Day 166 – 169 5th - 8th Sept. Exmouth.

Today we had decided that we would attempt our longest one day drive of the trip, from Karijini to Exmouth, which we had calculated to be over 700 km. The day was overcast, surprisingly and looked as though it may rain. We were packed and on the road by 8.30 am and headed for Tom Price, which we reached by 9.30. Here I needed to access the internet to do some banking whilst Andy did some quick grocery shopping. We were on the road again by 10.20 and heading westward to Paraburdoo a further 70 km. Here we had a fuel stop and then pushed on through the Pilbara towards the Coast highway. It was travelling along this road that we encountered our first rain since Longreach in QLD, on the 1st June. This continued on and off for quite a few hours as we travelled closer to the coast.
The landscape varied between rugged mountains with rocky outcrops to flat plains with saltbush and saltpans. There was however one constant though, that is the red dirt!!! Always red dirt!! Onward we pushed. Lunch once again consisted of a road side stop at one of the free camping areas with salad sandwiches thrown together out of the back of the camper. Simple, cheap and effective. We joined the coast road again at Nanutarra Roadhouse and continued on down towards Carnarvon for 120 km before turning off towards Exmouth, still with 180 km to go. We finally, as the sun was setting over the Cape Range National Park, made it into Exmouth at 6.15 p.m. Interestingly after almost 5 and a half months of travelling, Exmouth represents the furthest point on the Australian continent from Melbourne, as the crow flies.
We booked in at the Caravan Park in town, which was very well appointed. They had had quite a deal of rain during the day, which is unusual, so it was a little wet under foot, but we managed to settle in once again with the minimum of fuss. Everyone was really looking forward to a good hot shower after 4 days without one. Ruby and Liv have developed into such responsible young women. They both are fantastic at taking the younger girls to the showers with them and making sure that they bath properly, which is a fantastic help to both Andy and myself. Ruby is also especially good at getting dinner underway when we are late getting into a camp site, while Olivia is sensational at setting the camper up and organizing all the bedding etc. They have both really excelled in these areas as the trip has progressed. Andy and I are really proud of them both!!!!
Exmouth is a sleepy little town that was originally founded to service the Naval Communication centre that was set up on the cape in the 60’s. Nowadays the place is really geared towards fishing, tourism and diving activities as a result of its proximity to the Cape Range National Park and the Ningaloo Marine National Park. We used the few days that we had there to check out the town and some of the beaches as well as stocking up before we headed to Coral Bay which is at the southern end of Ningaloo Reef system. Even though it is over 1200 km from Perth, you can see that it is still a holiday destination for people from down south, as there are plenty of holiday houses as well as a new large marina that is being developed with residential blocks and waterfront views. We decided that we would not make the trip to camp in at Cape Range N.P. , as we had heard that you could not be guaranteed a spot at a camp site and that the whole N.P. was rather exposed weather wise. We therefore decided that we would head for Coral Bay instead, as it offered virtually the same types of experiences as Ningaloo.
After 3 nights at Exmouth we were ready to move on.