Sunday 13th June - Blowholes Road to Five Mile Bay

Fishermen in this part of the world take their business seriously and they’d returned before we’d got up this morning, but we weren’t disturbed as they were some way down the beach.

Another four hour drive along boring roads (why didn’t they make Australia smaller?) brought us to Coral Bay, the main centre (if you can call one street that) for the southern end of the Ningaloo Marine Park.  Packed out caravan parks led us to the beach which is rather gorgeous (although for some reason I have no photograph, so you’ll have to take our word for it).  Set in a sheltered bay with white sand and turquoise sea we can see why it’s a popular spot, with a car park full of Wicked Campers (individually painted vans favoured by budget conscious backpackers which we’ve encountered in increasing numbers as we travel north).

We unloaded our snorkelling gear and walked around to the next bay so we could be carried by the current back to the main beach.  I don’t think we really went out far enough to see the proper coral, but were amused by some small bright blue fish.  Oyster Stacks and Turquoise Bay further up the coast have both been recommended as top snorkelling spots, so hopefully the best is yet to come.

After watching some charter fishermen fillet the huge fish they had caught that day in the fish cleaning area (every town should have one), we took the 4WD track which follows the coast from Coral Bay up to the national park, rather than driving the main road.  Around 10km along the track Anne’s super sensitive noise picked up a burning smell again.  Pulling over and checking the remains of the handbrake cable revealed that it was again trying to act as an earth, which was somewhat puzzling as the extra earth cable I had run seemed fine as there was continuity from the engine/gearbox to the chassis.  When we get to Exmouth we’ll replace the main earth lead which will hopefully fix the problem once and for all.  In the meantime I removed the handbrake cable in the hope we could continue without catching fire again.

As we hadn’t got as far as a national park campsite and it was now after 5pm, we turned off the main track at the next side trail we found and followed it over the vegetated dunes to a small bay

where we set up for the evening after watching the sun set over the ocean. SPOT

We’d been bothered by moths the previous evening and had thought that was bad, but as soon as the sun set we were inundated by moths of all sizes.  First the really large ones, with red markings on their wings and red eyes buzzed incessantly around, followed by medium sized and then smaller ones which were more interested in landing on us.  I used to wonder what moths eat.  Did they really enjoy chowing down on your woollen jumpers if you left them in your wardrobe for too long?  Now I know.  They like to eat chilli.