Nothing but blue skies
Before arriving in Exmouth that evening, we managed to get one more stop at Vlahming Head Lighthouse, and a chance to soak up the outside breeze and stretch our legs a little from the drive. This involved a bit of wandering, and then became a fully fledged manic-jump photo shoot against the gorgeous heathery-duned background and deep blue sky. I enjoyed being the photographer in one of the jumping group shots, and making the 5 ‘jumpees’ do take after take to get it ´just right´. They were all quite flushed and out of breath when I eventually gave them the ok!
We may as well have been in luxury accommodation when we saw the cabins we were to sleep in that night in Exmouth. Clean, fresh, and with electricity (and plug sockets) galore. But alas, no perfect thing remains that way for long.. the morning after, as we were all packing up our bags, we discovered another guest had crept in. Without any piercing screams and hysteria, fellow traveller Jess saw a mouse scurrying around in her bag, and matter of factly exclaimed, ¨Oh. there´s a mouse in my bag¨, in the most measured tone I have ever heard. She was then, of course, reminded and mimicked with that phrase (in the same tone) for the remainder of the trip… cruel you may say, but I tell you you would have been in hysterics, just as we were, at the time.
Now day 17, we firstly nipped across the road to hire snorkels, masks and flippers, and then back into the 4wheel drive to Turquoise bay for a spot of snorkelling. The day was pretty windy and overcast, with the spots of rain finding their way here and there between the rays of sunshine. It was here that myself and snorkelling partner Claudia spotted a sea turtle in the water. We followed it around for ages in its carefree passage, so long in fact, that we both paid the price later that evening, and in my case for the next few days to follow, with painfully burnt backs… It was well worth it though, and although the sea turtle was the highlight (the phrase ´totally bodacious dude´ ringing in my head ; ) of the snorkelling adventure, the striped and multicoloured fish of all shapes and sizes added to the whole effect.
The next 2 nights were spent in Coral bay, which wouldn’t have amounted to much if you weren’t interested in seeing the reef. Consisting of one short main street, a handful of tourist shops, supermarket and one nominal pub, you had the beach on one end, and the road to everywhere else on the other. As my sunburn was still lobster coloured and uncomfortable to say the least, I couldn’t quite face snorkelling again so soon, and spent my day on Coral bay hiding from the sun and walking (and wincing) up and down the main street.
Back into the 4wd the next morning, as we continued along Ningaloo reef and passed over the tropic of Capricorn. It seems the most common photo taken at this stop along the road is to stand across the line and to be completely clothed on one half of your body, and in summer getup on the other. other than the novelty of ´crossing over the tropic of Capricorn´, the sign itself was fairly tatty looking and covered in graffiti, stationed a little forlornly next to the highway.
Finally on our way to cooler climates, we stopped briefly at shell beach for a stroll, and then onwards to the infamous site of the stromatolites. I’m ashamed to say that if I hadn’t read Bill Bryson´s Down Under, I probably wouldn’t have fully realised the significance of this landscape of dark stumps on the shoreline. The fact is though, that these are some of the rarest and earliest examples of living marine life. These small pillars have been built by cynobacteria, which represent some of the simplest forms of life to use photosynthesis.
The tourist board really did try hard to sell the importance of this rare environment, in the typically australian way of using a cute cartoony icon, imaginatively called ´stumpy´. I have included a picture of Stumpy and his many, many, many relatives on todays blog : )
