and in many areas you can walk off the beach and snorkel. It is a very popular place to stay. There are many small campsites right near the beach each with a camp host. As it is so popular it is very hard to get into and we heard you have to line up at the gate to the NP very early in the morning to secure your spot.
We stayed the night at Yardie Homestead Caravan Park which is just outside the NP so we could get an early start. As we were checking in we saw some friends that we kept bumping into. That night the park put on a "roast night" so we joined with our friends and they knew another couple so there were 6 at our table and we had a good night. That day we went into the national park to find the best campsite. Some had shade and others didn’t. We went to Turquoise Bay which is a very popular swimming and snorkelling area for day visitors. It certainly is aptly named as the water was beautiful. I saw heaps of large fish just by paddling in the water.
We planned on getting up at 5 am to get in line to get into Cape Range NP as we heard they only had 4 sites available the day before.
At 2.30 am we heard a car leave and we were awake so we thought, well why don’t we go. We arrived at the gate at 3am and were the fourth in line!!! We just went back to sleep and by 8am there were 13 vans queued up. We were accepted and had a great campsite and we ended up next door to the people who were at the dinner last night. You could see the beautiful sea from our kitchen window. It was very windy as it had been for several days.
We spent the day relaxing. Brian tried his hand at fishing
and I found a nice spot at the beach to read my book. That afternoon our neighbours went snorkelling at Turquoise Bay so I went with them. There is an area called the Drift and you enter at one end and drift down with the current. You have to be careful as the current is quite strong and it does go out to sea. We saw some large fish and some bright blue tiny fish. It was fairly deep so we didn’t stay there very long.
That evening we all had happy hour at the picnic tables at our camp area so everyone get to know one another. We also watched a beautiful sunset over the sea.
The next day the wind had dropped a bit. We went to the visitor’s centre which had some interesting info on the reef. This area is famous for the whale sharks which are the largest fish in the ocean and are very gentle creatures and in the season (which has just finished) you can swim with them which would be an amazing experience. They are a light grey with white dots on them. We saw an interesting video about them as the numbers are dwindling. Of course they are protected here but in Taiwan they are hunted.
In the afternoon we went to an area called the Oyster Stacks which is another day use snorkelling area that we heard was very good.
Here we saw lots of coral and heaps of colourful fish, some of them were huge. It wasn’t as deep as the other place and the current wasn’t as strong but it was very rocky on your feet and was hard to get out but worth the effort.
Once again we all gathered for happy hour to finish off a great day.
Wed was a beautiful day with just a gentle breeze to cool us off. We had a late start to the day which was a day of relaxation, reading,
going for a walk on the beautiful beach and a game of Scrabble with the girls. In the afternoon we went snorkelling to the Oyster Stacks and this time we walked down to the beach area so it was easier to get in the water. You had to swim against the current and then drift back. It was easy with my early birthday present from Brian which was a new pair of flippers. I saw some amazing coral and once again a huge variety of colourful tropical fish. When we came back it was time for happy hour.
Another perfect day with just a gentle breeze and more relaxing. It is such a hard life!! As you can really only snorkel at high tide it wasn't suitable for snorkelling. In the afternoon I went on a cruise on Yardie Creek to see the Yardie Creek Gorge.
It is where the last campsite in the NP is. Cape Range is made up of limestone and many gorges have been carved out. Yardie Creek is the only one that has water in it as it is lower than sea level so has permanent water. The gorge had some intense colours in it and the limestone cliffs are red because of the iron ore content in the limestone. There are lots of caves in the cliffs which have become home for rock wallabies, corellas, cormorants and sea eagles. The whole NP is very arid with stunted bushes so there are no trees for the birds to nest in so that is why they are in the cliffs.
On the way back we stopped at Sandy Bay which is a very pretty beach. Beaches run the whole way along the National Park and each one is a little different. As the reef runs along here too there are very few waves on the shore but you see the waves breaking on the reef and you can hear it crashing at night.
Happy hour and a beautiful red sunset ended another perfect day.
Day 5 turned out to be another great day with a gentle breeze. We went for a snorkel to another area as there were only two tides for the day and it wasn’t suitable to go tho the Oyster Stacks. We saw lots of colourful fish including some tiny iridescent blue fish, large school of larger fish and heaps of other tropical fish. The current was quite strong here so I was glad to have the new flippers.
We decided to stay another day as it was hard to leave this beautiful place.
Unfortunately the wind picked up in the night and blew all night rocking the van. It was hard to get to sleep. Today we heard that there were 23 vans lined up in the morning and only 8 places. We went for a drive as it was a clear crisp day and then headed back “home “ to read, talk and relax. Our final happy hour was fun although it was quite cool. Fortunately the wind dropped for the night. We were glad otherwise we would be travelling into a head wind which really increases your fuel consumption.
That water looks amazing Liz.
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