A Magic Place

We pulled out of the Exmouth caravan park at about 6:30am so we would be near the front of the queue at the ranger station when it opened at 8am. Sites in the National Park camp areas along the Ningaloo Reef are allocated on a first come first served basis and there were a limited number of sites coming free each day. Our friends Frans and Bev had been for a look the day before and had come back with the opinion that the “Osprey Camp” was the best one as from the camp sites it had a view of the sea and it had sites big enough to take their 5th wheeler van. This all sounded good to us so we wanted to get a site there too. We arrived at the ranger station at 7:15am and were third in the queue, Frans and Bev being the first. We had breakfast while waiting for the ranger to arrive. At 8am the ranger got a radio report from the hosts at the various camping areas and we were able to get one of the four sites available at Osprey Bay. We arrived at the camp and got a lovely site with a beautiful sea view next to Frans and Bev. Jim and Sue arrived the next day and got a site on the other side of us so about half of the Derby group was back together again. The camp was nicely set out with staggered sites and large spaces between them. We had kangaroos hopping by, the occasional lizard and although emus were in the area I only saw one near the camp.

We didn’t do much the day we arrived as there was a strong wind blowing but later in the day did go for an amble along the beach. It was a lovely beach, fine white sand; rocky foreshore in places and 500 metres to a kilometre off shore was the outer coral reef. The reef created a lovely lagoon between where we were camped and the sea. (photo – our camp with lagoon in foreground, breakers on reef in background)
We snorkelled in the lagoon and while the coral wasn’t the best we have seen there was a variety of shapes and colours and lots of different brightly coloured tropical fish. We also came across schools of 20 to 30 good-sized trevally that were swimming around quite unconcerned that we were only a few metres away. I was lucky enough to see a large turtle swim by me one day and Al got a glimpse of a reef shark.
We made two trips to Turquoise Bay, about 20km up the coast, where there was a good snorkelling area. Good coral, lots of fish and an area where you could drift with the current to effortlessly be taken over the coral for an ever changing view. Here while we were in about knee deep water we came across a school of 50 or more common dart (photo) just holding themselves in the current, going nowhere. I saw a small octopus and was amazed to see it change colour from a reddish-brown when it was near some coral to a mottled sandy colour when it was over the sand. It was very well camouflaged and after it was pointed out to me it was only when it moved that I only spotted it.
You would think with all the fish we were able to see that we would have been in fisherman’s heaven but although the rods were out each day no fish were on the menu. We both hooked something that looked good but didn’t manage to land them.
Another highlight of our stay here was the whales migrating south just outside the coral reef. From our van we were able to see their spouts and on occasions saw them breach or wave their tails. Often we saw just a huge splash where we had just missed seeing them breach. We initially planned to camp here a couple of nights and maybe extend to three but ended up staying for six nights before reluctantly moving on. It was thanks to Frans and Bev getting us extra water and giving our batteries a charge from their solar system that we were able to extend our time. We said our farewell to Frans and Bev as we left Osprey Bay as we may not meet up with them again. We have our deadline to be in Sydney in early March but as they are on the road full time they go at whatever speed they wish. We have met a few people that are on the road fulltime and can appreciate why they choose this lifestyle. (photo sunset at Osprey Bay)