Day 42-44. 15th to 17th June 2024. Exmouth. Underwater

While Broome will be remembered for the wind and aeroplanes, Exmouth will be remembered for its rain. We got off to a good start on Saturday arvo after a very short 1 hour drive, and I got to sit down and enjoy some rare internet connectivity and watch the Bulldog smashing of Fremantle live. Having WA teams play before 2pm in Melbourne makes for a very early watching time in WA. To celebrate, we drove to the spectacular lighthouse lookout over Ningaloo reef and Exmouth, and a quick paddle in the warm Indian ocean. As the afternoon turned to evening, the sky turned from blue to grey and the water gods suddenly remembered what we did to piss them off a while back and decided to drop another 25mm on us.

Caravan park life is different. There is the endemic day drinking, but this also means that a lot of people are in bed, passed out by 8. That’s OK, but as someone who usually stays up a bit later, it has been a bit of a shift. Copping poor weather while we are in our little van means that at times we are in bed by 7pm sheltering from the elements. In Exmouth with some internet it hasn’t been too bad, but getting up in the middle of the night for the walk of nature and stepping into a pool of water straight from your bed isn’t the best. I can see why they were driven in the old days to bring the latrine from outside to inside, even before the plumbing was 100%.

Next day, Linda reasons correctly that when snorkelling you are getting wet already. I reason that if you have your head in the water with the only link to oxygen you have is pointing to where the rain is coming from, it’s not a good idea. Again, she makes the right call and we get some snorkelling in the morning at Turquoise Bay.

In the water, the first thing we see is a trio of young, female, European backpackers with nothing resembling a wet suit on. They are waving to us to look at the sting ray they had found. I think surely it is a little Manta Ray, as they are harmless – but when I check with the information booth later on, they confirm that in that location it would be sting rays, but there is little chance you would step on one. Well, Sharon, Steve Irwin was shit out of luck then and he *knew* what he was doing. I rack this up, and the two subsequent ones we see, as more near death experiences. We are up to 4 now – not counting the terrible driving and overtaking we have seen.

I haven’t done much snorkelling and Linda is far more confident than me and is very encouraging. All I can hear when I put my head under the water is Darth Vader, and I can’t understand what he is saying. We have been wading out from shore and then swimming towards the coral, and while over sand I feel that at least I can stand up, but once you are over the coral, this is not an option. The first time going over I panic a little and turn back and try to stand up, not realising that I am now in at least 3m of water and can’t touch the bottom.

Trying to relax and float, I get a bit more confident and hover over the coral again. Spying a nice chunk with some large fish around it, I look down towards my feet to get a better view. This of course means I have put my breathing tube into the water which gave me a mouth full of seawater and a craving for some hot chips to go with the salt. Doing this once is called “learning”. Doing it twice could be called “drowning”.

Turquoise Bay is unique in its proximity to the beach and the current. The idea here is to walk 10 minutes down the beach, go straight out and the current just pushes you over the coral until you get back to where you started. If you go past a certain point though, you do hit a rip and go straight out to sea, don’t pass go and you certainly don’t collect $200.

The other point to note is that the ocean water is calm, with no surf. The waves are actually breaking hundreds of feet offshore where the reefs start, so you are swimming in a large heated swimming pool as well. This, I approve of.

The second day we get a morning in at Turquoise Bay again and try another spot called Lakeside. This is near a lake. We have invited our next site neighbour with us as she is travelling alone and worried about snorkelling by herself. It was nice to have someone else come along, as Linda has been keen to see other people for a while now.

Exmouth had a much nicer feel for us than Broome even though it was a bit harder to get to the good bits of snorkelling and swimming being another 70k out of town. In fact, that is possibly what made it a bit nicer with fewer people, plenty of space and safe swimming in calm waters.

Facilities: With having choice between smaller self-contained units and a newly renovated ablutions block, this is good. Everything you expect from a caravan park – 7.5/10.