The red sandy landscape ride into the Exmouth area was quite a beautiful surprise. The sky was a light sherbet blue and the contrast between the ground and sky colors was purely breathtaking. "Look out for that emu in the middle of the road!" I hurriedly radioed Kev as he was quickly approaching the large bird. "Wow, that is a big bird!" he responded. Awe, and it has babies, four of them waiting and watching for Mum's cue to cross the road. I continued to spot emu's here and there in the tundra like landscape all the way into Exmouth! "Wow! Look at that ocean", I radioed Kev. It was once again a breathtaking and most unbelievable shade of turquoise blue. I never tire of that first ocean sight, and it is all I can do to not stop and take a picture. I have thousands of ocean pictures, I think they out number the sunset pictures! In fact, to date, I have snapped 11,000 photos of this amazing country! We had planned on camping at Cape Range National Park, but all the camp sites were full, so we ended up camping at a Caravan Park just outside the park. I realized that it was Fathers Day weekend, and made a mental note to myself to call Dad! Uggh, NO mobile service…I will have to use a phone booth! Wow, this is fun, it has been a long time since I have done this. Dad, I called the farm, home and your mobile but unfortunately did not reach you. I hope that you enjoyed a wonderful relaxing day, I love you and will see you soon!
Our camp is situated out under the cliffs of the lighthouse and it is quite a blustery area. The Indian Ocean is absolutely raging today and we were stunned to see kite surfers attacking the reef breaks. We watched in awe at their experience and agility on the water. The windy weather had worn us out and we decided to have an early night reading in our tent. Tomorrow the plan is to get up early, enter the National Parks before the ranger office charges opens and begins charging for entry…sneaky, very sneaky!
The morning was beautifully bright and crisp. Kev and I saddled up and headed into Cape Range National Park and Ningaloo Marine Park. It was literally raining roos this morning, they were everywhere! They were bounding out across the road left and right, and where there is one, there is two! We had to totally slow it all down trying to avoid a potential collision. At one point I was riding alongside a decent sized red who was bounding parallel to me looking at me, amazing…I knew he wanted to cross so I stopped, and sure enough he crossed, literally it felt like a scene out of a movie, you know the one I am talking about! Emus were out grazing, their long feathered plumage ruffled by the gusty winds. A magnificent wedge tailed eagle in the middle of the road caught sight of us cruising towards him and slowly, majestically took flight, lifting his marvelous body into the air. Before turning he turned his head making eye contact with us, another sight I will not forget! A purely magical morning. Before exiting the park we pulled into Turquoise Bay. Here the Ningaloo Reef is right at your fingertips. Ningaloo Marine Park stretches along 260 kilometers of coastline from Exmouth to Coral Bay. The reef and waters are home to 220 recorded species of coral and 500 spices of tropical fish. Although the morning was brisk and blustery and the waters were choppy I could not leave without swimming in this bay. As I entered the water a school of Angel type fish swam by me in the shallows. Without a mask I was limited to what I could explore, and the choppy water was tossing me around a bit. I had to give it up and returned to the bike. With luck the weather will calm down, we can locate a mask and return for another look? I quickly dried off as we rode back to camp. The off shore breeze was picking up, the sky began to cloud over, a front was definitely moving in. Kev and I decided to ride into town chill there for the remainder of the day.