July 8 ... Exmouth

Today is our last day here and it was shaping up to be the perfect end ... until we came back to the park to find our sheets and quilt cover dragging in the red clay. Both had to be rewashed and then dried tonight so it has been a busy afternoon and really annoying.
What is amazing to Garry and I is how much we have not done in our 12 days. This was partly due to the weather which has been very windy, cool and cloudy on some days, but also because there really is a LOT to do here. Fortunately, for the last two days we have had perfect weather, so we have been driving down to Turquoise Bay in the National Park to go beaching. At last the water there has started to warm up a bit because it has been REALLY cold, but it always looked too inviting not to go for a swim and a snorkel.

Turquoise Bay

Snorkeling at Turquoise Bay

Garry has loved the snorkeling. He has seen many beautiful fish but the highlight for him is always the turtles. The water is crystal clear and quite large fish swim right up to you, even in the shallows.
I really do love the beach but I have equally enjoyed our drives to and from. It takes a little less than an hour if you go directly, but we rarely do, as there are just too many things to look at.
Beside the road there are flowers of every colour. Most are low growing but they tend to mass and so produce a "bright patch" that attracts the eye.

Red

Yellow

Pink

Purple

Green

 And there are different animals every day. We always see some emus but because we have been driving home late in the afternoon we have also seen lots of kangaroos. These ones must be used to traffic as they continue to sit beside the road as the cars zoom past, even motorbikes don't scare them off. There are also a number of bustards in the National Park. I have seen these before west of Mackay, but the birds here are more squat, and they are big. The one pictured I think was a male as he had a wing span easily over 2 ms and we were very impressed when he flew off. According to Wikipedia, they are the biggest flying animals in the world as they weigh in around 17kg.

Cute little fellow

A Bustard

We have also been back to the lighthouse lookout many times and this morning we stopped and had morning tea while we whale spotted. There are lots of them moving up the coast now and they swim just outside the reef so they are quite easy to see. This lookout is spectacular and the views it gives of Ningaloo Reef are really beautiful.  Every time we stopped here we found it stunning.

Rain clouds at sea - 2pm

And they were good too!

We did try to sample all the gelati flavours during our stay, but we were beaten in our efforts by a shop with very odd opening hours, so we moved on to Simmo's Ice-creams. These are a WA brand and they are also delicious. 
And that about wraps up our time at Exmouth. We could easily visit here again as it has to be one of the most beautiful and interesting places in Australia.