Western Australia Road Trip – North West Cape

After around 9 hours of driving we arrived at Exmouth on the North West Cape. The journey was mostly uneventful after we actually hit sealed road… Our good old sat nav took us through a “short cut” out of Tom Price which comprised of around 50kms of dusty and bumpy dirt tracks, but we were veterans of the off road now after 3 days in Karijini!

First stop in Exmouth for us was the visitor centre where we picked up some info about the best places to snorkel and sleep (not at the same time…) before heading to our chosen camp site. Exmouth is a small (no surprises there..) town of a couple of thousand people and is the main stopping place for anyone visiting the coastlines along the northern end of the Ningaloo Reef.

Exmouth Shops

After checking in to our camp site we decided to go for a nice dip in the ocean to relax so we took the short stroll to the nearest beach. After a minute or two swimming around I thought I noticed something pop up out of the water a few meters away, but wasn’t sure if it was just my shark paranoia playing tricks on me so I stayed close to the shore and kept my wits about me… A few minutes later I saw the same thing popping up again even closer this time (maybe 10 meters away) but got a good look at it this time – to my delight it was a green sea turtle! I’d read a bit about turtles nesting and how it is bad to disturb them so I got out of the water just in case I was doing something I shouldn’t just by being there.

The next morning we hired some snorkels, masks and fins and headed around the cape to the west coast and went to Turquoise Bay, one of the three main snorkeling sites in the area.

Turtle Tracks at Turquoise Bay

Sonia was quite happy to be at the beach!

Aside from the fact that Turquoise Bay is just about the most sublime stretch of white-sanded beach I have ever seen (and I’m including whitehaven beach and jervis bay in that comparison!), it was made all the more wonderful by the fact that there are two great snorkeling sites just meters from the beach. In the bay (pictured) you can casually swim out to the coral within seconds and be frolicking with sealife just as beautiful as anywhere else I’ve been (and THAT includes the great barrier reef and Egypt’s Red Sea). For whatever reason, in my perception of snorkeling and diving Turtles were the pinnacle of those activities and to my amazement I was able to find and swim around with one every time I went in the water (about 4 times that morning) – something I had never before done on my previous trips to the Red Sea or the Great Barrier Reef. My previous nights worries about disturbing them when they are nesting season had been allayed when I learned that it’s actually ok to be in the water as long as you keep your distance and try to stay behind them (basically so they don’t know you are there).

The other snorkel site is just around the tip of the bay in an area that has a strong current that lets you drift over the coral reef all the way along the length of the beach. In another first, about a minute after getting in the water for this run I spotted a reef shark – thankfully at the time it was turning to swim away from my direction and soon disappeared from sight. However I was a little bit on edge for a while and was thankful to make it to the end of the run without bumping into it again.

I knew that reef sharks are not interested in biting people, but I suppose you always have that nagging doubt when it’s your first time being close to one! And although I knew it probably was a reef shark - I am by no means an expert!

After Turquoise Bay we went to the next site, Lakeside. It was early afternoon and due to the season the wind had picked up quite substantially so it was quite uncomfortable on the beach. I had a quick dip on the reef and we headed back to the relatively sheltered east coast of the cape and relaxed at the camp site for a while.

That evening we decided to go to a viewpoint on the tip of the peninsula to take some photos of the sunset.

Sunset over the Cape Range

There is a lighthouse with a lookout at the tip of the cape where I took this photo from as the sun was getting low in the sky. It’s a great point for viewing the vast landscape and you can see both east and west coasts (if you have a really wide angle lens… Or use your eyes instead of a camera:)).

The next day was spent pretty much doing the same as the previous – swimming, snorkeling and relaxing. Just generally having a thoroughly nice time.

That evening however we went to a spot along the coast which is apparently a good turtle spotting location. Jurabi Turtle Centre is a covered information booth which doubles as a meeting place for the guided turtle walks, but we were there one day before the first walk of the season started so we had to be content with strolling along the beach by ourselves in the hope of witnessing a shelled friend emerging from the ocean to lay her eggs in the sand dunes. We didn’t see any due to a combination of our impatience and the fact that they only come out under the cover of complete darkness. However we did have our cameras and tripods to help us pass the time as the sun went down.

Turtle Beach Sunset

The next day was time to move on to our next location, Coral Bay. Not before taking a scheduled detour through Shothole Canyon however! Just outside of Exmouth there is an off-road track that takes you through the winding valleys of Shothole Canyon. I’ll leave you with these photos from that drive and will see you in Coral Bay! Tarra!

The end of the road through Shothole Canyon