Last blog was Shark Bay, which seems so long ago!
We left Denham and first stops for the day were Shell Beach, which is, as one would expect, very shelly - in fact is completely shells, up to 5m deep, and then the stromatalites, which are thousands of years old and grow about 1mm per year. These are primitive forms of life and were here long before we were - and contributed to the atmosphere we now breathe.
Next we headed north to Carnarvon, an area rich with farms growing all sorts of veggies and fruit, an abundance of fish, and not much else. We went out to one of the town's advertised attractions - one of the longest jetties in WA (or maybe the southern hemisphere?). Well this was a bit of a let down.... we paid out $2 each to walk out on the one-mile jetty, but found a gaping hole about 2/3 of the way along.... so we grumbled a bit and then walked back...
Left Carnarvon and reached Exmouth mid-afternoon. It's still one of the most beautiful places I know. Went out to Vlamingh head lighthouse and watched whales cruise by along the humpback highway, and the sunset over the beach. Next morning we headed out to YArdie Creek and went on the boat trip up the creek. We were lucky to see a black-footed rock wallaby with joey in the middle of a rock face in a little cave. These are endangered species. We also saw heaps of grey and white egrets nesting, and an emu with some chicks.
The ranger told us that the emu dads mind the chicks, and to present themselves in the best possible light to the emu ladies, they 'steal' chicks from other emus to make it look like they are virile and also good at looking after the kids. We found this most amusing....
We went to Osprey Beach, which was absolutely stunning, and then on to Turquoise Bay for swimming and snorkelling... which was disappointing but still fun. The coral has been badly damaged from last time I was here, but the water is still crystal clear. We stopped a little further up the road at Turtle Cove... and discovered it was the local nudist beach ... I was staring at this guy trying to work out what sort of togs he was wearing... and then the brain clicked that no one wears togs with pubic hair on the outside!!!!!! hehehehehehehehehehe
Next morning we were picked up early for a trip out to the outer reef and some snorkelling. We went out a little way and snorkelled for about half an hour - lots of parrot fish, humbugs and other fish.. pretty colours. We then went out up the humpback highway and before long we caught sight of a mother with her calf. She was about 20m from the boat and it was pretty awesome seeing them so close. During the day we encountered many other humpbacks, but this one, and the mother and baby that swam under the boat, were the most exciting. Except for the one that waved his flipper at Michael!!! We got some awesome photos and they are all on the photo page qhich is linked here (http://picasaweb.google.com.au/sue.thomson). Got home on a bit of a 'whale high' and had fish and chips for tea!
Today we got up at sparrows fart, filled the car ($96 of diesel thank you very much - $1.49 per litre) and headed off for Karratha. We drove in stints because the landcape is not terribly exciting, and got here at about 1 - 540km in all.
The Pilbara has begun. It is stunning. The colours are superb, and I love it up here. There are wildflowers everwhere, in stark contrast to the reds and greens. We may never come back to Melbourne - I'm sure ACER needs an office in the north west. :)
Tomorrow we are looking around the area, which is heavily industrialised with iron, salt and natural gas. There are also a couple of historic towns which we will go to, then we will hopefully see the staircase to the moon. After that we are off to Millstream Chichester and Karajini National Parks and will be offline for 5 days. GASP!
Until then.. these shots of the beautiful Pilbara...
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