Road trip Perth to Exmouth. Kiteboarding and touring.

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I have been hankering to do a road trip up to Exmouth for some time. Dennis and I have been going on kite surfing holidays for the last few years so we plugged for this one. We started off from Perth and drove to Geraldton, staying a couple of days,  to Denham staying 5 days.
and finally to Exmouth for a few more days.  Kite boarding was the theme, but along the way we had a side trip to the  Abrolhos Islands, stopped in see the stromatolites, snorkelled with the whale sharks and did some stand-up paddle boarding.

We were spoiled with sunny weather, warm just over 30 degrees, wind and calm when we wanted some.

Being Easter, the accommodation was booked up in a lot of towns and it was hard to get hire cars. In comparison to the eastern states though, this issue was relatively benign in that the towns didn't look overly crowded nor traffic overly stressed.

The Drive
We drove in 2 hour blocks, swapping drivers and taking rests as needed. The traffic was flowing, but tricky to enter if you stopped on the open road due to the speed. The scenery varied with subtle changes from city to ligh scrub and with sands to  huge white dunes, scrub with red sands further north, the odd emu or kangaroo and termite mounds as well as glimpses of the ocean.

We kept to the speed limit (Easter double fines/demerit) and did not drive at night due to the warnings about animal life - which is very real.

Wedge Island

We dropped in to Wedge Island, but did not kite surf there as the seas were not at the right tide level and wind not adequate.  The area is currently in dispute with the WA Government because there are a number of dwellings built without permission. I must agree with the Government it this case because quite frankly it looks quite squalid.  What I am dismayed about is there is no permission to camp around the area. Here the Government should look at properly developing the area into a properly cared for amenity.

The Pinnacles Cervantes

Being Easter the queue to get in to see the Pinnacles was large - so we did not bother. I saw the Pinnacles in 1986, free of charge and people ! Times have changed. We got a glimpse just outside the park entrance, the photo below is from 1986.

Geraldton

We did not book accommodation for Geraldton, not being sure whether we were free camping, staying at Coronation beach or Cervantes. On the way up we stopped to purchase some fresh crayfish off some young fishermen -  all legit with tags and log books. They, also being kite boarders indicated that Coronation would be chaos with the Easter crowds and suggested a spot near the light house in Geraldton. So we opted to go there and seek accommodation. Lucky for us the caravan park had one vacancy, a powered site (not that we needed it). So we took that.

Tip - make sure you have good head torches - you might need to set up at night, and it gets very dark !
The light house beach is a great place to kite board from. Just as well we got a 4x4 as it would have been a long walk out to start. The wind was of good strength and water a combination of flat areas and wave breakers. The beaches have a bit of seaweed debris - no regular raking like we get in Melbourne !

We had just enough time to have some fun before day end.
Tomorrow we saw what a great orientation for kite boarding this place is:

Abrolhos Islands

At the caravan park we saw a promotional poster promoting the Abrolhos islands. The price seemed reasonable, the photos compelling, weather forecast good - why not ? A phone call to the airport and we are booked in tomorrow.
I must admit I knew nothing of existence nor history of the Abrolhos islands. They are a bunch of islands - 122 in all  about 60km from Geraldton stretching 100km north and south. The are situated on reefs. The fishermen know all about them, very few of us tourists do. The only way to stay there is either be a fisherman or on a live-aboard charter. Camping is not permitted: talk about exclusivity ! Google is your friend for all the glorious detail eg. Wikipedia.

Anyway - site of earliest European structure (a fort of course), torrid tales of shipwreck - the Batavia, Zeewijk, glorious reefs, sea life and bird life, oh - and wind for us kite boarders and sailors who don't have their toys with them !   A great idea would be to go on one of those charters with the snorkels, diving gear, fishing gear and of course the kites, just need the money and time.
We land on one of the islands for a lunch and some snorkeling. Over all it was a full day starting about 8am and finishing at 3pm. 

The stromatolites of Hamelin Pool

"A visit to the remarkable Hamelin Pool stromatolites in Western Australia is a must when holidaying in the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. The Hamelin Pool stromatolites are oldest and largest living fossils on earth. Stromatolites are considered 'living fossils', part of the Earth's evolutionary history." so states the tourism blurb.
I'm happy, it's on the way to Denham and a worthwhile stop.  You can easily spend a lot of time here lolling about and going for walks.

