Day 51 - Friday 18 July 2025 – North to Carnarvon - 230 km
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| Some of the road to Carnarvon |
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| Our fruit for the day - Banana & Mango |
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| The Cactus garden |
As we wanted to go to the Saturday market we camped locally. We were well off the road and nowhere near a train line so we settled in for a quiet night - until we realised that we were in the flight path for the Carnarvon airport.
Day 52 - Saturday 19 July 2025 – Carnarvon to Coral Bay - 242 km
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| It took a while to get this photo |
We arrived at our '2025 bucket list' item - Coral Bay - around 1pm. It was about 23 degrees and we had a roadside site - so as close to the beach as anyone else in the large park.
A school of around six fish swam maybe three metres from me. They were nearly the length of my arm.
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| Fish in crystal clear water |
Shirley was kind enough to let me cook outdoors (outdoors for the first time this trip). The meal consisted of chicken and a selection of Carnarvon veggies.
Day 53 - Sunday 20 July 2025 – Coral Bay
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| A magic part of Australia |
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Sunset photos from the same spot at the same time Above - Zoom photo to get the boat Below - Distant photo |
Day 54 - Monday 21 July 2025 – Coral Bay
A heavy shower of overnight rain and strong winds reduced to strong wind by the time we started the day.
We went for a short drive to 'Monck Head' and had a stroll on the superb, albeit small, beach. The wonderful colours of the water are something hard to capture with my camera. So I captured some fish, some crabs and a White Faced Heron.
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| Beach at Monck Head [Beach 44, Walks 44] |
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| White Faced Heron |
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| School of small fish |
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| Crabs about the size of my hand |
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| Note the three colours of the water - that align with the depth |
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| Fish near our legs |
Another sunny start to the day. Exercises. Book reading. Coffee. Relaxation.
After lunch we had a 3 km beach walk taking a slightly different route via a sand-dune to get two photos. [Beach 44, Walks 46]
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| The colours we see every day. From the bottom, sand, shallows, middle depth, deeper/coral/seaweed. Top of very dark blue - waves crashing over Ningaloo reef |
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| Our favourite beach, looking back towards the town - from the sand-dune |
Around 4pm the piece of lamb and some roasting veggies were added to the Weber.
Around 5:50 I had to decide between a great sunset photo or a great lamb roast meal. The latter won, but I got photos of both.
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| Lamb Roast - Weber Style |
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| Just after sunset and just prior to lamb roast |
Another slow start. Egg cooked on BBQ for breakfast. House work. Morning walk on the beach as a big 'front' comes in from the west. [Beach 44, Walks 47]
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| Maybe some rain later today |
Thanks to the excellent bakery over the road we had a fresh salad roll for lunch, followed by a Carnarvon banana. Did you know that bananas are grown in WA?
The focus of the start of our ninth week was wind and intermittent rain - and our desire to avoid both. Little was achieved before lunch.
The rain cleared around lunch time and I decided that we needed a beach walk. We turned right, instead of left, and found a new beach that worked out to be a 'shark nursery'. The bay we found is a popular spot for certain sharks to court, mate, maybe give birth and provide a nursery for the young (until they are OK to leave home).
The surrounding beach was impressive, although the gale winds did not allow us to appreciate it fully.
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| 'Shark Nursery' (Nhuga Malinmayi) Beach [Beach 45, Walks 49] |
We returned to base and were happy to get out of the wind. I cooked a lamb stew for dinner.
The start of our last full day in Coral Bay (maybe ever) started sunny with a cool breeze. Shirley headed to the hairdresser, who also has other jobs in Coral Bay. I did a few pack-up jobs in readiness for any early departure tomorrow. Yes, Shirley knows.
A couple of fresh bakery rolls became lunch before we headed to the beach for our last enjoyable walk at Coral Bay. Without exaggeration we probably saw 1000+ fish. My board shorts got only partially wet. The temperature was around 19 degrees. Another tourist took our photo. [Beach 45, Walks 50]
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| Close to the end of a great relaxing week |
We chose to have dinner for our last evening at ‘Bill’s’ – a pub about 250 metres from our caravan. My choice for dinner was chilli mussels, photo provided. Note the fresh bread roll beside the bowl of mussels. The bowl came with a lid that served to hold the discarded shells. There is no doubt in my mind that the mussels were as good as I have ever had.
