Wonderful Cape Range N.P.

First stop after Onslow was Exmouth - a relaxed holiday town. No high vis jackets, utes with flags, big trucks etc. but plenty of vans, motor homes, grey nomads and backpackers. Some nice homes being built on a large marina estate - blocks between $350,000 and $450,000, several new resorts, many businesses associated with diving, game fishing, boats chasing whales and a fairly busy port with huge prawn trawlers and large tenders which service the off shore oil and gas rigs.  Also very evident are the huge masts of the Harold Holt Communication Centre - the central mast, one of 13, is the second highest structure in the Southern Hemisphere. They communicate with navy ships, navy bases and submarines around the world and also of course with Canberra . We enjoyed our two days exploring the area, despite probably being in a nuclear target zone.

Then it was time to try and get into Cape Range National Park, which is on the western side of  North West Cape . Enquiries at the Information Centre informed us that we needed to line up at the Ranger's Office at about 7.00am and the Ranger would allocate sites at 8.15am when he/she knew the number of vacancies - there had been only 10 vacancies that day. We were also told that if we arrived much before 7.00am we could be fined for illegal camping. So next morning we were up at 5.30am and out at the offfice at exactly 7.00am to find ourselves 10th in line! We popped the van up and had breakfast and waited anxiously.  At 8.15am a Ranger slowly moved down the  line of cars, we prepared ourselves to be turned away, but he got to us and said there were 14 vacancies that day. We were in!! We were allocated a site in Ned's Camp, the first camp  in the park, and it was just lovely. Our site, one of 15, was fairly sheltered and only about 30 metres from a pristine beach. The surf was spectacularly breaking over Ningaloo Reef, about 500m off shore, and the lagoon was turquoise blue and calm. From our van we had a good view across the car park to the sea. Camp Hosts Steve and Kerry were very welcoming and it wasn't long before we were meeting neighbouring campers. We only booked for 2 days but kept extending and stayed for 8. We walked on beaches, up gorges, along ridge tops and around a mangrove lagoon. A 2 hour trip on a glass bottom boat was lovely and also allowed us to snorkel over the coral reef. Happy Hour at 5.30pm each day enabled us to chat with other campers, some of whom came every year and stayed for the maximum 28 days. We met some lovely people. From a hill near the lighthouse ( where we went to make phone calls) we could watch humback whales on their annual migration to breeding grounds up the coast. We were given some lovely fish for tea one night - the fishermen in camp caught fish every day from their small boats or canoes, although sometimes they lost their fish to sharks. The whole experience was a lovely holiday within the holiday. We would like to come back.

We were a bit sad to leave but ready to move on. Carnarvon is quite a lovely place. Lot's of plantations, orchards and vegetable gardens. We are eating good tropical fruits and lovely fresh vegetables. Soon we are to catch up with our friends Roger and Anne in the Kennedy Range N.P., inland from Carnarvon - back to red dust and rocky roads.