Escape to the Coral Coast

[NSun]

Great report. I say this as an Easterner, WA has been my favourite state to visit, particularly the regional areas. I've been up to Broome, Mandurah as well as driven to Wave Rock via York. I quite liked your photos of the Pinnacles, which is probably next on my bucket list to check out next time I'm there, I believe it'd be doable as a day trip from Perth.

 

[kookaburra75]

Your posts have brought back many memories of the cape, when I was up there as a Surveyor in the early 80's. We actually went into Coral Bay to survey the area for the future caravan park and facilities. I'll have to dig through my photos and see what I can find. We did several trips to Exmouth for work, including stopping in at Cervantes to do some survey work on one of the cray processing facilities - and got paid partially in kind with a bag of lobsters - the boss wasn't happy about that deal.

I also got to resurvey part of the old reserve around the Vlaming Head Lighthouse, and the Light Keepers' houses down the bottom, for changes to the road and a proposed new caravan park. There was also the old tramway that was used to bring up supplies from the landing point down to the south. It's certainly incredible country. When I submitted this survey as the rural project as part of my licensing exams, I knew it would be a hit as the work had previously been done by the then secretary of the Board of Surveyors, Syd Stokes in the 1940's. He just wanted to talk about it, while the rest of the Board wanted to quiz me on other aspects of my projects.

 

[JohnM]

Nice to see you had Lounge access

And 1A...

Actually, funny that you mention lounge access (the sofa was very comfy, BTW ). When we got back Gavin and I were chatting and looking at the birds when he offered a beer.

Corona, of course...

 

[JohnM]

Great report. I say this as an Easterner, WA has been my favourite state to visit, particularly the regional areas. I've been up to Broome, Mandurah as well as driven to Wave Rock via York. I quite liked your photos of the Pinnacles, which is probably next on my bucket list to check out next time I'm there, I believe it'd be doable as a day trip from Perth.

An easy day trip from Perth. Go on a little further to Cervantes for lunch at the Lobster Shack.

 

[JohnM]

OK, resuming transmission and gotta rock ‘n roll to get this finished before heading bush again on Friday.

Woo-hoo! Some flying!

Personal escort from the F lounge and waiting for the PD Dom…



Pushback! And pilot to ground control: ‘Look at this sucker in 1A!’



‘Here’s the Weeties pack the license came in.’



Rotate!



Settling into the cruise.



‘Hey, dugongs; let’s swing around and take a look!’



Abeam Exmouth harbour and gaining altitude to clear the restricted zone around the signals station (it’s less restricted around the antenna array).



This is awesome! Coming around the cape.



Gavin had his camera in addition to the wingtip GoPro. A look at the antenna array from above.

Turning the corner and getting out over the Ningaloo Reef and open ocean; gaining altitude accordingly as we got further from shore.

 

[JohnM]

Humpback whales sighted.



Manta rays sighted inside the reef.



A few last orbits before turning and climbing to cross the peninsula and the rugged Cape Range NP. Reached 4500 feet.

 

[JohnM]

Next day was a whale shark encounter.

Briefing first, then snorkelling inside the reef just to check everyone’s capabilities. Then Gavin got in the air in the microlight and in no time whale sharks were sighted just west and not far south of the tip of the cape.

(There are quite a few whale shark watching operators at Exmouth. Most use a common light aircraft for spotting. But what that means is that multiple boats are likely to be ‘on’ one animal. Each boat can take up to about 20 pax, of which ten can be in the water with a whale shark at a time.

If there are multiple boats, then after each boats two pods of ten swim for a mandated several minutes, that boat retreats and the next boat joins the circuit and so on). The boat I went on does its own thing using Gavin in the microlight to spot.

We were the only boat that went north of the launch area, which is a little unusual but Gavin (and I) had spotted several whale sharks not far outside the reef there the day before.)

Sure enough, they were still there. We ended up having an encounter with three different whale sharks, and three swims with the first tow and two swims with the third. The main reason why we peeled off from the third was that a humpback and another whale shark were spotted plunge feeding a couple of km away.



My dinky underwater camera is not very good but here are a few pics. The photographer on board took plenty of pics and they post them to Flikr for download. No extra cost.



There’s Gavin. Watching some close encounters from the boat. Then back inside the reef for lunch and some more snorkelling.

 

[JohnM]

Some much better pics by the photographer.



Your correspondent and friend.

 

[StevoQFtraveller]

Some great pics there. Love that part of the coast!

 

[JohnM]

A couple of days later I upped stumps and moved from Exmouth to Coral Bay, taking a couple of detours into Cape Range NP on the way.



Past the Learmonth solar observatory (SWS - Learmonth Observatory - Overview) and LEA. Note the ‘Photography Prohibited’ sign. LEA is a military airstrip. And sunset at Coral Bay.

 

[JohnM]

Coral Bay.



I went on a Manta ray (Manta ray - Wikipedia) encounter. A cold front had gone through SW Australia and extended some influence as far north as Coral Bay. A big swell was pounding the Ningaloo Reef and the current inside the reef was very strong and the water fairly turbid.

Coral Bay id one of only two places in Australia that Mantas occur year-round. There is a 2 km wide gap in the reef north of Coral Bay that constantly sweeps plankton into a bay in which they feed.

 

[JohnM]

A bottom-feeding ray shuffling the sand with fish hangers-on picking up scraps. Then to the Mantas. They’re fast and hard to get pics of. Most Mantas have white bellies with black markings but about 10% are reversed. Our second encounter was a black-bellied variant actively barrel-rolling as it fed.



Then lunch followed by some more snorkelling in calmer waters nearer shore, with a turtle sighting.



There was a professional photographer on board selling his shots, but I didn’t bother purchasing. Some of his work is here: Ocean Photography Prints Australia.

 

[JohnM]

A couple of days later, I began heading home, going as far as Geraldton before the final 4h run into Perth the next day. On the way to Geraldton I made a detour of about 20 km into Hamelin Pool at lunchtime to take another look at the WH-listed stromatolites.

Then late in the day as I approached Geraldton, a loop west to the Hutt Lagoon pink lake (Pink Lake at Port Gregory | Australia's Coral Coast | Western Australia).



And that’s all folks!

 

[VPS]

It all looks lovely - I wonder if one day I'll be allowed to visit WA and do some more exploring.

 

[drron]

And the other place I know where manta rays can be seen year round is Queenslands Coral coast in the Bundaberg region.
And whilst I was there in February the star of the areas manta rays turned up at Lady Elliot Island.A pink manta ray.

Once again thanks for the TR.I guess after doing the cray cruise from Geraldton next year we now have to head north to Ningaloo reef as well.

 

[JohnM]

And the other place I know where manta rays can be seen year round is Queenslands Coral coast in the Bundaberg region.
And whilst I was there in February the star of the areas manta rays turned up at Lady Elliot Island.A pink manta ray.

Once again thanks for the TR.I guess after doing the cray cruise from Geraldton next year we now have to head north to Ningaloo reef as well.

Yes, it was Lady Elliot Island that they said was the other place in Australia.

Maybe you should move to WA for a few months next year and knock off a few other things as well.