En-route to Exmouth we opted for a night stay In Onslow after leaving Karijini National Park. Onslow very much had the feel of a dying town, it doesn’t have the benefit of direct access to the Ningaloo Reef with its attendant tourist trade as its southern neighbour Exmouth does nor the industrial mining economy of its northern neighbors Dampier and Port Headland. We therefore came away with the distinct impression that it is only a matter of time before this town is consigned to the annals of history unless it can very quickly define its purpose.
Upon arriving in Exmouth we had a day to spare before the first of the diving trips we had organised were scheduled and therefore decided to explore the Cape Range national park. Located within the Ningaloo Coast World Heritage Area the limestone range and arid coastal plain of Cape Range meet the pristine waters of the Ningaloo Marine Park and is home to a diverse range of wildlife. Towards the southern end of Cape Range is Yardie Creek, unique within the park as it has a permanent fresh water source that flows between the sheer cliffs of Yardie Creek Gorge towards the Indian Ocean:
The following three days we had arranged to scuba dive on the Ningaloo Reef with Dive Ningaloo, we both approached this with a little apprehension having not dived for 4-years but were excited at the prospect of exploring Australia’s largest fringing reef. Our first day didn’t go exactly as I would have hoped; having taken a boat ride approximately 20-minutes down the coast from our boarding point we entered the water for the first or our two scheduled dives for the day. On starting our descent one of our group was having difficulty equalising and after waiting for around 10-minutes in the backward/forward wave motion at approximately 5-metres she decided to abort allowing the rest of us to descend to carry-on with our dive. Upon reaching our dive depth at a relatively shallow 12-metres it was apparent that there continued to be a considerable tidal surge and it wasn’t very long before this combined with visibility of only 5-metres was causing me to feel the effects of motion sickness. After a fairly miserable 40-minutes it was time to surface and return to the boat where the boat skipper had a full Aussie barbeque going with sausages and onions, now normally I would have been delighted about this but clambering back onto the boat having felt like I had been in a washing machine for the last 40-minutes all I could do was crawl into a quiet corner and stare out to sea for 10-minutes whilst I regained my composure. I did manage to recover fairly quickly though and semi enjoyed my hotdog and salad but decided that for me discretion would be the better part of valor and I opted not to dive again that day and Jo having been affected by the cold on her dive and emerged from the sea shivering and covered in goose bumps also elected not to dive again that day.
For our second day of diving we took a 1.5 hour boat trip out to the uninhabited Muiron Islands, this consists of the North and South Muiron Islands and is a World Heritage listed marine area. This time the diving was better, there was less tidal surge and whilst the visibility wasn’t as good as we have come to expect in the Maldives the coral is probably the best we have ever seen. I was able to enjoy the lunchtime barbeque and we both dived twice and felt our confidence returning enabling us to look forward to our final and most exciting day diving from Exmouth.
The Exmouth Navy Pier is a 300-metre long pier that is part of an active naval base, it has been voted one of the top 10 dive sites in Australia and one of the top shore dives in the world largely due to the fact that by being part of an active naval base it is not accessible to the general public.
The fact that access to the pier is restricted and no fishing is allowed means that underneath the structure it is teeming with marine life that gravitates towards the structure for protection. This was the first time for both Jo and I diving around and through a structure and care had to be taken by both of us not to bump into the structure, eachother or bizarrely the actual marine life that lives there and shows no concern for our presence.
After finishing diving and enjoying some excellent tapas in Exhale Exmouth the next day is was time to move on again but on the way out of Exmouth there was one last thing we wanted to see and explore. By following Charles Knife road to the top of the Cape Range affording spectacular views of the Charles Knife Canyon:
One response to “Exmouth”
Great read dad! Like the grouper 🐟