Imagine this..
The morning is warm and the sun is shining. I am softly swaying in the dappled sunlight in our hammock strung between the trees. The view takes in the soft sandy beach and turquoise waters of Ningaloo reef. I'm reading my book (Eat, Pray, Love) but I feel as though I could doze off (I have slept for 9 hours overnight, again) listening to the waves breaking over the reef way out at sea. It's all a bit nice...and I don't want to leave here tomorrow.
Our days here have been filled with snorkeling the various beaches and reefs, laying by the beach, fishing off the beach, jumping off the dunes and playing in the sand. The boys have especially enjoyed catching lots of crabs...sometimes by digging down the whole length of their arms...and risking some sharp nips from angry crabs!
The boys are very happy that a family have moved in beside us, with a seven year old son who has a box of Lego!
Cape Range national park extends along the stunning Ningaloo reef. It's so close we can simply swim out with our masks and snorkels to view the amazing coral, rocks, oyster stacks and brilliantly colored fish of every shape and size. Yesterday we snorkeled at a place called 'oyster stacks', and I don't think I have ever seen Harry so excited. He was constantly crying out in amazement and pointing excitedly at a huge blue starfish, a long thin yellow fish, huge multiple colored fish that looked like something out of a childrens picture book...and a large clam shell. We swam through hundreds of tiny fish which glittered and shone, silver and electric blue. It has been a brilliant experience for the boys...to see what is normally only available when scuba diving..and all so easily accessible. A couple of days ago we snorkeled at 'Turquoise Bay' where Grant and I encountered a shark - it was about 2m long and gracefully swimming along in front of us.
Thomas has especially loved snorkeling. He happily swims out on his own to circle the rocks and smaller reefs nearby and yesterday swam out with Grant and I to much deeper water, a good 200m there and back. We didn't buy flippers but might try to get some today!
The campgrounds here are currently completely full. Each campground is at a different section of beach..most with water views, and we are lucky to have some shade as well. We are camped at 'mesa' which is the largest campground with 13 sites. Some of the others have only 4 or 5. Sites here are allocated on a first come first served basis, which means arriving at the entrance to the park before the ranger arrives at 8am. Grant arrived at 5am and was 4th in line! You then have to hope that enough campers are leaving so you can secure a site!
Traveling families.
The longer we travel, the more we are feeling a part of a traveling community of like-minded families, many of them traveling for much longer than we are. Each time we stop we run into at least one other family that we have met before. It might be at the petrol station, the supermarket, the beach or we find ourselves camped right beside a family that we camped with weeks before. The longer we travel, the more families we recognise. Just here at cape range there are at least 5 other families that we have met before...everyone is happy.
We were thrilled to meet up again with Jenny, Stefane, Cal and Charlie. We have enjoyed afternoons snorkeling with them, and relaxing on the beach.
We have once again decided to extend our stay for 'one more day'. We are reluctant to travel any further south where we know it will just get colder, and it is so beautiful here. Our next stop is Monkey Mia and Peron NP. From there we will basically be heading home. We are meeting the boys grandparents at Streaky Bay for a few nights, revisiting our friends Chris and Pamela in Adelaide (if they are home) then arriving back in Melbourne around Oct 5th. The boys will go back to school halfway through the first week, and grant return to work the following week. Ho hum.
Cazz xxx
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