ENERVATING EXMOUTH




Ancient ranges along the road to Exouth

 



Beautiul WA coastline at Exmouth

 




Extensive Reef Systems

 



Mouth of Yardie Creek

 



Turquoise Waters in the Bays Surrounding Exmouth

 
Sooner or later, there has to be a disappointment I suppose. We have found ours. We cannot say we are enamoured of Exmouth. Before all those Exmouth fans out there complain about our lack of appreciation, let me say that both the bloke and I have been a bit under the weather whilst we have been here. TBBITW has come down with a bugger of a bug, so to speak – you know the drill, sniffles, headaches, sore throat, funny tummy and general lethargy. I don’t seem to have been dealt quite the same bug, and have not been too bad, however, today, I can feel the bod going down -hill somewhat. Hopefully a good night’s sleep will fix the problem.


Our petty illness aside, we are truly disappointed with the caravan park. We are at the Ningaloo Caravan Park. We were expecting a Top Tourist Park, but sadly they are no longer members of that particular chain. Chatting with some of the regulars here, we have been told the park has ‘gone down-hill’ somewhat and is currently on the market. Certainly the sites are generally dusty (must be wonderful on the odd occasion it rains), only a few have decent lawns and the amenities are generally looking just a bit run-down. Mind you, we know this place is packed during ‘the season’ and it must be inordinately difficult to maintain lawns when people simply do not move off sites. Not all travellers, like us, enjoy watering lawns! Had we received a friendly welcome on arrival doubtless we would feel differently, but the attitude seemed to be that we were ‘out of season’ and a bit of a nuisance. The only highlight was the friendly sniffing from the resident Labrador. From that you will gather that at least the park is dog friendly, although you can expect to be put down the back of the park in the ‘dog section ‘. It does seem too, that they go out of their way to find things to ‘charge’ you for. We were a bit taken back by a section in the inevitable stern “Park Rules” sheet, declaring that campers on un-powered sites must not plug their phones, laptops etc into the power boxes as this would be stealing power. They are encouraged to go to the office where they can charge up their gear for a nominal charge. This I guess is fair enough, but it was the threat to report any break of this rule to the police that bemused us. Talk about welcoming! Subject for another blog/rant I think. On the up-side the park pool looks quite good but there is absolutely no cover of any kind over any part of the pool. Sadly due to our bugs, we didn’t try the pool.

Our other disappointment is the location of the park and most of the town. We imagined that Exmouth was right on the ocean – not so! There is not a skerrick of ocean to be seen from the township itself. The residential area does meander over to the bay and there are new canal type suburbs under development. The town offers two IGA supermarkets, a really good butcher, chemist and Westpac Bank. We tried the local Chinese restaurant and found it to be OK. There are other eateries etc. but we didn’t check them out. The town amenities are really quite good, one assumes that is due to the close proximity of the military bases.

When we were finally able to stagger from the caravan and explore the area, we discovered the sheer beauty of the local beaches and lagoons. This is the first glimpse of what we think of as typical West Australian coastline, glorious blues and aquas, huge rolling surf, crashing across extensive reef systems. White sands contrast with the soft greys and greens of the native undergrowth, and the overwhelming impression is of a stark and wild beauty. Ancient ranges roll down to the ocean, displaying sparse stunted vegetation spread across a mish- mash of white sand, dry rocky gulches and bright red bull dust. Emus wander negligently across the road in front of oncoming cars – nonchalantly ignoring we intruders. We also spotted a couple of obviously tame horses, who appeared to have ‘flagged down’ a passing car in order to partake of some munchies and get a pat.

A visit to Yardie Creek was well worth while, the area is pristine and wading across the Creek is a pure delight. We also checked out the caravan parks at The Lighthouse and Yardie Creek Station. Both parks looked good, the Lighthouse had the added benefit of ocean views. Both parks looked fairly rustic, but it seemed appropriate considering their relatively isolated locations. We gathered that there was no mobile phone reception at Yardie and as they are generator powered some appliances are not permitted.

I must point out here that the drive to these beaches and scenic spots fairly lengthy. Yardie Creek, the furthermost point of interest is 75ks away from the town. We found the best idea was to go to the end and work our way back visiting all the little bays along the way. The bonus is that many of the bays have camping facilities. I do use the term loosely as generally the amenities consist of one or two drop loos. Some of the camping spots had the most wonderful aspects and predictably, they were all fully occupied. The parks are all within the local National Park and cost a nominal $7 per night. Our concern was if they are still fully occupied at this time of the year, how on earth you manage to get a berth during ‘the season’. There is no water provided at these sites and some of them do not permit the use of generators. Some sites permitted line fishing whilst others were snorkel friendly only. We have made a mental note to come back some day and try to get a spot at one of these glorious camping grounds.

We have been bombarded by extreme heat since we arrived here and there has been no real relief at night. I’m sure that the earlier months of the year would have provided us with a more pleasant experience. I am aware too, that we have been well and truly spoiled – we have had such wonderful parks and sites that anything less than wonderful tends to be a let-down. In the overall scheme of things we are still having fun, just not as much as usual.

Well, tomorrow we take our sad bodies out of Exmouth and head south to Coral Bay. Here’s hoping we will have a happier time at this iconic holiday spot. Stay well – Stephanie.