I wanted to stay a night here, but had great difficulty contacting the accommodation from Melbourne so I gave up.  Coming here I realise why as it's a laid back place.
There is a bit of history here with the telegraph station and post office. We stopped and browse the  souvenir and cafe shop in it's olde worlde charm.
The drive up to Denham was interesting with the odd group of emus, and stops at various lookouts. Nanga Resort would be a good place to stay and do some kite-boarding or other water activities - like fishing - nothing small round here !

From one of the look-outs we saw a dugong, shark and turtles. A great day for nature.

Denham

We were lucky to get a place to stay as the town was effectively booked out. We originally were going to camp, and it would have been a nice thing to do but we ran out of time to determine a good site. We managed to get something in town used for fishing groups and tour groups, a bit noisy but it did the job.

Kite-boarding in Denham is OK on the extreme ends of the town, past the foreshore road end (because there are a lot of anchored boats). The beach is full of weed, so the ground anchor proved useful. Out on the water, we were happy with a light onshore wind.

Monkey Mia

Famous for its dolphins, Monkey Mia is a must do magnet. There's an RAC resort there and a national park centre for the tourists including us to view the dolphins coming in for a free feed in the morning. No disappointment, all fun. The fee was not too over the top ~ around 12 dollars a person.

It proved to a be a good spot for kite-boarding too, and the dolphins paraded past us a couple of times.
I managed to slice my foot on some pipi shells just below the water line. The blood poured out - great stuff - we are in shark bay ! A bit of super glue, courtesy nurse Dennis and I'm up and running again. (unfortunately two micro grains remained in one of the cuts, so I had to get it reopened back home. Note to self - take a syringe to flush wound and some peroxide and/or sterile water, along with Betadeine. Reminder:- you have booties, wear them at all times.)
We also had to deal with the mad cameleer who thought he was the owner authority. Anyway, we got it in that he was afraid that his camels might spook. His attitude just wasn't right to start off with - oh and don't you dare take any photos of his camels !

Little Lagoon

Little Lagoon is nestled in a sort of depression just out of Denham on the way to Monkey Mia. We were warned about the stonefish population at its mouth, so that end wasn't investigated. It's a bit gusty here, but what a top spot to kite surf. We pulled some good jumps, timing the gusts as we approached the land.
This lagoon was very saline, and warm. No need to travel to the dead sea, there was plenty of bouyancy.

Big Lagoon

We took a punt on taking the 4wd into the Francois Peron national park just outside Denham. We were happy with the traction testing the tracks just outside the tyre deflation station (how good is that ? A free inflation/deflation compressor station !).  It was a risk without having any vehicle rescue equipment.
Big Lagoon, what a spot. Stunning scene and fantastic flat water kite boarding. The camp site area is superb too with very new amenities, if I come back this is the spot to stay for a couple days or more.

Exmouth

Exmouth is the town to grab your groceries and hire your car, there are not many other places elsewhere. We bought some stinger suits here because we heard some nasties were around. We were the very few wearing them, but they are good to keep the sun at bay.
We saw emus in town and there are plenty of termite mounds around. The airport (Learmonth) which we used for our return home.

Yardie Station

I would recommend giving Yardie station the big flick. It is dowdy, noisy and run down. Down the road is a superb national park with the best camp sites in the world. Up the road we stayed at the Lighthouse caravan park and were  happier with its amenity (just). It's proximate to the national park, that's it.

Whale shark snorkelling

Exmouth and Coral bay are famous for whaleshark and humpback whale snorkeling experiences. All I can say is just do it ! Hang the expense, it is a somewhat surreal experience, one that you will never forget. The outfit I chose (Ningaloo Discovery) was thoroughly professional and going on the catamaran Windcheetah was a good move as it was very stable and we got to sail back.

Huge number of photos on their Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ningaloodiscovery/albums . The system is well regulated with maximum seven boats and 20 people per boat, where only 10 go out at a time. (you get pretty tired after 6 outings in the water !). Non experienced snorkelers were well looked after.
You also get to snorkel the reef areas, where saw turtles, rays as well as numerous pretty fish and coral.

