Back in April Mary and I took a few weeks off to go on a camping trip to Ningaloo Station. Ningaloo Station is a sheep station located on the NW coast of Australia. The biggest attraction this camping site has is that just a few hundred meters from shore is the Ningaloo Reef. The Ningaloo Reef is a virtually untouched barrier reef of 260km length protecting a shallow, brilliant white sandy lagoon of clear tropical waters. One of the rare places on earth where you are able to walk from the beach straight onto a coral reef. More than 500 species of tropical fish and 220 species of coral make up the Ningaloo Reef; a protected marine park. The only thing separating our campsite form the reef was a sand dune. The site cost us $15 per week each.
Just down the beach from us was another camp with two families that are friends of ours. It was nice going down to visit them for cocktails at sunset. We also had a great time walking on the beach, reading books, and snorkeling on the reef. I think the most exciting time we had was on one of our snorkeling trips out on the reef when the daughter of one of our friends, who was following along in a kayak, shouted that she had spotted a shark, a big one, and that it was heading straight for us. I never did see it but it sure got my heart rate up.These first images are of our campsite:
This image of our camp site was taken from the top of a large sand dune (see the waves breaking over the outer edge of the reef).
This is our camp site taken from the top of the dune that separated our site from the beach.
This is our site viewed from the beach. That high dune in the background is where the first image in this series was taken.
This is our sleeping tent.
Our cooking tent.
Our tarp for sun protection.
Our toilet tent.
The shower I put together (solar powered).
Solar Panel to recharge the vehicle battery during the day (used to run a refrigerator).
Our generator, which I used to run the refrigerator for an hour each day while it also recharged our tent battery.
We even had a laundry. ;-)
When you walk over the sand dune to the beach this is what you would see
Looking to the left and this is what you see. Note the lack of other people.
Looking to the right you would see this. Those people down the beach (small dots) are our friends by their camp site.
One day it got so windy and sand blown that we had to spend most of the day in our tent. This is what you do on those days (drink beer and read).
Mary invited our friends' children to our camp one day to create art using found objects. Kids can sure be creative.
They created so many nice pieces of art that we decided to have an exhibit for their parents. Here you see them posing with the art.
And what would an art exhibit be without live entertainment. The kids sang several songs, one of which they wrote themselves.
There was lots of wildlife around. Here are just a few of what we saw.
A little ways down the beach from us were some huge sand dunes. Here are a few shots we were able to get. The first one is mine and the second is Mary's (note that both of these images are going to be exhibited in a gallery in a few weeks).
After we took those shots we walked back to the beach and I was able to get this shot (also going on exhibit). Our camp is just on the other side of the point in this shot.
Not everything went well during our trip. On the way out the clutch burnt out on our vehicle. We had to leave our trailer and get our friends to tow us about 80 miles, 20 of that on dirt roads, to the nearest town to get it repaired. They saved us a $1000 towing fee. After the vehicle was repaired we had to return for our trailer.
Here's a shot Mary took of me refilling our tires after clearing the roughest section of the road (you have to reduce tire pressure to get better traction).
One of the sites you see along the road to the highway is termite mounds.
Heading back south we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn.
If you want to know what the Tropic of Capricorn is visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropic_of_Capricorn
Anyway, that is about it. We are planning another trip up north for the month of August (4 to 6 weeks long).