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| Chilli Mussels at Bill's |
Day 59 – Saturday 26 July – Coral Bay to Cape Range NP – 316 km
Shirley was in the shower before the sun peeked over the trees, but she did not
know that until I TOLD HER later. We were on the road at 8:05 am, saying
goodbye to another great time at Coral Bay. Just under two hours later we were
in Exmouth. Not long after that we were checking in to Yardi Homestead Caravan
Park – a place in the middle of nowhere with around 200 sites. Power is limited
and water was scarce, but it was home for a night – and a great place to camp.
Camp was quickly
established and we departed south into Cape Range National Park. As we only had
one night here we skipped the scenic walks and focussed on the beach walks. We
were definitely in the land of termite mounds, many much higher than our car.
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| A termite mound with character, maybe 3 metres high |
Our first stop was ‘Lakeside Beach’, another lovely Ningaloo Beach. [Beach 46, Walks 51]
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| Lakeside Beach, Cape Range NP |
Next stop was Turquoise Bay, allegedly one of the best beaches in Australia. We did not argue. [Beach 47, Walks 52]
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| Turquoise Bay Beach, Cape Range NP |
After a quick sandwich lunch we moved further south to ‘Oyster Stacks’, so called because of the oysters on top of rock piers/stacks jutting out of the water. No beach here to talk about.
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| Above - Oysters Stacks Beach and Oyster Stacks Below - A glum looking resident |
Our fourth stop was ‘ Sandy Beach’ and a spot that that we would put in front of Turquoise Bay – probably our best beach of the trip so far (without taking anything away from Coral Bay). The water colours were exquisite. [Beach 48, Walks 53]
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| Sandy Beach, Cape Range NP |
We then stopped at ‘Osprey Bay’ as turtles were allegedly able to be seen. Not so today. It was popular for nearby national park campers. Dolphins and a turtle had been seen earlier.
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| A small beach at Osprey Bay, Cape Range NP Popular as there was a nearby camp site |
We turned around at Yardi Creek and headed back to base. On the way back we stopped at Tantabiddi and found another excellent beach. [Beach 49, Walks 54]
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| Tantabiddi Beach, Cape Range NP |
Back at camp we had a coffee and a walk around the huge park. 240 v power is generated here and drinking water is provided from an on-site reverse-osmosis desalination plant – both are expensive processes.
Live music drifted
through the park as we had own Happy Hour. It had been a long day.
Day 60 – Sunday 27
July – Cape Range NP into the Pilbara – 372 km
We were woken early by
a mischievous phone call on Shirley’s phone. So up we got and departed soon
after 8:15 am.
Our first stop was the wreck of the SS Mildura that ran aground in 1907. There was no loss of human life but many cattle on board could not be saved.
Very close to the
wreck we checked out ‘Surfers Beach’. It was rocky but great waves were rolling
in. [Beach 50, Walks 55]
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| Surfers Beach, Exmouth |
Then some housekeeping stuff in Exmouth and a photo of the big prawn. Shirley found a market so we bought tomatoes, apples & bananas. Photos of plants were frequently taken all day, plus a painted tank just outside Exmouth. We also stopped to get our first photo of the trip of a Sturt Desert Pea – an amazing flower.
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| Does it need a label? |
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| Swainsona formosa, commonly known as Sturt's desert pea or Sturt pea |
It was time for morning tea by the time we stopped at Pebble Beach just 50 km in 100 minutes. [Beach 51, Walks 56]
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| Pebble Beach & Pebbles |
A Finch posed for me.
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| Maybe a 'Beautiful Fantail' |
Then we stopped to check out a memorial to the Navy efforts in WW2.
Around 150 km after leaving Exmouth we turned left/east and a strong cross/head wind became a tail wind.
We were now in the
Pilbara – red dirt/iron country. It was amazing how the landscape changed as we turned east. The sandy
landscape became red dirt/iron country. We started to regularly cross
sand-dunes – maybe the height of four to seven twin-cab utes.
Our chosen stop for
the night was booked out so we drove another 44 km and stopped on the corner of
the Onslow turnoff – with two other Victorian caravans. All indications were
that the temperature was around 24/25 degrees. The wind was howling across the
plains from the west. Hopefully a tail wind tomorrow.
The sunset was really good, as was the roast lamb for dinner.
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