Sandy Bay

At Sandy bay is the Osprey park camp site. Best spot for kite boarder camping in the park. The bay affords great flat water kite-boarding way out to the reef breaks  if you want them and for kilometre stretches along it. The water is clear, giving you glimpses of turtles and other marine life.

Turquoise Bay

A paradise of nature. I get to use my inflatable sup, plenty of sea life, coral , a pod of dolphins and turtles.

Yardie Creek

Yardie creek is at the southern extremity of the park. It has a gorge and a good area to kite at its mouth. We found wind here where other places further up had none.

The gorges in the park are worth looking at too, note the two bogans in this one.

The Lighthouse

Perched high, the lighthouse is a good spot to grab a sunset, and an early morning sighting of Venus sidling up to the moon.

The Plan / Costs

I had a detailed itinerary planned out, spending quite a bit of time researching the places to visit, accommodation, costings etc, and it paid off.  There was enough flexibility to allow for deviations, which we had with the Abrolhos Islands.  The main governing scheme in picking 3 points of reference (Geraldton, Denham and Exmouth) worked well with only 3 long drives and the rest short day excursions.

The cost worked out to be around $225 per day per person. For that price, we stayed in low cost accommodation - for Easter that is, saved money by self catering but managed to splurge on some meals, the air trip and whale snorkelling.

Things I'd do different, or like to do

  • Do the humpback whale snorkeling - they head on over July to November.
  • Look at flying in to Geraldton / Carnarvon or Exmouth doing a circuit. The drive from Perth wasn't over the top, but you could save a day travelling by landing in Geraldton. The good stuff is really in Shark Bay and Exmouth, so by returning to a base and doing a loop back you can save on the one-way drop off fee and use it towards the extra flight cost. Mind you for us flying in peak time the extra cost was not warranted, and my wife & travel partners had a desire to see friends in Perth.
  • Love to get some sort of charter to the Abrolhos Is for a few days. It would be great if the air company could do an arrangement to fly in - fly out with the boat charters.
  • More camping. The only benefit in accommodation or caravan parks is that you get a shower and protection from inclement weather. For me the open air away from the hubbub of urban life is a much better way to go. How nice would it be to stay overnight at places like Sandy Bay in Exmouth ? How nice to not have to pay heavy 'high season' rates for substandard accommodation, in noisy proximity to inconsiderate patrons.
  • The real deal would be to have your own 4x4 and explore the trails around Shark Bay and Exmouth. Though we were happy with what we did, as our focus was kite-boarding. We were fearful of that 'not covered' by insurance bill should anything get dented when we visited Big Lagoon.

Problems

  • Phones - Telstra have mobile coverage, the others do not. Simple answer -  step outside of the towns there is only one carrier to have, buy a prepaid Telstra card. I had signal most of the time, my companions needed theirs and had little in the way of service. Personally I am happy to luxuriate in areas without the pressures of modern entrapments, so I was happy either way.
  • Holiday season - Western Australia is small in population, so it swells in tourist stops over Easter. Book everything at least 6 months in advance, especially camps sites in Exmouth / Shark Bay.
  • Medical kit - check it, take care of hygiene and wear booties on the beach.
  • Vehicle/ Wicked Campers - verify carefully what you are hiring. What you see on the internet is not what you'll necessarily get, we got a Toyota Corolla with a rooftop camper instead of Rav 4;  their blurb - "loads of room for 3 people": what a joke. We were also disgusted with the very sexist slogans scrawled inside the vehicle. The price is good, but you are locked in with a non-refundable $500 deposit and non-refundable insurance policy.

    Hire the car with your own travel insurance, to save $$ per day (watch the pre-selections on internet forms).  A quick decision to buy a rear door bike rack would have assisted with luggage, but the next day Dennis and I went back to Wicked: with a bit of persuasive argument we managed to upgrade for a smallish change-over charge to a Toyota Kluger and cancelled the daily insurance (as we already had $5000 excess coverage on our travel insurance with 1Cover), and we got a refund on the rack. At the end of the day we realised that a 4x4 with a couple of small tents would be better than the camper, if we could get one - and if we could match the $400 one way drop off charge.
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Location: Exmouth WA 6707, Australia

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