Exmouth - Dive, Dive, Dive!

And so to the reason this blog got derailed for so long... we reached Exmouth, and I decided to stay there for a month or so and get my divemaster's certification. the obvious reason for choosing Exmouth is of course the Ningaloo reef- Australia's largest fringing reef (as opposed to barrier reef) and a haven for all kinds of large marine life in particular. It certainly didn't disappoint in that regard- in my time there I saw whale sharks, turtles, sharks, manta rays, and even had the luck to be in the water with a humpback whale on one occasion! (and damn, they're BIG!)

Apart from the obvious reason, there were a couple of other reasons that Exmouth felt like the right spot to break the journey for a bit. For one, it was the first place where we truly seemed to leave winter behind us- the nights were still cool but the daytime temperatures were constantly in the mid to high twenties and it hardly ever rained- maybe twice in the six weeks we were there. The other thing is that it's about as far from Sydney as it's possible to get- if you showed someone a map of Australia and asked them to draw a line from Sydney to the opposite point, chances are it'd end up about at Exmouth.

Not too many photos, as I wasn't meant to take a camera on the course, but with the help of Shandos I still managed to get a few beauties. The scenery around Exmouth itself is pretty interesting too- the Cape Range national park contains a number of spectacular gorges, and we managed to spend a couple of afternoons hiking through it's arid scenery when I wasn't diving.

Exmouth itself is a funny place- it's over 1000km from Perth and hundreds of kms from any other town of any size and 200km from the main highway, so it exists in a strange little bubble. Everything you really need for a reasonably civilised existence is there, but there's no large supermarkets, fast food chains (even Chicken Treat, the dirty bird of WA is absent, let alone McDonalds etc) and only a few cafes/restraunts/pubs (the Potshot hotel is the epicentre of social life there, and the level of sophistication on the drinks list extends about as far as pre-made frozen daiquiris... still I had fun there). The town was only established in the 60s as a service town for the local Naval communications base and massive low frequency repeater (the southern hemisphere's second tallest structure!) and there's still a weird ghost town of facilities near the base that were originally set up to cater to the now departed American personnel stationed there- a baseball diamond, bowling alley, bar and grill etc, now sitting there all shut up and slowly crumbling.

Nonetheless I had a blast in Exmouth- did a lot of fantastic diving, made some new friends and got my certification done, albeit in a bit of a rush (I wish I could have taken longer, and owe the instructors who I worked with big time for helping me get through things so quickly- Carl, Micheal and Jemima, thanx if you're reading this!). I'd definitely like to return some day and dive some more of the sites that I didn't get to do.

I've also decided that I'm not returning to the IT industry when I come back to civilisation- I've decided to enrol in a 2 month commercial diving certification programme (ADAS levels 1 & 2 for those who're into that kind of stuff), and will be flying over to NZ to do it when I return. It'll be a big challenge, but I've really decided that I don't want to go back to 9-5 work working in cities and dealing with office politics anymore- no doubt I'll regret that decision at some point when I'm under 30 metres of freezing murky water though!! The long term goal of course will be to eventually get into the offshore industry (where the pay scales would make more than a few lawyers jealous!) but that's a long, expensive road, so I'll be trying to obtain the certification to do inshore construction diving and similar work first- which certainly enough to earn a solid wage anyway.

Coral Bay

Coral Bay's a funny place. Miles from anywhere, sandwiched between the desert and ocean, you suddenly find this crowded little tourist resort. 20 years agp when it was just a few people camping I reckon it would have been magic- but having to scramble just to find a campsite (and bear in mind there's 2 caravan parks plus a whole bunch of beach campsites out of town) kinda spoils the atmos a bit. The weather's still a bit unsettled too, making snorkelling a bit unattractive due to the wind- although diving is a different story thankfully. We book a trip get in a couple of nice, although unspectacular dives, however its nice just to be back underwater! However the real buzz comes in between the dives when we get the chance to swim with some manta rays- neither of us have seen them before, and watching them feed from just a few metres away is brilliant.

A final bonus on the way home is when we spot a dugong- mmm, sea beef!

Shark Bay, Monkey Mia and Carnarvon - I thought this was the desert?

We headed north from Geraldton bound for Kalbarri, and right on cue the weather crapped itself again- heavy rain squalls which meant the views from the coastal cliffs were limited. We stopped at a seahorse sanctuary which, while in reality more of a breeding centre than sanctuary (although it does save wild seahorses by providing an alternative to wild caught ones for the aquarium trade) at least was indoors and dry! Thankfully then the rain stopped for long enough for us to check out the parrot jungle next door then drive into town and get the tent up for the evening. The next day though it was bucketing down again, making it rather pointless to stay in the arewa so we headed on. The weather meant that the dirt roads into the gorges were closed, but luckily we did strike a break in the rain while checking out the lookouts closest to the road, providing these great views of the Murchison river.

