If you surf, and you travel up or down the WA coast, you have to go to Gnaraloo (pronounced narloo), Red Bluff and (further south) Kalbarri. No questions. No discussion. You go. Apparently you take the family too, if they happen to be in the car.

So we left Coral Bay and the calm, clear water that covers the Ningaloo Reef and its underwater paradise of coral and marine life. You have to drive south down the highway to Carnarvon – refuel, groceries, water – and then go north again on the coast road.
First you get to The Blowholes. They’re just your regular spouting quirks of coastal rock formations. You get wet if you wait long enough.

The bonus of stopping here was the coffee van! (only 4/10) He also did burgers and squid. Nice surprise.
Then you go across private land, firstly Quobba Station, then Gnaraloo Station. The track is pretty rough and bumpy. They say you have to be an experienced surfer to ride these waves. I’d like to add “dedicated” to that. And you need a saint for a wife. Clearly John has all the attributes.
We pulled in to Red Bluff, on Quobba Station.

The camp sites are right on the edge of the sand, spread along a stretch of about a kilometre. There’s about 5 trees along this kilometre. They’ve also built a few beach shelters covered in palm fronds with imaginative names like “Green Room” and “Love Shack”.

I think they charge more to camp in these. Then there’s the proper tents, permanently set up. They’re a bit fancy, with their own toilet and water. I think they are for men whose wives aren’t saints.
We found a good spot, where the tent pegs got through the rocks, but not near one of the five trees. We’re faced away from the wind, and the solar panels get the afternoon sun. This is a good thing, because there’s no power, no water and no fire wood here. But they do have the best long drop toilets. They (the toilets) all have a great view, with just a bit of green shade cloth for privacy. Airy too.

Some would call this a desolate place. Perhaps the sheep that live here would agree. I’m confident the station owners are enjoying the cash economy of dedicated surfers rather than the price of spring lambs at market. The afternoon we arrived the wind was onshore. For the non-surfers reading this, that means no surf. It also means the flame on the gas burner was struggling to cook our dinner. But we fell asleep to the crashing waves of the shore break, so loud it sometimes woke us up. It sounded like the thump of a car crash.

Today we went back to the same spot just south of Coral Bay where we were yesterday afternoon. There’s a maze of tracks through the dunes, but if you persevere, you’ll end up right on the beach. Gee, I didn’t have to walk far for a swim today.

The boys took the kayak out to the edge of the reef. They were gone for at least two hours. That’s a lot of tanning time. I finally got the binoculars out to see if they were out there somewhere. Sure enough, the orange of the kayak was bobbing around just near the breaking waves. When they finally came back to shore they were bursting with news of what they saw: black tip reef shark, turtles, big mackerel, a school of thousands of tiny black and yellow fish, lion fish, angel fish and lots more.
The fishing was good too!

They even had fun while John cleaned the fish waiting for the reef sharks to come in, goggles at the ready so they could jump in to see them.

I snorkelled with John and Ferg, using Ferg’s flippers. We were out for over half an hour, and Ferg swam the whole time with no flippers. It’s times like these I know that all those years of swimming lessons and Nipper training is worth it. We saw more huge fan coral, in lots of colours and fish were everywhere. It’s like jumping in the tank at Melbourne Aquarium! There’s a whole world lying just below the surface.
John and Ferg paddled the kayak back to Coral Bay, while Harry and I drove back through the dune tracks. Yes, we got stuck in the sand (no biggie, just needed to use low range to get out) and yes, we got lost. But at least the view was good! You can see the kayak in the photo below – it’s just a spec near the sand dune.

The boys all went for an early dive before breakfast and pack up. This was a good move because the wind arrived after that and was here to stay. We moved on but never found a spot to camp along the coast where we thought we would. Once you leave Cape Range National Park, you’re on private land – Ningaloo Station. Whilst they allow camping at designated places on their land, you first have to get a key to all the locked gates ($150 deposit), bring your own chemical toilet, and then return to the homestead to take the key back. All a pain in the neck really when you’re on a really bad road. Their sites looked pretty uninviting from outside the locked gates, and the wind was a screaming offshore nightmare that made anything to do with sand seem like torture.

Above is a part of Cape Range, and that’s not smoke blowing around. It’s sand coming off the dunes.
As you can see, this is pretty desolate country, and whilst it is a pastoral lease, the only animals we saw were goats. This place suits them quite well.
We also saw heaps of emus including the one in the photo below with about 15 young chicks. (Mum – click on the photo to make it bigger so you can see the baby emus)

The road started out very rough and badly corrugated. It was 100km into Coral Bay, and we thought the road would improve. It didn’t. Thanks John for plodding away at the driving job for the day. It took well over five hours to go 100km. Long way when you go that slow, big day.
Arriving in Coral Bay we had one of our latest lunches looking over the bay full of coral. Coral Bay has just one street with two caravan parks and a new place called Ningaloo Resort. There’s a few shops too. The caravan parks are chock full of long term Nomads. I overheard the receptionist taking a booking for July next year.
Luck was on our side today and we got the only free site in town. Coral Bay is in a Sanctuary Zone, so we went south through the sand dunes to find somewhere to spear fish.

The tide was low and some of the coral was exposed.
These quad bikes came zooming past – gave me quite a surprise. Can you imagine Surfcoast Shire giving a permit for this at home!!!!!

It was a lovely hour or so on the beach for me, and the boys got two good sized fish for dinner. So I am officially eating my words about John’s spear gun. Turns out, it was just the rubber stretchy thing that was a problem. We got that replaced in Exmouth, so it’s all go now.

This one’s specially for Miss Barson and Mrs.Marra and 3/4B and 5/6B. I’m sure all the kids at school are enjoying Sound Waves in the waves. Aren’t they?

People often ask “what are the children going to do about schooling?”. Do you remember what you did in Term 3 of Grade 4 or 5? Fergus and Harry will!

We also do out times tables on the beach. Doesn’t everyone?

The peninsula we are on reaching out to the north has one road up the east side to North Cape and the lighthouse, where we stayed, and it continues round the tip and heads south down the western side along the Ningaloo Reef. There are numerous places to access the beach as well as some Department of Conservation (DEC) managed camping sites. These sites get booked out well in advance, and there’s a queue at the entry gate at 8am (they actually start arriving at 6am) every morning hoping to get a spot. We planned to drive on through the National Park and find somewhere further south to camp on private land, past Yardie Creek. But the gate keeper said she had one site left at the most southern camp ground – Boat Harbour. Lucky us!
We stopped at Yardie Creek and John and Ferg paddled the Mango up the creek. See them?

It was a lovely quite creek – only about a kilometre long. Harry and I walked up the track atop the gorge. The creek will sometime break through the sand bar after a cyclone and then flow for several years.

Today it was dry crossing, but the sand was fairly deep and soft. Super Cruiser did it in high range. Easy.
The camp site at Boat Harbour was secluded and quiet. There are just four sites available. It’s just over the dip in the sand dunes in the photo below.

John and the boys dived off the rocks. There were plenty of fish and coral. The wind was a strong south westerly, so it was good to be protected by the dunes.