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Epic Round The World Trip Adventures! Stunning Photos & Articles – This page is all about Exmouth, West Australia on our around the world trip.

Stop 2 - W. Australia > North Of Perth

Exmouth - West Australia
Round The World Trip Journal

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(13th - 14th February) Exmouth
Another 140km north of Coral Bay we reached our northernmost stop on the West Coast – Exmouth (pronounced ex-mowth not ex-muth like us Brits say it!). The town of Exmouth is nothing special – it’s purely functional – supermarkets, dive shops, bottle shops, etc. But it’s bizarre to see emus strolling around the streets and sitting in the shade of trees in people’s front gardens! We stocked up with food and supplies because we had intended to spend some days free camping here. The town is the gateway into the Cape Range National Park that extends down the western coast of the headland and provides access to the Ningaloo Marine Park which protects the world’s largest west-coast fringing reef – the Ningaloo Reef. The reef is as beautiful as the Great Barrier Reef but is much more accessible, lying only 100m offshore. After the full moon in March the coral spawns en-masse releasing a soup of eggs and sperm. It’s this that attracts the whale sharks. Ningaloo is the only place in the world where these creatures reliably appear year after year. The largest fish in the world, it can weigh up to 21 tonnes (most weigh 13-15 tonnes) and can reach up to 18M long! They feed only on plankton and small fish and you can snorkel or dive with them (April – June) from the two centres of the Marine Park - tiny Coral Bay and Exmouth. Although we were too early for the whale sharks we were determined to get some snorkelling in here. The first night we camped at the last campsite with facilities before entering the National Park, from there on in none of the campsites have any facilities apart from bush loos. It was extremely hot, hot, hot. Definitely in the mid 40's with no air movement even at night – too stifling to sleep. Jo was up with the sunrise watching kangaroos feeding on the bushes outside our camper! In the park we visited a turtle rookery – where the turtles come out at night to lay their eggs on the beach in huge nests (rooks). We visited some pristine beaches with turquoise water – but we wouldn’t expect anything less now! We went snorkelling at Turquoise Bay but for us it wasn’t a patch on Coral Bay and then we were put off swimming any where else by stories of the strong currents that can pull you out towards gaps in the reef and into the open sea. Many sites say experienced snorkellers only and Jo’s definitely not experienced yet! Since we were mostly the only people on the beach it’s a bit disconcerting to go out there with no-one else around to save you! But it would be great for divers round here. The highlight of the park for us, however, were the kangaroos. We had only seen the odd one here and there but today we saw about a hundred! We came across some watering holes and by chance noticed movement – there were whole communities of roos sheltering in the shade of the rocky overhangs or under trees. We spent ages watching them feeding, resting, bounding about and got some amazing photos of them. Later we had our first near collision with a couple bounding across the road – I think half our tyres are still on the road up there! At one stop we were cornered by a couple of kangaroos – they had been resting in the shade of a picnic table but as we parked they came over and stood behind our van in the shade – the young one kept peering round the side at Mike. We had to wait until they moved before we could reverse out. In the same place we also saw a mother with a joey in her pouch right up close. She was alongside the track and just seemed too hot to be bothered to move so just sat there whilst we watched from a safe distance. We came across Mangrove Bay where we saw fins in the water so Mikey decided to walk out towards them. He stood watching as baby reef sharks swam around him but they are quite shy. We had planned to camp in the park but to be honest it was too flipping hot and Jo was not coping too well so Mikey treated her to the best Valentine’s present ever – an air-conditioned chalet back in Exmouth. And it was sheer heaven! A comfy bed and a full night’s sleep!

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Exmouth, West Australia - Round The World Trip Photos

MAP - Exmouth, West Australia - Round The World Trip Photos

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The highlights of our round the world trip: