Week 16 - Wooramal to Bullara Station
May 11 - May 18
The night before whilst having burgers at Wooramal Station things were getting expensive as it was $35pp for a burger and corn - but worth it as we sat at a communal table and met a young couple who had lived in Coral Bay the last 12 months working on the tour boats.
They said there is nothing better than getting a day out on the reef with glassy conditions. Looking at the weather in two days time it was exactly that - low wind, low swell, and sunny. So we changed our plans and decided to high tail it on to Coral Bay the next day. With things falling into place we were able to book at the caravan park, book the tour for Sunday, and a pet sitter for Sam. Keeping with the expensive theme she charged $20 per hour.
Despite the expensive burgers, Wooramel Station was lovely with live music and a beautiful grassy cafe area and fairy lights overhead.
Saturday morning we started with coffee, a croissant, and damper from the cafe and drove straight to Canarvan to stock up on supplies, then on to Coral Bay. We checked into the caravan park by late afternoon and it was HOT and sticky.
Coral Bay town is nothing spectacular, as it turns out you can’t actually live there unless you are working there. As the couple we met at Wooramal told us, it leads to a rather toxic culture of partying, drinking, and small town feuds. Just some of the reasons they had left. It is basically 2 large caravan parks, and small handful of holiday accommodation, and all the tour companies. The caravan park was packed in like sardines and thankfully we were right at the back with still few vacant spots around us. Sadly we still weren’t far enough away from the group of young guys up drinking and swearing their pants off.
Sunday we left Sam with the petsitter and hopped on our tour boat. It was very kindly a gift from Ella, Cam, Jack, and Koo for our 30ths (almost 2 years ago). We spent a glorious day meeting lovely people, and snorkelling on the Ningaloo Reef. With near perfect conditions we saw a large tiger shark (thankfully from the boat), multiple large reef sharks, turtles, a bright blue octopus, and huge array tropical fish. Not to mention the highlight of swimming with a beautiful very large manta ray. They send up spotter planes to scout them out, and once you jump in the water the race is on. Despite this particular manta seemingly cruising along very relaxed and happy to be close to us, they have quite the pace and we were working hard to keep up. When the group starts to lag the boat picks us up, lets us catch our breath then drops us in again to swim like mad to keep up. We did this 3 times before lunch and then a second relaxed snorkel to wind things up.
We got back to shore absolutely buzzing then topped it off with a $5 Emu Export in the shade of the cafe to avoid going back to our sweltering campsite.
Next morning we were up early (again to escape the crummy caravan park) and went out to 5 fingers reef (again at the recommendation of the same couple), set up for the morning and had coffee/brekky on the beach. We were the first to arrive and had a lovely quiet time relaxing and excellent snorkelling.
By midday it was absolutely bumper to bumper with cars, and turned out to be a VERY popular spot. We packed up and decided to take a 4WD track part of the way to Exmouth to see more of the coast. It was such a bad decision. It was an insanely rough and corrugated track, half covered in sad dunes that had blown over, and once we were on, we couldn’t get off for another 40kms. Almost 3 hours later we were hot and grumpy once we got back to the main road, and still over an hour from Exmouth. Turns out there was a road closed sign on that end of the track..
To make a crummy afternoon worse, once we got the caravan park we got to our site and it was right next to the dump point… and quite literally stunk like shit.
I was fed up and went back to complain and got us moved to a much nicer (and powered) site. To help our moods I shouted us dinner and beers at Froth Craft Brewery, the food was so so but the ambience made up for it.
Overnight it absolutely poured and we woke up to camping in the middle of a puddle, VERY happy we had a rooftop tent. We heard many stories of peoples car windows being left open only to have their cars soaked.
The skies were sunny again however so we spent the morning at the laundromat, had coffee and brekky (again my shout so it wasn’t coming out of the budget) at a nearby cafe, and spent the afternoon reading and planning the next part of our travels. That afternoon we spent at Whalebone Brewing and had an early dinner of Exmouth prawn pizza, and Bullara beef nachos.
Sam was off to another petsitter the next day so we could go and explore Cape Range NP. Starting at Yardie Creek we got the walking done early before it got hot and completed the trail up the river.
We then beach hopped from Osprey Bay, Oyster Stacks, and Turquoise Bay. The snorkelling at Oyster Stacks was brilliant and got to see lots of fish, turtles, and eel.
After another brilliant day we were feeling ecstatic and very thankful for the opportunity to do what we have been doing. We capped it off with a drive though Shothole Canyon which we had to ourselves.
Thursday we were sad to be leaving Exmouth, but I wasn’t so sad to be leaving another packed caravan park with people drinking and being obnoxious. We were off to Bullara Station, a station I have had on my list of places to go to for a few years now.
Bullara is known for its scones, sausage rolls, and burger nights of which we indulged in all of the above. A popular station on the southern part the Exmouth Gulf it has fully embraced the outback feel but with a touch of class. Friday we dove out to the eastern side of the gulf to essentially just get eaten alive by midges with we payed for for the next few days (don’t recommend).
Bullara burger night really is a sight to behold which runs seamlessly and the foods delicious (do recommend). We slept well with a remarkably quiet campsite. The stations really top the caravan parks everywhere we turn.
Thanks for reading, I still can’t believe some of you do.
Love Laura, Ewen, and Sam xx