A quick 2 hour trip up the road from Coral Bay is the town of Exmouth. I really don’t think the place is any bigger than my village back home however by WA standards it was of significant size. This was symbolized by the town having an IGA store and more than 1 coffee shop, halleluiah!
In the town there is not much to do at all however there are plenty of sights to see around the cape. We hired a flashy Hyundai Getz for the day which was just about big enough for me and Alex to fold ourselves into leaving the girls sitting in the back in charge of the agenda. We headed first to Yardie Creek which was around 96km away. You are not allowed to swim in the creek but there is a nice walk along the cliff tops which we did. I saw some people doing the trail in hiking boots; I looked down to see I had underestimated the walk with my flip-flops firmly attached. After climbing down the gorge we saw a cliff wallaby with its baby perched on the edge of a ledge with the male basking in the sun behind. The views were great looking over the creek and seeing the mountains protruding in the background. At this point I have to give a special mention to the flies. They are everywhere up there and you can not walk too far down the street without one landing on your mouth or face.
Our next stop off was Mandu Mandu Gorge that has a dried up river bed you can walk through. I must have had almost 100 flies clinging onto my backpack as I roamed around. The rising red cliffs looked impressive from the ground and the marshmallow looking pebbles made the walk slightly tricky.
Turquoise Bay is one of the star attractions in the area and even in the overcast conditions which we viewed the bay in, you could still see the electrifying blue variations of colour in the water. I decided to snorkel out to the reef and see if there was anything interesting apart from the sea grass. After 5 minutes I spotted a Green Turtle resting on the bottom grazing on the lush grass. I sped back to shore for my camera and Alex followed me back out to grab a glimpse. We managed to track it down again and swam respectfully with it for 15 minutes before it decided it did not want two English guys watching it eat dinner. On the drive back we saw a pack of Dingo’s (Smaller than a Alsatian) who looked like they were hunting as I could see several kangaroos making a dash for it in every direction.
For our final excursion we drove up to the lighthouse to watch the sunset. On top of the hill there is an old radio antenna which was used in the Second World War to detect military targets by radar. The sky was a perfect array of colours with the lighthouse silhouetted in the foreground. Renting the car worked out at $32 each between the 4 of us (Alex, Katie, Kristen & myself) which was considerably lower than any tour which would have ran for a lot less time too. You really have to get out of the town to enjoy what the area has to offer.
The rest of our time was spent enduring the heat at the YHA hostel and going on walks around the town before our next leg of the journey began which was a 17-hour coach journey to Broome at the top of the west coast.
