Saturday, August 30, 2008

Exmouth WA (Aug - 7 days)




Our three day stop in Exmouth quickly turned into a week as we just couldn’t get enough of the natural wonders of this place. We stayed at the northern tip of the cape near the lighthouse. This minimised our drive each day into the Cape Range National Park, home to the stunning Turquoise Bay. We had read about this in the children’s book ‘Are We There Yet?’ and we were always keen to visit to see if it had been embellished. It hadn’t….the water was amazingly clear and lapped on to the pristine white shores. The coral reef was a mere 10-15 metres off the beach. So accessible for the Smeads! We delighted in snorkeling, with all except Georgie having turns. The coral was colourful and attracted many beautiful tropical fish. We certainly aren’t dive/snorkel experts, but apparently this reef rates amongst the best dive spots in the world, and some say better than the Great Barrier Reef. Thankfully we didn’t see any reef sharks which we heard others had. However the stingrays and manta rays were enough to make us somewhat wary. One of the highlights for Harrison, Hannah and Kate was swimming behind a large green sea turtle. We also spotted these delightful creatures off the beach where we were staying, bobbing their little heads up out of the sea and riding waves.

The only very small down point for the children was that the entire Ningaloo Marine Park (extending from Exmouth south some 300 kms) is a protected zone (actually in the running for World Heritage Listing). This meant that nothing could be removed from the natural landscape. This was very testing at times for our three shell enthusiasts! (But quite timely as we couldn’t really fit any more collections into our small space anyway).

We all had a bit of fun running, rolling and jumping off some impressive sand dunes. Georgie pushed herself down backwards on her tummy grinning with the momentum she gained on the steeper sections.

The children all continue to grow up before our eyes (as kids do), but probably most of all Georgia. Now happily toddling around, she has become little Miss Inquisitive. She seems to have this amazing sense about which way to run to meet the road. She adores the water and at the beach fearlessly goes beyond her depth, blowing bubbles and now even holds her breath. We just cannot take our eyes off her as the challenge of not having a secure space or yard to keep her safe, faces us each day. We actually put the full annex up for the first time in Exmouth (in this new van), just to zip her in and keep her safe from the cars all around the van park. She would make a beeline for the door whenever she heard the zip, poor baby. We had to take turns following her around on her little walks here and there. She continues to delight us though, as do the three big kids. They are so very good as occupying themselves now, either with each others company, the neighbouring children or just the older couple next door!

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