"Three girls, a man and a caravan".: Cape Range National Park.....Week One....just gob smacked!!!

Everyone should be thanking there lucky stars, however l was nearly in tears.....This is my second attempt at writing this blog as l accidentally deleted the first one, which took me a flippin week to write!!! So you will all be treated to the summarized version....

After leaving Coral Bay with trepidation, due to us loving it there so much, we set off for Exmouth to restock supplies. After replenishing our food and fuel we set off out of town on a goose chase to find this caravan stockist bloke for some spare hot water anodes the boys had arranged to pick up. Surprisingly, we found the motor cross track in good time just out of town which the kids got a buzz watching the bikes ride up the jumps on the red dirt track.

On your marks......

Getting some air....

Girls watching on with anticipation.....

It was ending up a long day, we lost some time so decided to stop at Yardie Creek Station for a night. Beautiful little place, full of nomads who know everything though. Woke to an amazing sunrise the next morning, grab the Nikon and captured the Corella's having an early morning feed in the grass. Sky was highlighted in all the colours of the rainbow, with the surrounding ranges in the horizon, it was just so peaceful and glorious (obviously the kids weren't with me). Marty and Cam had gone and secured our sites at Cape Range National Park at the Mesa Campground. When they got back with the news that we had a couple of sites waiting for us, the pack up was quick as we had to get there within an hour or they would give our site go to someone else...the relaxation of the mornings sunrise was lost quickly.....

Yardie Creek Station reception....

Campsite for the night....

Sunset after a big day....

Sunrise the next morning...

Snuggles with two lovebird Corella's..

Everything came alive, the butterflies
came out to flutter too...

We had a wonderful two weeks at Cape Range National Park. We halved our time between two camps in the park. The first week was at the overflow campsite at Mesa and the second week was at the North Kurragong campground further in the park. Our time at Mesa was windy which made it bloody dusty! We did have a wonderful time exploring the park and snorkeling though, so it wasn't all bad. The routine usually was to tackle school in the morning then head out after lunch for either a snorkel or hike in one of the gorges. The walks weren't too bad and the kids loved getting way too close to the cliffs edge for Tonia....She sort of freaked out due to her fear of heights, poor thing! Yardie Creek gorge walk was great, the river runs into the Indian Ocean. The panoramic view from the top of the walk was awesome with the red cliff edges, the river then the bright blue ocean in the foreground. Apart from Tonia freaking out over the kids being close to the edge a few times, it was a pretty relaxing walk.

Campsite at Mesa campground....

Meg fascinated in the turtles.

At the Milyering Discovery Centre,,

Jordyn and Boo enjoying Looming....

The Beeson clan...

Riley, Jordyn, Meg and Boo all ready
for the hike at Yardie Creek..

View at the start of the Yardie Creek walk....

Marty using Riley as a 'leaning post'...they have a really cool
relationship!!!

Pick the ants.....

Girls power....

Marty, Cam and the kids take a break...

Now the best part of Cape Range National Park is the Ningaloo Reef! OMG l can totally see why it is a heritage listed part of Australia. We had been snorkeling with amazing marine life already on our travels at Coral Bay and Point Quobba, but Ningaloo was at another level. We first experienced the underwater magical wonderland at Turquoise Bay. The rule of this place is that you need to walk up the other end of the beach and then enter the water and drift down, making sure to get out of the water by the time you reach the orange lifesaver on the fence or else the current may drag you out to sea, next stop Africa! We were all a bit worried with the possibility of being dragged out to sea, but after our first drift we realised it was pretty easy to get out of the current.

The magnificent waters at Turquoise Bay...

Ton and Cam having a cuddle on the beach...aww

Boo, Meg and Jordyn enjoying the oceans pleasures...

Now, getting back to our first experience at Ningaloo Reef.....what didn't we see? As soon as you step in ocean and put your head under water you are greeted with the most colourful fish l have ever seen. All everyone would have heard was all of us yelling thru our snorkel "look over here" and "wow, look at this fish". I was swimming with Boo when we saw this huge sting ray, l yelled out to Tonia that it was coming her way, next thing we see Tonia splashing frantic and screaming. The bloody sting ray had swam straight towards here all right, nearly smashed into her forehead, she got a little scared to say the least. Took the whole two weeks to get her confidence back in the water poor thing. Going back to our swim, we swam amongst nearly all the fish from "Finding Nemo" except the infamous Nemo himself. Funny how all these fish have characteristics and different personalities, you sort of notice it after watching them for hours on end.
The following are just a few pics over the day.....doesn't really show how amazing the underwater world is but it is as good as our camera could shoot...

