DECISION MADE TO COME HOME... MISSING YOU GUYS :)

LEAVING EXMOUTH & HEADING HOME.......

Leaving Carnarvon  we crossed the Gascoyne River again (which again was less than full of water, but this is where all the plantations irrigate from - absolutely amazing when you see the plantations of bananas, mangoes, spinach, beans, caulis, corn, apples, oranges, lemons & limes, grapefruit, avocados, rhubarb,... you name it, it's here.)

This windswept tree and windmill caught our eye as we waited in the lineup of traffic at a road works lollypop sign!





20 minutes or so later we were on our way and drove along for about 3 hours before deciding to stop for lunch.


We found this spot to pull up and made a cuppa and some sandwiches.  Funnily enough, while we have been up north a little rain has fallen and on walking through the growth off the road I was able to find some wildflowers out and blooming (Shell you could really love these plants!)
 

 

While eating my sandwich I took that little walk again and found some nice plants enjoying the sunshine just like us!

                                                         

(Incidently, just for public information - this next pic is a bit blurry, but this is what is called "a haematoma", generally known as a bruise.  During our lunch stop, whilst crouching down to get the last lovely picture I really did think that my thigh was a little tender, and checked to see why - Ah Ha! this is what can happen when you are sitting on the edge of a marlin board in swimmers, snorkel & flippers & goggles and a manta ray comes into view.  Quite obviously you should expect that a small child of about 10yrs would undeniably become excited and want to see it before anyone else and use whatever or whoever is closest  to push off to get ahead of the other 4.  Yep, you guessed it!  On the upswell of water this happened beside me and the oncoming wave rose the ladder up and my leg caught it without hesitation and hung on nicely while I slid off the deck and into the water.  Thank goodness my left leg and not my right with the new knee)  *lol* but I still got to see the gorgeous manta for a long time which you guys saw in the last post.

Arriving in Horrocks, we made our way to the caravan park, set up and went for a walk along the waterfront.  This little town was very pretty, and a very clean town to boot. 

Obvious storm damage control, with having had the huge winds and seas reaching this area a few weeks ago. 

The bagging will certainly stop the erosion and hopefully will be enough for any future storms as right above here there was a lovely children's park and playground, with the shops directly opposite.

Under the pier at Horrocks

 From the top of the playground area right on dusk.  Headed back to the van after this and had an early dinner before settling down for the night.

OAKABELLA HOMESTEAD (c.1850)

(Heritage Listed, Award Winner & W.A.'s most haunted location)



View from creek up towards the homestead



A little closer...

The Museum (all items found on site)

The Chinese Cook's Kitchen & Sleeping Quarters

The old shearing shed is still used today for the shearing of the 12,000 sheep run on the property by the current owners.

The museum from outside while I walking down
to the creek bed. 

View of creek bed from top of the hill (about a 15 metre drop to the creek floor)

Oakabella Homestead also offers camping or caravan accommodation in their paddock near the main entry and power on request.  As we weren't aware of this, we were already in Horrocks, but can certainly recommend Loretta's Homemade Scones (Plain, Pumpkin & Native bush herbs) and coffee.

They offer a tour of the homestead and also free ghosts!!!



The next day we left Horrocks on our homeward bound trip and headed towards the south.....

CORAL BAY MANTA RAY ECO-TOUR

CORAL BAY ECO-INTERACTION TOUR
Thursday 19th July 2012

Today we headed down to Coral Bay to do a Manta Ray interaction tour with an Eco-conservation tour group.  Our skipper Fraser and our two guides, Natalia and Sarah welcomed us aboard and gave us a quick safety run-down before we headed to the shallow inner reef for a snorkel orientation.

After the current of yesterday, I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of the exertion that would be required today considering I already had quite sore shoulders and thighs and Greg also had a slightly sore neck from having to hold against the wind in the Ultra-light yesterday as well, but - never a couple to be put off, we donned our gear (this time we had those super-sexy wet suits) and the water was only 21*C (4*C less than it was at Exmouth).

Once in though, wow what wonderful sights:

Our first Manta was quite elusive and shy

This 2nd beautiful Manta was much more content to stay around us and the crew knew the manta quite well as it is very often seen in these shallower waters, preferring not to travel to far.

After our time with the two Mantas we had some lunch while Fraser took us to another section of reef with some particularly pretty coral and fish.



Not sure what variety this specimen is!



or this either (possibly a mammal of some sort)



This blue spot ray was captured nicely by Sarah (one of our guides)



Blue Green Chromis by the hundreds in this staghorn coral

 Several Tridacna & Squamous clams were seen in this area also.

There was a huge variety of coral formations, mostly hard corals, and lots of open sand areas between the bommies.

The fish were abundant, both large and small, and of an amazing variety also.




\

The pretty parrot fish had wonderfully bright
colours and it was quite surprising to see such
a large array of High fin Bannerfish and Moorish
Idols in the one bommie (unfortunately my

batteries died right at this untimely moment).








 Nice Blue Linkia (water here was only about 2 feet above the top of the coral)

Well, we left this wonderful playground on Sunday morning, heading back South with the intention of making our way back home again, taking a slightly different route and deciding to save The Top End to do with some family and friends......

We will stop overnight again in Carnavon, and then travel to Geraldton and then make our way inland to Mount Magnet and down  to Kalgoorlie/Boulder, so stay tuned for the next installment [without pretty sea creatures I might add, but who knows what we'll find in this big country :) ]

NINGALOO (cont./.....)

GREG'S ULTRA-LIGHT ADVENTURE IN EXMOUTH....

The beginning.......... an introduction  to the ultra-light with it's owner, Gavin Penfold, after signing his waiver and being issued with his Student Pilot Licence.
 

Exmouth from the air.  Exmouth is on the Eastern side of the peninsula, towards the northern section.










Heading around to the western side towards Tantabiddi and the jetty where the reef snorkel & dives are mostly held.  In the distance on the right hand side of the picture you can see the Tantabiddi Jetty area and the tour boats on their moorings.

 

After having a look for me in the deep, dark blue, the boys figured I'd either been eaten or had returned to the jetty as they couldn't find us out there!!!!!!!

So they headed back towards land !

 Lo and behold -  Gav offered Greg the opportunity to fly the little machine all by himself:


And of course, what red-blooded Aussie man would say no to that offer:-




Mind you, waving to the camera can be a bit of an issue on your first flight!

  At this point I believe Gavin asked Greg if he would like to glide in to land the ultra-light and Greg being the quiet chappy he is said very quietly (Ah no thanks!) thinking Gav meant for him to land it too!

Gavin said it would be fun, and then cut the engine and gently took back control of the steering and smoothly landed the little craft on the airstrip, then restarted the motor to taxi up the incline back to the hanger.

 Inside, perhaps you can notice also Gavin's other toys!  A Kite and yep, just to left of the kite is his fishing/snorkelling/diving/surfing  boat (a little dinghy with a roof and it gets connected to the ultralight and away he goes, flying out to the reef to do something fun for a day.    Hehehe: boys and their toys hey!

The next day............... Manta rays in Coral Bay  :)

                             

Heading off