FriendlyBrooks

A magic time in a magic place

Lance Brooks, dialing up the magic, May 2026

Ningaloo reef has grown and grown in popularity and as a result booking accommodation, particularly in the National Park and also activities like swimming with whale sharks requires a lot of forward planning and many hours sleuthing the Internet. All that was done months ago before we left Sydney and it was now time to see if it was all worth it.

We left Wooramel River Retreat early as we had an hour and a half drive to Carnarvan and as it was Sunday we wanted to get to 9.30am mass. It was the presentation of the first communion candidates so there were probably more people than usual in church. It was a nice service and there was a morning tea for the children, which we joined. There we met the principal of the school that runs from K-12 and also the Head of Primary. Both lovely women originally from Perth who now called Carnarvan home. The only other connection I ever had to Carnarvan was meeting someone from there on our ski trip to Austria when I was 21. That guy had certainly traveled to another world. Carnarvan was a pleasant surprise. It’s quite a pretty town with a lovely riverfront where we had a coffee and breakfast. We also did the supermarket shopping at an extremely well stocked Woolworths and Lance visited Repco for some car supplies and also filled our water. After a fuel stop we were ready to drive up to Red Bluff.

Red Bluff is over 100kms from Carnarvan and the official start of the Ningaloo Marine reserve. To get there you drive to the Quobba blowholes which are worth a stop no matter which way you are traveling. These are possibly the best most exciting blowholes we have ever seen. Also near the blowholes is a beautiful snorkeling hole that they call the Aquarium. It was a bit windblown and getting late and we had another 70 odd kilometres along a corrugated dirt road to drive so we decided to leave it as we had to come past this way again in a three days time.

We arrived at Red Bluff and chose our campsite. On the hill with magnificent views. There was also a howling gale which made the set up fun 😀. We decided not to put up any awnings and use our short poles. Lance cooked a roast pork loin for dinner but it took a while to cook as the Weber kept blowing out in the wind. We eventually ate at around 9pm.

We came to Red Bluff hoping for surf as it has one of the most renowned breaks on the west coast and yet again Lance was disappointed on that front. It didn’t really matter though. We spent two full days at the beach swimming, walking on the rocks and relaxing. The beach had some fascinating caves and rock formations with fossils in the limestone. The Red Bluff was beautiful to look at, particularly at sunrise when the rocks lit up. I could enjoy the view of the sunrise from bed which was bonus

Red Bluff campground was popular and social. It has a cafe which we visited twice and they apparently do great pizzas but we missed these. The owners are a couple who came to Red Bluff 37 years ago and stayed and brought up their 8 kids there. We found everyone staying to be like minded and very happy to be at Red Bluff , whether it was the first visit or they had been before, probably because its a little out of the way of the main tourist route and is a surf specific spot. Lance befriended a balloon fisherman who was catching tuna. We could see the large schools of tuna jumping in the sea not very far out. We met a chatty couple who were our age, from the shire who had done up their own campervan. A couple of honeymooners, our young neighbours who had been traveling with their now almost 2 years old daughter for 11 and a half months.  We also walked along the rock shelf to the point where we met another couple who own an Ultimate Camper. This was the first time we got to swap tips with other owners as they had an older version, but were fascinated with our newer features.

Apart from the tuna we also spotted manta rays very close to the rocks and we saw eagles and  osprey regularly flying around. Each afternoon the tide dropped at perfect timing to sit in spa size rock pools and enjoy the sunset. On our last afternoon we took a short steep hike up to the ridge behind us to admire the views up the coast.

After our relaxing three days at Red Bluff it was time to move on to Coral Bay where we had two big tours booked. It was nearly a 4 hour drive but we allowed for longer as we first stopped at The Aquarium at Quobba for a snorkel. It was every bit as good as advertised and we swam with a turtle and saw hundreds of pretty fish of varying species.

The drive to Coral Bay was flat and treeless. The road still had water on it, left over from the cyclone two months previously. After the relative isolation of Red Bluff, Coral Bay was a bit of a shock to the system at first.  Coral Bay exists purely for tourism. There are 3 caravan parks and a tavern called Bill’s Bar, a cafe restaurant a few apartments a supermarket and lots of tour companies. Very little else. There were lots of people about; and every caravan park was packed with vans parked cheek by jowel. Ours was the People’s Park and was closest to the beach. For once we were set up nice and early and we went to the beach for sunset. We decided to eat at the Tavern., which had decent pub food.

Lance got up early to do his usual yoga session but had to be back early so we could meet for our swim with Manta Rays at 7.30. The boat trip started with a snorkel on the reef which was absolutely spectacular. In particular we witnessed a shark cleaning station where we saw about a dozen reef sharks including one white tipped reef shark. We also saw a couple of turtles, beautiful coral gardens and multiple multi coloured fish. Next stop was to follow the spotter plane to a shallow bay where we had 4 swims with manta rays. It was a magical experience. They are such calm graceful creatures. They served the classic picnic lunch before we headed back spotting other wildlife in the way. We had another snorkel, this time over a turtle cleaning station and we swam with several turtles We got back in time to enjoy a sunset swim on our beach. We booked in at the cafe which turns into a restaurant at night. The chefs, Italian, were very good and we ordered a series of entrees to create a tapas style dinner.  It was all super delicious.

We went to bed reasonably early as we had a big day and an early start the next day. This was the whale shark 🦈 day! We went with the same tour group and the tour followed a similar pattern. The first snorkel was nice but was mostly used to assses everyone’s swimming abilities.  Then we headed out of the reef into the open ocean. We had been told that the spotter plane would go up at 11am but it was possible that we might have to wait for hours before a whale shark was found. We were extremely lucky as one was found at 11.12am!! After that it was all action stations as we prepared to get in the water in two groups. Lance and I were in the first group. As we sat on the platform waiting to slide into the water I was both nervous and excited. It was a bit frantic as we had to wait until the guide/photographer went in to find and follow the shark.  Then our group leader jumped in and we had to all swim in a line behind her. We waited for the shark to approach and then once it mostly had gone past us we formed a u-shape and swim behind it probably for about five minutes. Then it was time to stop and float in the open ocean, waiting until the boat came back to pick us up. We climbed back on board, which was a little challenging for this not so fit 65 year old. We repeated  this exercise three more times. Swimming beside and behind this most graceful beautiful creature was one of the most amazing things I have ever done. After the swim and we were all back on board, the whale shark swam beside the boat for ages. Next we went back inside the reef and moored to eat our picnic lunch. We then had another snorkel on the reef. On the way back we spotted 3 dugongs who swam very close to the boat. We ended our fantastic day with a sunset swim back on our beach and dinner at the same restaurant, ordering exactly the same menu as the night before –  we enjoyed it that much. Lucky for us there was an on board photographer so we have some incredible photos.

The following day after a very enjoyable time in Coral Bay, it was time to move on up to Cape Range National Park which was about 200km away. We drove through Exmouth and had a quick look and got fuel and wine 🍷. We stopped at the lighthouse, which is one of the few places you can see the sunrise and sunset over water. It also had an important strategic purpose. Exmouth was originally built as a defence post and deep space communication post. Its main industry is now tourism but the defense communications are still very evident.

We drove into Cape Range National Park and found our campground which is one of 7 before Yardie Creek. I had some trepidation on approach because I had spent so much time and effort playing the Ningaloo hustle to get this spot that I was concerned it wouldn’t live up to expectations. The most sought after campground is Osprey Bay but we couldn’t get in there. I had been happy to get a spot at Kurrajong but there wasn’t much chatter about it. Well I need not have worried because Kurrajong, like all campgrounds in the park was right on the beach. Our beach had nice sand to sit on and decent snorkeling opportunities. The views were magic. The other bonus was that it was a smallish campground and the sites were reasonably spread out. We met the campground hosts who gave us all the information on snorkeling off our beach and mentioned to watch out for snakes, which didn’t need to be said, I thought, as I always look out for snakes!. Once set up we headed straight to the beach for a swim and watched yet another amazing sunset.

The next day we had a nice slow day around the campground, wandering down for a couple of snorkels and walking on the beach. In the afternoon we headed into Exmouth as we wanted to attend Mass at 5pm. Before Mass we drove around the town looking at the beach and the currently closed Manta Ray resort, where Paul and Margie were supposed to stay.  After Mass we did the shopping at one of the two IGAs that are next to each other in town and then had a drink at Froth, one of the two bars in town.

On Monday morning we had booked a boat tour up Yardie Creek. Yardie means creek in the local language so yes we were traveling up Creek Creek. When we arrived at the boat, last as usual, we found that Dave and Bronwyn and the kids were also on the trip. On the boat tour we went up the stunning gorge and the kids found about 50 rock wallabies on the way. We also went past a few trees with hundreds of bats and saw a pair of ospreys in their giant nest as well as several other osprey nests. We learnt that people had been living in the area for over 40,000 years and not far away in the range the Mandu beads were found. These have been dated to be 35,000 years old and are the oldest example of jewelry in the world. Along the creek is evidence of a fish trap used by local first nations people. After the boat trip Lance and I walked up the gorge rim to look down on where we had just been.

We had arranged to meet Dave and Bronwyn and the kids at their campground in the popular, Osprey Bay. We got to see first hand what this campground was like. It is very well positioned on a lovely bay that has great snorkeling. Most of the sites have lovely water views. On the other hand it was way more crowded than Kurrajong where we were staying, so we felt happy with our campsite. We went for a couple of snorkels. There is some quite nice coral and fish but what people like most at this spot is snorkeling with turtles. Lance and I spent ages watching one turtle gorging itself on the sea grass. After we left Osprey Bay we stopped in at a couple of other beaches and arrived back at Kurrajong for sunset.

On Tuesday we spent the day visiting all the other beaches in the area and snorkeling at the two best snorkeling spots. Our first snorkel was at Oyster Stacks. The coral gardens here are incredible and right on the beach. There are five stacks where the coral is thickest and the fish congregate around. At stack number 2 there were also 3 reef sharks, one of them quite large, swimming around the stack and therefore swimming around us. My heart was in my mouth and I got out of there as quickly as I could. The rest of the snorkel was beautiful though. After Oyster Stacks we went to Turquoise Bay where the water is exactly as described. The sand is pure white, the water bright blue and the coral and fish colourful and plentiful. This snorkel is a drift snorkel where you get in at the southern end of the beach and drift with the current north, but you must get out before the northern sand spit or the current might take you out to sea. We did 2 drifts and walked around the sand spit to see the next beach up.  After this snorkel we called in at each of the other beaches in the national park and also at Mandu Mamdu to see if we might do the gorge hike. By the time we got there it was already late in the day so we went back for an early dinner of hamburgers before heading out to our next activity of the day – stargazing.

Ningaloo Stars is run by a family – husband, wife and adult daughter. The husband is an amateur astronomer with incredible knowledge and great delivery of that knowledge. The wife and daughter assist by setting up the 5 giant telescopes and providing hot chocolate at half time. Thanks to all of them we were able to see lots of stars (and planets) and understand how stargazing fits into many cultures, including the local indigenous culture. It was a fabulous experience.

For our last full day we decided to pack in as much as possible (of course). We began by going back to Oyster Stacks for a snorkel. It was perhaps even more beautiful as the tide was a little higher than the day before, allowing us to swim out further. Lance decided to swim around the second sharky stack but I stayed amongst the safe pretty coral and colourful fish 🐠. Lance came back surprisingly quickly and he reported that a large shark seemed to just be circling around him. I was glad he didn’t hang around.

Next we went to Lakeside snorkeling site. At this spot we had to walk about 500m down the beach on the other side of the lake before we could get in the water. Before we went in Lance had an online meeting and I enjoyed the sunshine by the lake. We actually didn’t stay in the water for long as although the reef was nice it wasn’t quite as stunning as the other sites. Instead we chose to eat our picnic lunch by the lake.

Next we went back to Yardie Creek and went for a kayak. This was one of the highlights of the week. We saw lots of rock wallabies and the pair of osprey, but without doubt the best thing was paddling up the gorge in absolute silence. It was peaceful and moving as we thought of the countless generations of people who had been before us. After the paddle we drove back to Penganna beach for our last sunset.

We had decided that we would try to leave the  next morning for our flight back to Sydney before sunrise so we could see it at the Exmouth lighthouse, one of the few places in Australia where you can see sunrise and sunset over the water. To achieve this massive goal meant we had to pack up in the dark on our last night at camp. We managed to get away before sunrise and got to the lighthouse just after the sun rose. It was still pretty beautiful.

Since we now had a couple of hours to kill before we were being picked up for the airport, we went to the beach (a surfing beach) and then breakfast. We had arranged to leave our car and van at the Exmouth Adventure Centre, who were happy to look after them (for a small fee). We traveled back to Sydney, then Launceston then Fiji for a wedding, then Sydney for two weeks where we stayed in Manly thanks to the generosity of Mandy and John.