Carnarvon

On the way to Coral Bay, we stopped at Carnarvon so we could get supplies before hitting Coral Bay, but we overlooked Easter Friday and nothing was open, I mean absolutely nothing! So we went for a ride instead

Coral Bay

We really enjoyed Coral Bay - part of the Ningaloo Reef.  We've visited this little town twice before, the last time in 2014 when we were a bit disappointed, so it was with caution that we decided to stay here. Jayne booked our site early last year when we realised we would be away over Easter. Getting accommodation is always a problem as all of Perth goes camping over Easter. Going into Coral Bay we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, so we are officially in the Tropics now.

We were really pleased with Jayne's selection of campsite, as not only is there a "beach front" section of the campground, there's also a distinction between "front row beach front" and just "beach front". Our front row beach front site was exactly that, and it was perfect for 5 days of R & R!

It was a big site, with lots of room

Jayne getting a lesson on how to use Google Maps from the kids next door. They taught her things she didn't know!

I was sitting down outside, enjoying a cup of tea, when I felt something on my foot. I thought it was a fly or something, but  turned out to be a tiny snake crawling over my foot, right in the caravan park. It left these itchy marks on my ankle.

We were next door to the pub, so we went and enjoyed a few drinks and lunch. What a view!

Cape Range National Park - Exmouth

Cape Range National Park is in a coastal desert, right on the coast with Ningaloo Reef just off the coast. It's about 55kms from Exmouth to the park entrance then 32kms to Osprey Bay where we are currently camped. We have 7 nights booked here, then one night in Exmouth before we fly home on 7th April for 3 weeks.

When we left Exmouth, we were loaded up with supplies especially water. We carried 600 litres of water in (including 150 litres of water in a bladder in the car), plus 188 litres of diesel and 25 litres of petrol for the boat. The Cruiser was pulling quite heavy load but it handled the task without issue, but I could tell we were pulling a big load. We can now spoil ourselves with 2 showers after swimming or to wash off the sweat and 1 before , plus we don't want to go thirsty, but I guess the 2 cases of beer will mostly take care of that.

What a place this is, we're camped right on the ocean, best spot in the place! Yet again. We booked this just after Christmas and not knowing the layout as it's all new, we picked the site using the National Park maps and Google Earth. We certainly got it right!

The view from our camp site showing our own private beach access

Our own beach, others do come and use it, the hide of some people! You can see our van in the background

We're enjoying 36° temperatures with around 85% humidity. So frequent swims are the order of the day, plus drinking plenty of fluids. Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter. We think we're a bit early to be in the tropics.

All I need to do it get the bloody satellite dish working correctly and we would have all the mod cons going. I think these satellites are a myth, I can never get the thing working 100%. So much so we've decided to get a 100% automatic one on our roof, but we have to wait until we get to Brisbane so BushTracker can fit that. Then it will be like everything in this caravan, just the push of a button.