Our drive to Exmouth was a bit of a drag until we left the North West Costal Highway and drove along Burkhill Road, where the scenery changed from drab scrub to the bright red soil, pale cream grass and dark green trees, very similar to the landscape near Uluru. Both sides of the road on the last 150km into Exmouth was lined with grazing sheep and newly born lambs. The road was pretty narrow and there were no fences to keep the sheep off the road. We saw lots of road kill (roos and sheep) in the area, but didnt hit anything ourselves (thank goodness).
Nigaloo Lighthouse Caravan Park ($35 power) was about 17km past Exmouth close to the Cape Range National Park. We had planned to stay in Exmouth for 4 days, but everything was booked out and I could only get a booking for 2 days. We arrived late afternoon and after a lot of manoeuvring up a steep slope of red dust, finally got the van in position with the help of a regular in the van opposite, who told us "they have problems with vans on that site every year because of the steep slope and big concrete curb". The first thing we saw as we drove in the gate was 6 emus strolling through the park. The water in the park is salty and not suitable for drinking, but you can fill small containers with rainwater for drinking.
Because we really only had 1 full day there, we decided to spend it in the national park and drove the 76km to the end of the tarred road to Yardie Creek. Here we walked the Nature Walk and The Gorge Trail, first following the trail along the creek and then climbing to the rim of the gorge where there were spectacular views over the gorge to the ocean and Nigaloo Reef. Hoped to see some wild life, but it didn't happen.
Our next stop was Mandu Mandu Gorge where we ate lunch before tackling the gorge walk, first walking in a very rocky dry creek bed deep into the gorge. We next followed a steep path up into the gorge rim, again enjoying the views of Nigaloo Reef and the surrounding country, before decending down a steep rocky path to the car park. It was a 2 hour hard slog and we were both knackered.
Our last stop before heading back to camp was the Mangrove Bay Bird Hide, where you can observe local and migratory birds in a coastal mangrove swamp from a purpose built wooden hide.
Unfortunately we didnt get to do as much as we wanted to in Exmouth because the place was booked out and we couldn't hang around waiting as we were already booked into Coral Bay.
Next blog from there.
Cheers
Rhonda (Sam) & Pete
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