3/7/20 Fly Ningaloo

       Been a while to get this blog done , lack of service and being a bit busy will do that . Anyway here's the goss , we went for a joy flight from Exmouth over to Cape Range and down to Yardie Creek , then back up the peninsular to NW Cape and back down to the airport .

  Here's our Ningaloo Aviation Cessna for our hour long flight .

                              

 

     The canyons of Charles Knife Road showed off their colours .

      This is the very popular Oyster Stacks snorkelling site .

      The views down the reef to the south .

      We got lucky with a whale breaching , here's the sequence of the breach in the next 3 photo's .

      That was a bit exciting , then we were back to the views of the reef & coast .

      Here's the view from the plane go pro camera - they do photos for you - we got 84 photos from them all like this - one or two with the plane would have been fine but 84 !!

                                        

 

     This is part of Yardie Creek Gorge 

      Here is the wreck of SS Mildura - a cattle steamer that ran aground on a reef not very far away and was blown here in a storm .

      This is the ultra low frequency radio towers used for submarine communications - we were flying at 1,000 ft and the towers were still above us !

      This is the marina development and some of the canal homes .

     And with that our flight was done and we landed just over the hour from when we took off . 

 We did the flight with Sue , whom we met at Bonneys - Dave & Sue came out to Yardie Homestead CP while we were there and we had a few days with them . 

     Our stay at Yardie Homestead was soon over and we had 3 nights in town getting our washing done and things charged up again , before heading off again because Exmouth was booked out for the school holidays .

2/7/20 Off to Exmouth

      We left Denham and headed north , having a night at a rest area 80 kms from Carnarvon on the way . Carnarvon was a fuel and food stop for us and we continued on to Lyndon River Rest Area for another night . 

     One stop we find ourselves doing each time we come this way is Gladstone Lookout , today it was our lunch stop , which gave me 10 mins to get the drone out . This shot is looking to Gladstone Beach & Camp 

 

     This is the lookout area at the back .

 

    It get's a bit windy up here .

 

     Not much further up the road is Wooramel Roadhouse and then Wooramel Station . We could see some raised dust as we were getting closer and found we had a small dust storm happening close to the station - there seemed to be a climate bubble happening here - almost like it's been in drought for a long time , very little vegetation , certainly no ground cover to hold the topsoil . A few kilometres up the road and we were clear of the dust again .

     Coral Bay was booked out so we couldn't stay there , so we went up to Exmouth and spent a week at Yardie Homestead Caravan Park . It's a great location to access Cape Range NP when you can't get into there either .

      We had plenty of time to check things out , so did a few different things this time . There's a 4wd track that takes you up onto the ranges and does go all the way to Learmonth Airport . Being nice and warm now , we were a little slow off the mark and didn't get going till 10:30 am . By the time we'd gone into the NP , found the track and let our tyres down it was near enough to 11:15 . The track up to the top of the range was rocky and rough and slow going -1st & 2nd gear in Low Range 4wd for most of the way up . 

      This is an aerial view of the track from the top of the range 

     After getting past the top , the track started to turn into mainly a sandy track , with a few sections of rock to slow you right down again .

 

     Reaching a road going off to the right , we took it and found our way down through water courses ( dry of course ) and over sand dunes , then found 3 rocky hills beside each other . The hills were made up of limestone , spinifex and small trees .

     This is what the limestone looks like - with some holes big enough to lose you leg in !

      On our walk up to the top we disturbed one of the locals - a reasonable size red kangaroo .

        We came back to the water course to have some lunch , and were surprised to find this . If you've been to Cape Range before you'd know that there's not many trees of this size anywhere , so this was a rare find .

     We ate lunch at the back of the ute - it makes a great table - and noticed this tiny flower near our feet . It's only about 4cm off the ground  .

      This is the view back down the range to the ocean & Ningaloo Reef .

      Another day we went down to Pilgramunna in the NP , plenty of different colours here . 

 

     If you thought that was good , check out the views from above , they are stunning .

     On our way in another day we stopped at Neds Campground & beach - not a bad spot to camp beside .

      Snorkelling was on offer a few days   

  

     Dave & Sue , who we met at Bonneys during the lockdown , arrived and stayed for a few days . We took them around Cape Range and down to Yardie Creek , this is Yardie Creek Gorge .

     Another day we headed into town to the Ningaloo Discovery Centre . There's a display about the cyclone that ripped Exmouth apart 1997 , very scary !!

     There's also a huge tank containing a lot of fish , and several smaller ones - a great display . This particular fish got our interest - we'd seen a few of these that had been caught the day before at the park where they were being cleaned & cut up . They are Coronation Trout , and are a beautiful fish .

