Roadtrip to Exmouth, Winderabandi Point & Kalbarri – Part II
Our destination, Ned’s campground north of Exmouth, is another 6-hour drive from Gladstone Bay. We’re leaving Gladstone by around 11 and soon wish we’d gone earlier. Two hours before hitting Exmouth and all the way up, the landscape is flat, with green meadows and many termite mounds, making for a bit of an alien atmosphere. We get to Ned’s at 5 pm and set up camp during sunset.
Arriving at the cute and cosy campground nestled against the dunes, we’re greeted by the volunteer hosts, a lovely couple called John and Julie. Julie advises us to use our torches when using the bush loos (without flush) because snakes tend to hang around within there. We don’t spot any of those but one very big and very persistent moth with a black and white tiger pattern, that really wants to get into our car as we’re unpacking. Eyes glowing in the dark, it’s not a pretty sight as far as fluttery insects come.
The campground is small with only 9 sites and the beach is only fifty metres through the dunes. I love this spot right away, even though the sites aren’t very big and we’re camped a bit close to our neighbours, a lovely elderly couple from England who have lived in Denmark, south of Western Australia for years. I’m just really pleased that it’s finally nice and warm, and after our dinner of burgers and salad on the gas cooker (campfires are not allowed here), we’re off to the beach for a little walk. Crabs are running sideways across the beach and away from us in the lights of our torches. After a short walk, we meet three Australian lads fishing off the shore. They say they’ve not caught anything yet, but when we come back, it seems they are bringing in some big catch. Shouting excitedly, they slowly pull in what seems to be a very large fish. Turns out, they caught a flathead shark, about 1.5 metres long! Thankfully, they manage to unhook this stunning creature so it can swim off into the ocean unharmed.
The next morning, after a beautiful and refreshing swim just off “our” beach, we take the boat just around the corner to Mesa Campground, which features boat access to the ocean. This is the first time we’re actually taking the boat out into the sea. We’re struggling a bit to get the tinny off the trailer, until Liam takes the outboard motor off and we can drop it in. Once on the ocean, the abundance of wildlife is just jaw dropping. Curious turtles stick their little heads out of the ocean as we’re floating over the turquoise and blue waters, with dumping waves breaking over the reef in the distance.
The waters are still a bit choppy and I’m getting a bit dizzy, so Liam drops me at the beach after a while and I just enjoy some swimming and me-time with my book while Liam cruises out to sea again for a fish. We bring the boat back in just around sunset, and we hungrily return to the campsite for a barbeque chicken, sweet potato and veg dinner which we prepare with a disposable barbeque and our gas cooker. And after a bit of night fishing, we sadly have to leave Ned’s already, promising to ourselves that we’ll be back here soon.
Turquoise Bay
There isn’t much time for sadness for our next stop is Turquoise Bay. This must be one of the best beaches in the world – it certainly is (aside from the Whitsunday Islands maybe) the best beach I have ever seen. We get there for 9:30 am, now having more routine in packing up, and what a blessing it is to be here early. We’re the only one of three cars in total and less than a handful of people in this gorgeous place, featuring white sand and turquoise waters. I can’t even look without my sunglasses because everything is just so bright. Barely two hours later, the car park is overflowing and the beach is a lot fuller (albeit still wonderful).
Walking along the shore, we see a turtle swimming gently along the beach and a black tip reef shark only a couple of metres from the beach. We drop our stuff and get ready for a snorkel. Not much time passes and we see another turtle, lots of colourful fish and a ray in the bay area. There are two areas for snorkling at Turqoise Bay – the bay area and the lagoon. We go for two snorkels in the bay area and then discover that the visibility in the lagoon is better, albeit with stronger current.
I snorkel as long as I can possibly manage because the waters are actually quite cold this time of year. It’s hard to get out of these beautiful waters but when you almost bite off the mouthpiece of your snorkel because your teeth are clattering, it’s time to stop.
Some impressions from our snorkels
Note: Please ignore the time stamp – we didn’t set the time on the camera.
We now have two options to get to our next destination, Winderabandi Point: We could take the dirt road via Yardi Creek, which includes a possible water crossing if the creek has water, or we could go back to Exmouth and take the tarmac road, which is a much longer loop around. Because I haven’t seen much of Exmouth yet and because we can’t seem to get reliable information about the state of Yardi Creek, we opt for the drive through Exmouth. This means we get to stop at the lighthouse in Exmouth, which at the same time is a war memorial. This site is on a hill and it offers incredibly far views across the ocean. In the far distance, we see multiple humpback whales breaching, announced by a spray and followed by a big splash. We’re not close enough to see the detail but it’s still a miraculous spectacle. Humpback migration season up north is from June to end of October – I’m very sad that at least this time, I don’t have time to go on a whale watching tour.
We only stop for a quick half an hour in the cosy little town of Exmouth to get a pie in the bakery before we hit the road again, but we’ll definitely be back here for a longer holiday to see more of this stunning piece of land and the Cape Range National Park.
