Days 10-12 Turtles, Tragedies and other Tales

It has been days and days of turtles, people. They’re everywhere. In the water, on the beach…umm…yeah.

On Saturday we took a snorkeling tour from Coral Bay to see some of the outer Ningaloo reef and swim with manta rays. Honestly, the rays were not the most exciting thing we saw, despite that being the draw for every tour offered in Coral Bay. We saw (you guessed it!) several sea turtles, one of whom was super chill and let us follow it for forever. We also went to a “shark cleaning station” where we swam with as many as 7 or 8 reef sharks at a time. Awesome.

Julia would also like the record to show that she liked the unicorn fish.

The manta rays were huge, probably 10-12 feet from wing tip to wing tip. I wouldn’t say we swam with them as much as swam after them, somewhat frantically trying to keep up. It was hardly the idyllic encounter I’d expected, but I guess that’s the way it is. They were pretty cool anyway.

Saturday evening we drove to Exmouth (pronounced ex-mouth, as in something that is no longer the part of the body through which one speaks and consumes food, much to my dismay) and then on to the northern tip of the cape where we were welcomed to the caravan park by the nicest, most helpful man who could apparently sense our love of and need to encounter more turtles. He explained where we could go to see nesting females, though unfortunately we would have to stay up well past our normal 8:30 bed time, as that is just when the egg-laying party gets started.

We managed to keep our eyes open long enough to meet Louise, as we dubbed her, a green turtle who gracefully sauntered (Julia would like the record to show that there was more dragging then sauntering) up the beach while we sat there watching and trying, in Julia’s case, not to be attacked by crabs. She, in fact, sat on me at one point to avoid being near a crab’s hole and several times literally jumped at the sight of them. “They, like, were leaping at us!” – Julia’s interjection as I type this.

After approximately an hour of watching Louise sauntering/dragging herself up the beach and digging a hole we decided it was time to leave her be and head to bed. Super cool to see her from the moment she emerged from the water, though.

On Sunday we decided to make it our laziest day yet. We got ourselves a campsite at lovely Pilgrimunna in Cape Range National Park, where we proceeded to do almost nothing all day. We ate, slept and read. We walked all of 20 feet from our tent to see an echidna attempting to hide in the bush from all of us tourists. Some of the semi-permanent residents of the campground introduced themselves to us, including the man who’d been there for 4 weeks already, who subversively told us how to gain the affection of the local kangaroo mob provided the campground hosts didn’t catch us. In a revelation that was a long time coming, we realized we could cut the noise of wind on our tent approximately tenfold by removing the rain fly. I’m not sure I can express how significant this is for my sleep patterns. We also saw an absolutely stunning sunset, the best we’ve seen in WA thus far.

Today we showed up at the park visitors center before it opened, as we do at so many attractions thanks to our geriatric sleep schedule. We hired some fins and went snorkeling right off the beach at gorgeous Turquoise Bay. Within five minutes of getting in the water, after getting over the temperature of the water, we saw a shark, an octopus (who tried to ink us), a ray and, you guessed it, two turtles. Five minutes, people! Right off the beach! Amazing. We also saw more turtles, another octopus, more rays, starfish and tons of other fish.

At Julia’s request we stopped on our way back to Exmouth at the site of the SS Mildura wreck, which sticks halfway out of the water and so can be seen from the shore. Julia would like you to insert your own ship (read: shit) puns here. Also, she wants you all to know that I am not very nice to her.

We then ran errands, including a partially unsuccessful attempt to buy groceries for the rest of our trip. We always forget things when we go to the supermarket, but also today Julia almost cried in cookie aisle when she saw that Tim Tams were no longer on sale for $2.09 per pack as they have been the past couple times we’ve shopped. That is not an exaggeration.

We’re now at the poshest caravan park we’ve stayed at yet (also the cheapest, paradoxically).

Other tragedy you should be aware of: My beloved watch of 8 years died on Saturday. After losing the band (not that any of you ever saw the original band) and then the faceplate, it basically exploded, presumably due to being on my wrist during duck dives on our snorkeling tour. May it rest in peace. Also, Julia has complete control over my life now that I have to rely on her for time checks.

Possibly forthcoming: Julia’s review of all flavors of Tim Tams in existence. Allie’s review of all beaches visited thus far in WA and how they compare to Siesta Key Beach in Sarasota, Florida.

Tomorrow we will attempt to finish our musical journey across the US, in which we try to find songs on my iPod that mention every state in the US of A.