5 August 2019
Another exciting day for me today as it was time to head to the Ningaloo Reef. I have wanted to come here for as long as I can remember.
It was a short drive from Bullara to Exmouth so we didn’t have to rush to leave camp. We aren’t staying in Exmouth as back in March I booked a campsite in the Cape Range National Park that runs down most of the peninsula which the Ningaloo reef runs alongside. The campsites are so popular that you have to book at least a couple of months in advance.
We arrived in Exmouth, fuelled up and headed for the bakery. Priorities! Bill and I found the only car wash in town to get the salty mud off the car (a result of yesterday’s adventures). Then we all went to the discovery centre and went through the museum and small aquarium. It was very interesting to learn that Exmouth started out because there was a US army base here. They constructed VLF towers a few km’s from town so they could get messages to their submarines. For many decades, Exmouth was a unique town in that half the population was Australian and the other half American.
We headed out of town and up to the lighthouse lookout which offered a superb view of the ocean. Then we made our way to the campsite which was still about another 40 km down the peninsula. It was a very windy afternoon – but then the WA coast is notorious for strong winds.
Bill and the Exmouth Big Prawn.
Travelling the Big Island 