Broome - Exmouth

We have just settled ourselves into a cmpsite at Coral Bay after 4 fantastic days & nights at Cape Range National Park just out of Exmouth. We left Cape Leveque and headed back into Broome for supplies and then kept going on to Barn Hill Station for a night. After a long walk along 80 mile beach there in the morning we headed on into Port Hedland for morningtea and then on out towards Karijini National Park. We had to do a free roadside overnight camp at DeGrey River which was actually a lovely spot (thanks Jaimie). Then headed into the incredible Karijini for 3 nights based at Dales Gorge. We loved the walks in here, Dales Gorge was lovely with Fern poll up one end and circular pool down the other and a gorgeous walk through a paperbark grove along the way. Then we drove over to the other side of the park and did the Handrail walk which involved lots of cold water wading and rock climbing ending up down in a stunning water hole. Then the Spider walk which was lots of fun but a bit slippery & challenging in some spots. You could see how some people could really come unstuck. The boys loved the physical challenge and kept each other going by trying to keep up with one another. Again lots of wading through water and hanging on to slippery sides of rock faces, climbing down above a waterfall to what seemed like a neverending waterway that got more and more difficult until we had to stop for lack of rockclimbing equipment.
At Dales Gorge campground we met up with Richard & Roxanne with their son Lucas. The boys enjoyed hanging out at camp and we were all heading toward Ningaloo so swapped mobile numbers. After leaving Karaijini via Tom Price (missed the mine tour) we had another overnight free camp in a lovely dry creek bed before arriving at Exmouth. Pete managed to catch his first WA surf for the trip at the originally named 'surfer's beach'. Then we got up early next morning, packed up quick and zoomed out to the rangers station to line up for a campsite in the National Park. When it's peak season people were lining up at 5:30 am for this. Luckily for us things have quietened down so we arrived at a leisurely 7:30am. Hooked back up with Richard & Rox and we all bagged sites at Mesa campground. We had THE best time out there. It's in a great location and there were 5 other really good fun families out there too. The kids did their usually hook up with everyone under 18 in sight and spent days roaming the sandunes, making shelters, having wars, forging alliances and ambushing everything. Kid heaven. We were next door to Pete & Bron from Kiama and their 4 kids. A really lovely family. Pete & Pete went to Exmouth for a surf together one morning. Aside from all that exploring Ningaloo reef has been incredible. We couldn't believe all the life we saw under water. Between us we all saw turtles, rays, sharks, eels, all sorts of corals, zillions of tropical reef fish, possibly a dugong it was really great. Will put photos up shortly.