Exmouth

Snorkel time! First we made a visit to the information center of the National Park to know a bit more about the snorkeling places and the tides. Then we quickly decided to go to Oyster Stacks. Sounds fancy, but it's just one of the 20 or so beach access places in the park. This one in particularly was a rocky one, but that had the advantage that the coral reef started almost immediately.

When we got underwater we immediately noticed the visibility was much better than at Coral Bay. The current was stronger so it took some more effort to go in the direction you wanted to go, but at least it was safe as in that the current pushed you back towards the shore. We saw many big fishes, definitely bigger than what we've seen in Fiji or South East Asia. We spend around an hour in the water before relaxing in the van.

Since this place didn't have any toilets, we went further to Turquoise Bay, another fantastic snorkel spot. We didn't want to go in when the sun is the strongest to avoid getting burned. So we cooked ourselves a lunch on the parking lot. Then it was time for our daily dosis of jumping dinosaurs and corona updates. We're feeling quite safe ourselves, not only because we are not part of the risk group but also because we are in remote Western Australia and there aren't even that many cases in Australia generally yet. But we don't know how our world trip can continue after Australia. More and more countries are closing their borders (which is of course understandable and necessary) and we think that by the time we want to leave Australia, we might not be able to anymore. Measurements and restrictions are changing basically at a daily rate making it impossible to predict what's smart to do in 2 weeks when we return the car in Perth. So daily discussion about corona news are also part of worldtrip life now.

Anyways, it was time for our second snorkel session of the day. This time in Turquoise Bay. There was no current here but a whole lot of sand. We had to swim in for a while before we reached the first coral places. We again saw big fish, although mainly the same types as before. The visibility was a bit worse probably due to the sandy ground and big tides. So that was a bit disappointing at first. At the end however, Machiel proved his spotting skills and magically managed to distinguish a rock-like looking thing from the rocks. Turned out it was an octopus that looked like a rock in one moment and in the next it turned super red and stared at you with a huge eye. Creepy but super cool.

After a quick shower at our new campsite we headed to a nearby beach to try our luck with spotting baby turtle hatching. It was nice to be at the beach with sunset but unfortunately no turtles were spotted, only their tracks.Read more