Exmouth

On Saturday we left Carnarvon and had an easy drive along the NW Coastal Highway to Minilya, then turned on to the Minilya-Exmouth road.   Our overnight stop was just 32 kms further at the Lyndon River West rest area.    We enjoyed a very pleasant happy hour with some of our fellow campers, including a couple from Perth on their way to be the camp host for 3 ½ months at one of the Cape Range campgrounds (not the one we are going to).   Because of the rain in April, the countryside is looking green, with lots of spinifex and some early wildflowers.

View west from van at Lyndon River

 

First patch of wildflowers for this trip at Lyndon R

Coral Bay is just 12 kms off the Exmouth Road, so we called in on Sunday to see what we had missed on our previous trips.   It is a beautiful spot -  2 caravan parks, both seemed  busy.    There were quite a few outlets for booking whale shark and diving tours, and a very good bakery.   Unfortunately, I would have to rate the public toilet facility at Coral Bay the worst on our trip so far. 

 

Coral Bay

With only 125 kms to travel, we were in Exmouth Big4 Caravan Park, and set up in time for lunch.   We are now 1270 kms from Perth.   Exmouth had almost 500mm rain in 48 hours around Anzac Day and had been isolated for several days – on the way in we could certainly see where the flooding had been.   I don’t know if word of the floods has kept tourists away, or it is still a bit early in the season, but it is certainly not very busy here – plenty of caravan sites in town.   

We are really looking forward to going to Cape Range National Park tomorrow -  staying at the Osprey Campground for 9 nights.  Hopefully the weather will be a bit warmer, and less windy so Brian can paddle and I can swim.    All the water tanks, 2 jerry cans and several milk bottles are filled, so we should not have to come back in to Exmouth for water during our stay.   The supply of Whittaker’s chocolate has also been replenished.

After Cape Range we will have 2 nights back in Exmouth, where some serious discussion and map consultation will take place to determine our direction of travel after here.   It will be the school holidays so at this stage, we think we will have to go inland to avoid the crowds, as  the caravan parks on the coast are now fully booked.  Road conditions will also have to be checked as the April rain was quite widespread.