     These trees are in flower at the moment and have been planted in all the carpark around the Discovery Centre .

     There you have it , here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1nydmmafqMTljFZcuNBDOQvUkaaZoQeDS&usp=sharing

19/6/20 Hope you're not sick of red yet

     Today we headed back out south , firstly to Denham Lookout . The weather was beautiful , nice & calm  and the tide was in flooding the mangroves below the lookout . Here's some aerial shots of the area .

 

    This one is looking south west back down the coast , Shark Bay stretching of in the distance .

 

     Denham township is on the slim piece of land in the distance .

 

     This is looking toward Goulet Bluff , interesting the black sections looking like ink , are sea grass that has been torn away by recent storms . The sea grass further out in the bay are feeding grounds for many Dugong .

 

     Nothing like a selfie .

 

      We checked out Goulet Bluff and several tracks around it , after finding Eagle Bluff was closed while workers were doing roadworks to the entry road . It meant we found lots of different view points along the coast .

      We had lunch down beside the beach , then went for a drive back toward Denham , but we were only on the bitumen for about 5klms before we found a track that would take us to the eastern side of the peninsular - somewhere we hadn't been before . The track is orange sand and stretched off into the distance , so we headed off following an old fence line till we came to a small ridge - this was the view from the top .

 

      Time for the bird to fly - and what a view we got - stunning colours again !!

  

      Apparently this side of the coast is a popular kite surfing location - not today however . 

  

     After enjoying our location for a while we headed back to town totally satisfied with our day .

      Next day , we headed off on another track , again over to the east side beaches . The track branched off the road to the rubbish depot and headed straight for about 10 kms , before running into this Birrida (clay pan) ,. The track then followed the edge of it and continued on . We hadn't lowered our tyre pressures yet as the track was reasonably firm, just corrugated in lots of places though - strange to get corrugations in soft sand ????

  

     We were getting closer to the coast and the anticipation was rising . Arriving at the coast we found more soft sand , but it looked firm further around so we turned to the right , there was some limestone rock shelf there , but the track quickly turned back to soft deep sand and then we stopped - not by choice - it was time to lower the tyre pressures again . Down to 20psi all round and we reversed ourselves out of our sticky situation and headed up the beach to the north , relieved to be on some fire sand - we found a patch and had some lunch .

  

           Making our way along the beach we came to a stop and found the view north was getting interesting , there were hints of orange and red and white , then there was the oceans colour as well .

 

   

      We moved forward again, parking on the little sand spit , as we looked around the corner we saw this view . It's a little washed out caused by the angle of the sun , but still stunning .

     

 

  

       After flying the bird for a while we headed along this red section of sand . The track wasn't much more than 4m wide and the tide was going out but the sand was still wet and a bit spongy . There were wheel tracks from other vehicles so we followed them - it turned into deep wheel tracks , making it a bit more of a challenge to keep momentum and going forwards . There were a couple of obstacles to go round as well and each time the sand got pushed out a bit further making it more interesting - we made it past the red sand section and parked a bit further up and went for a walk along the beach and around the next corner .

 

      Here's the view from above .

 

      How's the colours ???

 

     We got back in the ute and started back along the beach , getting back to the red sand again , another ute had gone back over it as well , so it was a little more unstable than before , but we had to go back that way - there was no other track . Funny driving on sand , you're almost a passenger most of the time with wheel tracks , you just go where the previous vehicle went whether you want to or not . Whoever followed us out would have an interesting drive , as we went off the track toward the hill and collected a bush !! No damage done - a couple of scratches and we kept going , making it through without any further drama's . 

   We headed back to town again , another good day !!

      Weekend has arrived and we headed out to Eagle Bluff - they wouldn't be doing the roadwork on the weekend - no they weren't and the road in was great .

 

      Eagle Bluff has a great viewing area and is built on the top of the bluff with views from ever part of it . When we were here last we spotted so much marine life from the lookout - sharks , dolphins , eagle rays , manta rays , fish & stingrays as well as ample birdlife - today it was a bit quiet - plenty of birds but not so much marine life - a little disappointing . This is the walkway from the air .

     This is the view from above the southern side of the bluff - you can see the sea grass thick on the sand and dark spots in the water .

      This is another of the southern end of the bluff .

 

      That's it , up to date , here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/drive?state=%7B%22ids%22%3A%5B%2219L2ApTNfxcc5xfyWEJuNPlCM4ev9vcmW%22%5D%2C%22action%22%3A%22open%22%2C%22userId%22%3A%22115207065084240615246%22%7D&usp=sharing