Then in was on north again towards Shark Bay and Monkey Mia. The weather was still

unsettled but thankfully the real heavy rain didn't seem to penetrate so far north, although the wind meant the surface of Hamelin Pool was pretty choppy, limiting our view of the famous stromatelites (one of earths most ancient life forms, apparently).

At Monkey Mia we saw the famous pod of bottlenosed dolphins, and I managed to get the rangers to let Shandos feed one, which she was pretty chuffed with, having wanted to do that since she was a girl!

We spent the night camped on the clifftop just south of Denham, a spectacular spot- and the weather cleared beautifully, treating us to a spectacular sunset.

Then it was north again to Carnarvon- a pleasant enough place I guess, although apart from the mile long jetty and some great mud crabs from the local seafood factory, not too much to interest the traveller.

North from Perth.... prangs, papists and pinnacles

After a couple of days in Perth we headed North. The good weather we'd had for the last few days unfortunately packed it in, although the monastic community at New Norcia wasn't a bad place to visit on a rainy day. Anyone who knows me knows I'm far from religious, but it was an interesting place none the less, although rather moribund these days; the schools have all closed and only 5 monks continue the traditional monastic life, with the community's farms being maintained by local lay staff.

We headed up the coast to Cervantes and the Pinnacles, where the weather still wasn't playing ball, but the Pinnacles were still worth a visit.

Unfortunately a careless bit of reversing in the caravan park resulted in a bent tie rod arm in the Subaru, leaving it driveable, but throwing the wheel alignment way out and causing it to start eating through the front tyres. We managed to limp as far as Geraldton Stopping on the way to snap the pic below at Port Denison) but didn't want to go any further to save from wrecking the tyres, meaning we had and unscheduled 3 day stop there waiting for the car to be fixed (as luck would have it the damage occurred on Friday afternoon, and couldn't be fixed til Monday!) Again the weather fined up when we didn't really need it too, although it was pleasant enough hanging around the caravan park for a couple of days, and more than pleasant spending a night at a nice motel (complete with in room spa) when I realised we could claim accommodation expenses from our car insurance whilst waiting for the repairs to be completed!

Days 39-40: Perth, and the Australia's dirtiest backpackers...

Spent a couple of days in Fremantle, which is a lovely spot, all old buildings and funky shops and cafes (not to mention a couple of decent microbreweries!) Unfortunately the backpackers we picked to stay in wasn't a highlight... less said there the better really, I must be getting old.

Did the obligatory pilgrimage to Bon Scott's grave whilst in Freo, and caught the Nick Cave exhibition at the Museum of WA, which was fantastic (given that Cave is something of an idol of mine). Perth seems like a nice enough city, although the couple of days we spent there probably weren't really enough to properly get a feel for the place. Still the view of the city from the banks of the Swan is nice.

The rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated....

Ok so I've been a slack-arse, and haven't updated the blog for a while (ok, about a month and a half!) so I'll do a quick round-up of what I've been up to since the last post...

Days 35-38: Margaret River area to to Perth

After Pemberton we headed down to Dunsborough via a couple o

f wineries, and my next diving destination, the wrech of the HMAS Swan, which lies in 30m of water off Dunsborough. Despite being rather seasick I got a good dive in on the wreck, which was a pretty awesome experience. Unfortunately it wasn't the easiest place to take pictures but here's one of my dive buddy saluting me from the bridge : )

The next day we checked out the Margaret river area, visiting a few wineries and breweries, and checking out the local scenery. Unfortunately the weather still wasn't co-operating and was pretty grim, although it did make the big surf at Canal Rocks pretty impressive.

We then headed up to Perth, where the sun finally started shining!!

Days 31-34: Albany, Denmark, and Pemberton

The Stirling Ranges to the north of Albany look spectacular- but unfortunately we're running a bit low on gas as we passed through so didn't have the luxury of taking a diversion to check them out properly.

The Weather's being fickle again- on and off rain has put paid to any diving plans so we've spend the last few days checking out Albany and it's surrounds as well as getting a routine service on the car. We then headed West through Denmark (the town, not the Nordic nation, duh), which gets two thumbs up for foodie stuff (wine, cheese, chocolate, yabbies, cider amongst other goodies!).

The forests to the west of Denmark are really impressive, and as a Kiwi, I'm not normally impressed by big trees (I mean come on, compare most eucalypts to a Kauri or Rimu!), but these are pretty special. In Pemberton I climb the Gloucester tree, formerly used as a fire lookout, which is now kept open for the benefit of tourists wanting to check out the panoramic view from it's crown.