Karijini National Park

14th till 18th April 2013

We were surprised by a beautiful drive to the mining town of Tom Price, hillier and greener than expected! From there, we headed to Karijini National Park. This park has stunning gorges and each of them have freshwater holes and streams. Having the reputation of being one of the best National Parks in Australia was definitely true, we enjoyed our days walking through the gorges, including often wading through the cool water and of course swimming too! Surprisingly there was hardly any wildlife, but we did hear a pack of dingoes howl one night.

Exmouth - Cape Range National Park & Ningaloo Reef

10th till 14th April 2013

During our days in Exmouth we explored Cape Range National Park. Enjoyed a walk at Yardie Creek as well as swimming and snorkeling at various beaches, specially Turquoise Beach. One evening at sunset, we saw several stingrays in ankle deep water, as well as a very small black tip shark.
Ningaloo Reef is known for the whale sharks that migrate north at this time of the year, so we decided to join on a day trip to see and snorkel with the biggest fish in the world. We swam with a couple, all around 5-6m, and it was amazing to see their easy and slow tail movement in the water while we had to swim as fast as we could to keep up with them for a few minutes! During the day, we also saw some dugongs, turtles, a 3m tiger shark, a yellow sea snake and lots of beautiful colourful fish and corals.

Carnarvon, Kennedy Ranges & Coral Bay

4th till 10th April 2013

Leaving Shark Bay, we headed further north to Carnarvon. It was a hot day (as most of them now are) with temperatures being 35-40c during the day and 26-28c during the nights with a high humidity, so we were glad to jump into the pool at the campground. We were surprised to see how green Carnarvon is - it grows a lot of WA's fruit and veg; reminded us of an oasis in a desert!

We headed approx. 230km inland to the Kennedy Ranges to explore the ranges with it's beautiful gorges. It was a hot afternoon, 38c when we turned off the car engine at 5pm, so we decided only to do short walks and leave the rest till sunrise when we walked into Temple Gorge. Once the sun had set, we enjoyed looking up in the sky - millions of stars where shining above us!

We drove back over Carnarvon to head to Coral Bay. There we were able to snorkel off the beach, and managed to see many beautiful fish and corals and a stingray, and Silvan spotted a black tip reef shark.

Geraldton & Shark Bay - Monkey Mia

28th March - 4th April 2013

To escape the easter mayhem, we drove back to Geraldton to spend a few more day with our friends, Rob & Kat. In the meantime they moved from their 1st temp. accommodation to 2nd one, much nicer than the first one, with an amazing view over Drummond Cove Beach. Celebrated Sarah's birthday on the deck overlooking the sunset with a nice dinner and French champagne.

Once easter was over, we refuelled our car and drove to Shark Bay. Staying overnight at the beautiful Hamelin Station, before heading north to Monkey Mia and the dolphins. Stopped a few times on the way up - saw Stromatolites, Shell Beach (the whole beach is made up of tiny shells), a lookout where  approx. 50 sharks were cruising around in the shallow water, not a great spot for snorkeling... Went to see the dolphins and Sarah even managed to get picked to hand feed a fish to the lovely creatures.