WANDERING AUSTRALIA: THE SHANLEYS
IT’S up there with being our number one travel destination on our trip so far. Western Australia’s stunning Ningaloo Reef and Gascoyne Coast is breathtakingly beautiful. And with the Ningaloo Coastline stretching 300km, there is a little bit of something for everyone from spearfishing and boating to four-wheel driving to great dining and shopping. However, Ningaloo is very much seasonal and as busy as it is, we feel you really have to brave the crowds and visit in peak season to get the most out of the area.
We spent around a month exploring the Ningaloo Marine Park, travelling north from Coral Bay, around Cape Range National Park and Exmouth, and inland towards the Pilbara. Ningaloo
Station on the southern side of Exmouth is the ultimate in beach camping with beautifully clean white sand and that magic blue water it is famous for!
We based ourselves at Winderabandi Point for a week and explored from there. In all, there are five beach camping areas to choose from, with Winderabandi and South Lefroy the pick of those. There is fabulous snorkelling at South Lefroy, where Bella spent hours swimming with turtles, reef sharks and so many fish! We did all the things we love – snorkelling, swimming, exploring, fishing and beach lazing at Ningaloo Station.
A couple of pointers though – the road is very corrugated, rough sand tracks, there is no phone reception and there are no facilities, so you have to be fully self-sufficient.
Heading north, we tackled Yardie Creek water crossing on low tide, into Cape Range National Park where that gorgeous reef just gets better and better. The national park’s campgrounds are more marked out, offer facilities and are 2WD accessible from Exmouth making it very busy in peak season. All the campgrounds in Cape Range are unique in their own way. Again, we did some amazing snorkelling at Osprey Bay, Turquoise Bay and Oyster Stacks where you can walk the beach and then let the current take you along the reef. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I missed out on swimming with a turtle but it was a magic experience all the same.
From Cape Range, we ticked another
bucket-list item off when we swam with whale sharks. This is something we had wanted to do for some time and it was beyond all expectations. Swimming alongside these beautiful creatures literally took the breath away. We spent a full day out on the boat with 3 Islands Whale Shark Dive and highly recommend these guys. The team couldn’t do enough for us, loved what they did and were also great with the kids. We had six dives total and couldn’t get enough of these majestic animals. It was worth every dollar and would do it again in a heartbeat.
The town of Exmouth reminded us of a quieter Byron Bay and it is the one place we could see ourselves living in. Exmouth exudes a young eclectic vibe and has great boutique shopping and dining – I think we tried just about every dining venue in town.
There’s also heaps to explore around Exmouth with the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse precinct and SS Mildura shipwreck providing good history lessons, Charles Knife Gorge and Shothole Canyon for 4Wding and natural scenery, and the many beaches for fishing and swimming. Also worth a visit is the Ningaloo Centre in town – again it has something for everyone with the history of Exmouth, particularly the American influence and occupancy, and the Ningaloo aquarium and reptile display which the girls loved. As we say with most places we visit, we could have spent so much more time in the Ningaloo region and really ‘felt at home’ there. But we just couldn’t be that far away from family and had so much more exploring to do, so we held off putting that house deposit down.
On our way to the Pilbara, we stopped at my favourite station stay so far – Bullara Station. This is a working sheep and cattle property and offers a great farm experience with all the luxuries of glamping. The best part was the scones they do daily and I was most impressed they had gluten-free scones – win all round! If you can’t already tell we absolutely loved exploring the Gascoyne Region, especially our ocean-lover Bella, we will definitely be back! From beach to bush, well sort of, our adventure on the Gibb River Road is next month.
Go Wander …