Exmouth

We were really looking forward to Exmouth, but we were a little bit disappointed as when we arrived the wind blew up and we were limited to what we could do.  We got some snorkelling gear and headed to Turquoise Bay and the marvellous drift snorkelling spot that takes you over the Ningaloo reef.  We thought this might be a bit difficult for Charlotte to learn on, so we moved around to Lakeside where we practised and immediately saw a massive Manta Ray.  Charlotte took to snorkelling like a duck to water, so we continued to practice in the swimming pool at the caravan park to iron out a few breathing problems. 

The long days and windy nights caught up with the kids today so we rescheduled the glass bottom boat to a day we didn’t feel like throwing them overboard.  Nana and Pa joined us at the caravan park today which was a nice distraction!

We were up in the middle of the night putting the awning down as the wind really picked up at night...when will it end??  The wind was blowing from the other direction today so it meant that the reef was protected and it was a great day for snorkelling!!!  All of Charlotte’s practising paid off as she was like a big fish, swimming with all the little fish on the reef.  We have a new favourite day of the holiday now (how many times have we said that?)

The water was aqua and warm, the fish were everywhere and better still, the current drifted you over the reef, so you didn’t even have to swim (until you wanted to come in).  We say a million different type of fish, we really didn’t mind us swimming above them as we drifted time and time again .....Charlotte being the first in the water every time.  We had fish swimming around our feet looking for crumbs as we ate our lunch in the water.  Will had a ball making sand castles and running in and out of the water, and we finally got him in at the end (albeit with a wetsuit on) so he could experience the reef.  Charlotte’s underwater camera was a big hit as I got to get some video under water which of course didn’t capture the full beauty of the colourful fish, but it was still impressive.

The kids woke early after another windy night, and all Charlotte wanted to do was go snorkelling.  We did some of this in the morning (in the pool) as we had planned the glass bottom boat for the afternoon.  We made it to the boat ramp where I rang the visitor information centre to confirm the trip was going ahead.  To our dismay it wasn’t (not enough people had booked...not that anyone had advised us) and the captain was only offering a 50% refund.....like that was going to happen!!!  The bloke wouldn’t answer my calls so we headed back into the Visitor information centre (with steam coming out of my ears) and kindly requested the full refund....which we got, and I then released the mans testicles...

I had organised a fishing trip to chase bill fish (marlin and sailfish) on our last day in Exmouth as they had been jumping into the boat at the moment.  Unfortunately the skipper damaged his wheels the night before the trip and while I waited for him to pick me up (while everyone else went snorkelling) I was able update the blog (only 13 days behind).  He eventually cancelled, and my dream of catching a marlin has been put on hold (at least for a few days).

Whilst Andy was not catching his Marlin, the kids and I headed back down to Turquoise Bay for another day of snorkelling.  It was a perfect day, without the dreaded wind, and the kids had a ball, Will isn’t quite up to snorkelling yet, but he always has hours of fun hiding his cars in the sand for me to try to find, I think we started with 20 and now we are down to about 8 cars, we seem to donate one to every beach we go to .  We we got back we were disappointed to see that Andy had been stranded for the day.  Next stop will be Coral Bay – perhaps more luck will be had there!!!