Day 79 - 83, Exmouth ( Sun 13th Sept - Thur 17th Sept )

Exmouth

At Exmouth we stayed at the Big 4 caravan park, which is probably going to be the last Big 4 if we can help it, as usual it was overpriced and didn't really have too much to offer, the toilet and shower cubicles were the smallest I have ever seen, so small that you could not dry yourself without hitting your elbows on the walls.

The kids had lots of fun in the park though because they met lots of other kids toplay with.

The town itself is pretty small but has most things you would need, including two IGA stores which are directly opposite each other, go figure !

The information centre is great, there you can get all the info you need on the area and tours that are available.

The main attraction at Exmouth of course is the Heritage listed Ningaloo Reef, which is the largest "fringe reef" in Australia, the reef very close to shore and is home to a huge variety of sea creatures small and large which makes it easily accessible for snorkeling and other activities.

Snorkeling

Underwater Selfie

The beauty of the Ningaloo reef is that its so close to shore and there are many places in the Exmouth area where you can take advantage of that, as novice snorkelers we headed to Turquoise Bay on the western side of the peninsula in the National Park.

You pay a small entrance fee to get into the park and then at the visitor centre you can hire your snorkeling gear, it cost us $10.00 PP for about 6 hours which isn't too bad, only problem is that its a bit hard to get gear that fits well.

Tourquise Bay is shallow and has very little current so its ideal for beginners, on the day we were there the water was crystal clear, there isn't a lot of coral but there is plenty of fish to see and we had a good time there for our first snorkeling adventure.

Fish at Turquoise Bay 

Fishing

Exmouth Queen Fish

Fishing is a favorite pastime for people at Exmouth, both off shore and also land based, we fished a couple of time off one of the local beach jetties and did pretty well, one day it was just Samuel and I and another the whole family spent a few hours on the jetty and had a ball.

The jetty we fished off has a launching ramp and can get pretty busy but that does not seem to worry the fish too much, the bait fish congregate around the jetty in the thousands making the water black, that is of course until a predator fish slams into the school causing an eruption on the surface, the sight is spectacular.

Cleaning the Catch

On the day we were there this went on for hours, making our experience very exciting.

We caught the bait (Hardy Heads) with a jig and used them live, the Queen Fish, Trevally, and Bream loved them and when you hooked one, especially the Queen Fish the action was awesome.

I must say it was the best family fun we have had fishing ever, even Joanne who is not that keen on fishing had a great time.

We ended up catching a very good feed off that jetty, there's nothing better than fresh fish, salad and chips, with a beer or two of course.

Exmouth Golden Trevally

Whale Watching

While at Exmouth we did a sunset whale watching boat cruise, we booked through the caravan park and were picked up at the reception by bus and taken from there to the marina where we boarded the boat.

The cruise cost us $240.00 for the family, it included nibbles and a feed of fresh prawns on board the boat.

As it turned out the nibbles where amazing, great quality and plenty of them, there were soft drinks available at a very good price, you could also BYO alcoholic drinks if you wanted.

We got to see quite a few whales including some calves pretty close up and did see some breaching whales a little further away which was great, the sunset from the boat on the trip back to port was also very nice.

I would recommend the cruise to see the whales close up, you can see them from shore pretty regularly but its nothing like being out among them on the water.

 

Exmouth Whales Cruise

I didn't take a lot of photos on the cruise mainly because its hard to know where and when they are going to pop up, and also they really don't do justice to the experience, you need to be there !

Exmouth was a great stop over, we enjoyed every part of it and would definitely recommend going there, maybe try different accommodation, lots of people liked camping in the national park which would be nice I guess but its a bit of a drive if you want to do things around the town.