Phil who was dealing with a customer. Phil was a lovely man, humorous, talkative and gentle. His first question was how many months we wanted to stay! Yes we thought that funny too till we met a man who stays there for 9 months and I think the average would be a month at a time for most. Anyway we said we wanted to snorkel so he gave us a key, directions on where to go and our porter potty that we had to hire (you need to be totally self sufficient and you can hire a potty if you don’t have one.)  Off we went another 12km’s up a track till we got to a white gate with South Lefroy on it, we unlocked it went through and relocked it behind us that was your security!

 We headed on down this track with anticipation of finding our own little spot on the beach only to get a shock at all the other people camping. We found our number 10 site which was right on the beach and right next to other campers. We were about 10 meters apart which was fine it was just such a shock to see all these other campers around, so much for your own private camp ground! That’s popularity for you. It didn’t matter at all especially cause our neighbours Peter and Maxine where very nice; they go for the Bombers, live in Baccus Marsh, they gave us great advise on places to go when we leave Ningaloo, they allowed us to down load their underwater photos, they had a great fish book and owned a bright red tri-ma ran which they gave the boys a ride on, who could ask for better neighbours.  Oh and Pete is to give them a call when we get home cause they want some renovations done, Ha…

Our camp site! This was on our first morning. We finally got to use our shower
tent as a toilet come shower.



Looking down the beach you can see a few others camped here, most are
camped just behind the dunes.



We were set up by mid afternoon and the wind was blowing just enough to be annoying. We had to put all awning walls up and even with them on we still had a fine spray of sand constantly layering our table…if you left bread on the table you would have the true meaning of “sand-which”, ha.

Peter and Maxine warned us of the strong current that runs between the shore and the reef which is about 100 meters out, the water was too choppy to go in and apparently the best time to snorkel was early morning when the wind seems to die back a bit. The wind blew for most of the night and with no protection we were kept awake with the constant flapping of the canvas, not the best start to our 4 day stay.

In the morning the wind had died down a bit so off we set all anxious to see the sights. Well that current was very strong and the boys did an amazing job swimming out to the coral reef. Maxine and Peter had anchored there tri-maran  out in the reef and offered for us to use it as a resting place for the boys, we all needed it by the time we got to it…



Having a rest and very proud they have made it!

  The snorkeling was OK but the water was a bit murky so it made it hard to see everything clearly but you could make out some huge coral…..We didn’t get to see much else with the water so stirred up so we made the big effort to get back to shore and felt quite deflated. So to fill in our time for the rest of the day we made a rather large sand castle…….

Our fortress. This actually survived the whole 5 days we were here.

The Master piece.

Well I am happy to say that our first night and day were our worst, from then on the weather just got better and better and with that so did the snorkelling….. The wind dropped off and so did the strong current so we were able to go out snorkel a couple of times each day. The fish were out and about in so many colours, sizes and shapes. We saw a school of huge queen fish which would have been a meter long. Other times we were swimming amongst schools of over 100 fish which totally surrounded us. We saw reef sharks, about 1 ½ meters long, sting rays, turtles, bright blue star fish and coral the width and length of our car! IT WAS AWESOME! I so needed an underwater camera but even then that wouldn’t catch the real effect; you have to see it to believe it. These pictures are from Peter and Maxine they are nothing like the real thing but you will at least get an idea.



We thought this type of coral looked like a leather lounge.



Another form of coral (plate coral) which is like huge flower petals.

A clam.



This shows a small selection of fish.





They only have blue star fish here!



Can you see the reef shark!



The blue spotted Sting Ray.



These little fish were fun to tease and chase them back into
the coral.

 


This is called a rainbow fish they are a beautiful looking fish. 

 




 We spent that much time in the water that we started feeling the effects of having sea legs. We felt like we were swaying as we were sitting still on land…

Some nights we had fun with torches, a bucket and shovel chasing the small fist size crabs over the beach and capturing them for fun, no animals were hurt in the making of this fun!

Pete kept having a go at fishing and finally he got lucky.

He ended up catching three fish.



Pete's fish "a common dart"




 We were told about some old whaling station ruins nearby so we went down for a look and were quite surprised to see so much stuff lying about. What a large operation to take on in such an isolated area.

There was no information about to say how long ago it all operated and how well it worked.  I forgot to ask Phil as we left because he was busy booking in other campers.



The whaling station ruins.



We couldn’t work out how people could come here and stay for months, where were they going to fill up on water… There is an area on the way to the whaling station which has several bores sunk with beautiful clear drinkable water; you just need to have a pump to get the water up.




What else should we be doing?










That's right, I should do some fishing!



When the sun was setting over the water there was
a lovely pastel sky behind us.




We found out that there are 250 sites available to camp at along the beach on Ningaloo Station so it isn’t a bad income for the station owner ( $60 for a week)who doesn’t have to do anything really because you have to be self sufficient. The only bad thing I would have to say about the whole set up is for all those 250 sites that's 250 porter loo’s and there is no designated dump spot, you just dig a hole and empty it in the dunes. That is not a healthy thing when you consider how busy the place is getting. They should provide a dump point and have the rubbish tip set up with recycle bins. The tip is right near the road and people these days are so used to recycling it wouldn’t cost them that much for the bins. It is just one thing I found very disappointing. Apparently Warroora Station offers these facilities so we  know it can be done.     

We were lucky enough to have been offered from campers up the beach from us  a go on their canoe’s which had a small glass window in the bottom of them. Pete and I took one boy each and off we paddled out to the reef it was all fun till we had to turn around and start paddling back against the current. I didn’t like that because I felt like I was going no where fast and that made me panic, Pete had to yell at me to calm me down and stop me from going in circles…..

On our last day Peter and Maxine offered Tom and Charlie a go on their tri-maran, they loved that.

The boys out on the tri-maran.



Loving it!



So after our 5 nights we were ready to go, our second battery in the car hadn’t had a good charge for five days and on the morning we left our fridge was starting to struggle,so, time for a charge.With the weather being so nice we did end up staying an extra night.

The owner Phil said people are re booking as they leave to come back the next year so business is booming for him…

Goodbye lovely spot!