Don't believe everything you read!

We had an easy drive from Coral Bay up to Cape Range National Park, about 240kms. We stopped at Exmouth, topped up fuel, our stock of ginger beer and had some lunch.

Exmouth is situated on the tip of the North West Cape just over 1100kms north of Perth and approximately double that distance south west of Darwin.

Exmouth

It was established in 1967 to support the United States Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt.

From the early 1970’s the town started hosting United States Air Force personnel assigned to the Learmonth Solar Observatory. We passed Learmonth which is about 40kms south of Exmouth.

Heading to Cape Range National Park we stopped in at Vlamingh Lighthouse. The lighthouse started operations in November 1912, the light used kerosene; flashed twice every 7.5 seconds and was visible for up to 22 nautical miles. 

The lighthouse operated for sixty years before being replaced by a light mounted on a tower at the US Naval Communication Station. The ruins of a World War II gun battery and radar station, and some of the original sandbags are still in place.

Our arrival at Kurrajong Campground in Cape Range National Park was windy, very windy (55-60kph gusts).  Fortunately for us the winds have calmed for the past couple of days.  The temp is between 29-36 degrees.

Turquoise Bay

Saturday, we headed south to Yardie Creek and did the Yardie Gorge Trail (class 4).  The scenery was beautiful, and we were lucky enough to see three black-flanked rock wallabies (good spotting Pete!). 

Originally, we booked a National Park Campsite much further south of here (north of where we were previously).  After doing some research on we found that access was via a sandy track (no problem) but you needed to cross the tidal prone Yardie Creek, only during a brief window at low tide with shifting sands and a rocky bottom (as noted on the National Parks official website) … we elected to cancel that site and find this one.  While we were at Yardie Creek we decided to check it out – how bad can it be?  We found the sandy track complete with rocky outcrops and exposed rocks in parts … walked about a 1km and couldn’t see a creek crossing.  Made it back to the car park and found the creek crossing … lesson – don’t believe everything you read! The image below is the crossing point (you drive across the sand where Cate is standing to a track on the right - not in the image)!

The Famous Yardie Creek crossing

Our campsite is about 50 meters from the beach, and an easy stroll to enjoy an afternoon swim in the beautiful clear water. This morning (Saturday) we sat up at the beach for our morning coffee. The tide was out so it was a great view out to the reef.

This morning, we left the campground and headed back towards Exmouth stopping in at some of the bays along the way. It was a nice change to do some beautiful beach walks as we have seen a few gorges lately. At one of our stops, we were lucky to spot some turtles having a play not too far from the shore (the largest being a bit over a metre in length), we stayed and watched for a while.

This is certainly a beautiful part of the coast, magnificent beaches and crystal-clear water.

Tomorrow, we start to head south … first stop Carnarvon.  It’s been a few days since we’ve used a washing machine, the laundry bag is full and we need clean clothes before we head to Dirk Hartog Island.

Before we go to DHI we will have another beach camp and a couple of nights at Monkey Mia.