The colour of the coral was amazing...

So funny that you could hear them chomping on the coral before you saw them...

The highlight was definitely cruising around with the turtles. Has always been on my bucket-list to swim with them in their natural environment, and we were blessed to have come across so many of them. Most didn't even care that we were swimming inches away from them, they just took it in their stride. A few, l'm thinking they were younger, didn't like the attention so much. It just felt like we were in the biggest fish tank. The color of the coral alone was amazing, with bright yellows, purples and blues. The fish were so noisy chomping on the coral, sounded like when we eat a bag of chips! After we all got out, we shared our experiences and were all on such a high that we walked straight up the end of the beach and did it all again. Most drifts would take Marty and l between 30 to 60 minutes! The temperature of the water was beautiful most times, that being the only thing that would make us get out, if we got a little too cold.

They were sneaky to try hide in the coral....

Just cruising....

We spent many days down at Turquoise Bay wasting it away in the quiet bliss of the underwater paradise followed by warming up under the rays of the sun on the beach. Marty and l never got sick of it, the girls however, were just as happy building sandcastles on the beach and playing games with Jordyn and Riley. This suited us as we got to have our own time exploring without the nagging of the girls wanting to get out. Total bliss!

Whilst at Mesa, we met up with Ton and Cams mates, Sharon and Shonit, again. They camped for a few nights with us before moving on. We had good times having a few beers at the end of the day, one night everyone let their hair down and following yet another concert put on by the kids, we had a little dance-a-thon ourselves. At the end of the week, the weather wasn't looking too good with gusty winds so we took to the land in the car and had a few drives around. We veered off left onto some dirt tracks to explore, both Marty and Cam loving the off road experience. We made our way to the top of the ranges one day, the road full of rocks, boulders and ruts. Boys loved it, l was hanging on a little, still shook up from the near roll over on the beach in Coral Bay. The view from the top was worth it though, absolutely stunning.

The Patrol and Cruiser together.....

Stunning views....

There's always a friendship rock....

Back at Mesa, the kids were loving the their downtime playing, can you believe, imaginary schools! How ironic. We were arguing with them to get their school done and when they were finally finished, that's the game they played all day! Apart from driving us crazy, they took to the sand dunes behind us and had a blast with their boogie boards sliding down.

Boo and Riley always finding stuff to amuse themselves...

At night, l took to the dunes, enjoying a glass of wine watching the magical WA sunset. That's one thing l don't get sick of, another sunset. On the crappy days, Marty and l tried our hands at fishing, but not one bite! I ended up grabbing the snorkeling gear to check it out, and can you believe, l didn't see one fish. We were immersed with thousands down the road at Turquoise Bay, but back at Mesa, not one!

These two are so cute together.....

Our fish less day on the beach at Mesa...

On a gloomy day we decided to take a trip into Exmouth to replenish some food stocks and water for our next week. We quickly did our jobs in town then headed out to check out the ship wreck just outside of town and also called into the Turtle Information Hut, which we all ended up being fascinated in....

Old Ship Wreck H.M.A.S

Boo was intrigued by the story of turtle survival...

...and what do kids do...they pretend a bench is a boat!

Even though a gloomy day, still impressive

Meg trying to put together the skeletal jigsaw..

Never too big to hold Daddy's hand.

Anyway, week one was jam packed, totally living up to expectations with the only disappointment being the campground. Due to the recent floods a few weeks ago, some of the campgrounds were closed due to trees and other debris destroying the grounds. So, at Mesa we were in the overflow part which with the winds, became a dust bowl. We had been told by other travellers that once in the park you could transfer to other campgrounds, well that's a whole lot of bullshit. Apparently, you still need to book online, which is great seeing their was no internet service in the park! After a bit of work driving around and talking to some camp hosts, Ton and l secured a campsite at North Kurrajong thanks to "Shazza" at the gate!

I will leave you with this stunning sunrise view l witnessed one morning.....and don't forget to check out Week 2!!!