Cape Range National Park

Exmouth and Cape Range National Park 24th September

Due to our highly honed dislike and inability to plan ahead we found ourselves having to book one and two night stays in the cape range national park as we had aligned our visit with WA school holidays . The NP is normally has a smattering of stayers in the relatively few campspots that have to be booked ahead of time on the net.

So rather than having a week in one spot as a base and exploring we found ourselves like a gypsy in the Uk ever being moved on after a night or so.
What makes the cape range special is the Ningaloo reef. This reef comes close into land at some points less than 20 metres. Also the continental shelf protected by the outer reef can be as close as 320 metres from the sand. This provides great snorkelling, land based fishing , reef tinny fishing , spear fishing , and deep water sports fishing oh and because of he abundance of wind it is a mecca for kite surfers who make use of the inner reefs lack of waves but full force winds.
We stayed on four different campsites over nine days . The first few were very windy and even had a bit of rain thrown in . We seriously thought that 9 days here would be just too much but of course very soon nicer weather arrived and the true cape revealed itself.

Fooking prawns !

We made the trip back to exmouth for the AFL grand final and the NRL grand final on the saturday and sunday with an investment of 320ks ! Broke my beer fast in style on both occasions .

Current master of the tour song “on the road again ”

Fishing at Bloodwater creek
Over two days i fished the rising sun and rising tide. The fish were prolific and decent sized too with a 78 cm Trevally being the prize catch which put up a magnificent fight. Total tally was three Trevally , four spangled emperors and a red lipped emperor .

We snorkelled a couple of the reefs and were actually more impressive than when we snorkelled the great barrier reef. At the GBR we had some angry weather that reduced the sea water clarity .
We had what i reckon is near a perfect day when in the cape.
5am – watched the sunrise as i pulled in angry fighting fish .
7am Home to rouse sleeping beauty with fresh coffee and brekkie
8am Spent an hour in the morning glow with feet up reading the Eyrie by Tim Winton.
10am We watched a turtle dig its nest and haul itself into the sea .( Dont ask me why it was doing ti during the day )
11am We snorkelled directly off the beach in front of the caravan seeing a fair portion of the 500 types of fish and of course an array of corals.
1pm Spangled Emperor kedgeree and Trevially sashimi washed down with a cheeky rose
2pm 6 kilometre run with a midway stop off at oyster stacks view point to “sea watch “ and breath through my arse in the recovery position.
3pm 5 kilometre walk along the beach with Kate spying into a fancy eco resort that boasts someone called Kate Middleton as a past resident.
4pm Watching humpback whales and their calves breach and flipper flap as the sun started to drop
5pm Dinner. Thai chicken curry ala katiepoos
6pm Sunset ogling
7pm Books and admin
9pm Hot choc and tucked up with Teddy

Now i have a secret to share . I talk to chairs (Not quite as exciting as “i see dead people” ) , and i dont chair talk in public like Clint Eastwood either . I dont talk to all chairs as that would be crazy because  not all chairs want to  hurt me. Kate has had two chairs on this trip (she wears them out) and both have been as evilly demented and sadistic as a cat who feels vaguely slighted. Kate’s new chair looks innocent enough but like a 5 year old child throws tantrums when being put to bed.

This chair has found 3 or 4 ways to trap , nip and bleed me . It has more dodgy joints than a backpacker  in a vdub campervan and has caused me more pain than any bull necked loose head prop has over the years on the rugby  pitch. I had to threaten it with a stanley knife and a screwdriver to get some sense into it and some peace of mind for me. Currently the negotiated ceasefire is holding ……
Kate reckons im nuttier than Queensland bat shit !