The Coral Coast - Western Australia

The Coral Coast the top Western Part of Western Australia famous for the Ningaloo Reef and the whale sharks.

Carnarvon - Fleur at the Space and Technology Museum, which celebrates the role that Carnarvon Tracking Station played in the manned space programme. Built to support NASA's Gemini & Apollo programmes it was the last station to communicate with the space capsules leaving the earth orbit, and the last contact before splashdown. 

Just to prove its not all beer and skittles on this jolly, a little bit of work having to change the shock absorber rubbers on Larry after some serious corrugations had reduced the originals to dust causing some major knocking noises. We ended up staying 6 days in Carnarvon to catch up on school work and caravan and car maintenance.

The Blowholes just north of Carnarvon with a sign to warn you of the dangers. Off the beach there was some good coral for our first family snorkelling adventure. Ellie said "That was the best thing ever" as we sat on the beach eating our picnic and watching some sort of shark swim past exactly where we had just swam.

Heading north from Carnarvon and crossing the Tropic of Capricorn, an imaginary line of latitude going around the earth at approximately 23.5° south of the equator. It is the southernmost point on earth where the suns rays can be directly overhead at local noon on the December solstice. We have left the southern temperate zone and entered the tropics. As this imaginary line is moving in a complex manner and not fixed, Penny, using all the things she learnt at university, has positioned herself on the actual latitude for 2014 and is demonstrating just how far out of position the sign is now.

Coral Bay in the Ningaloo Coast Marine Park, another Word Heritage area. The reef is one of the largest fringing reefs in the world and you get to it by stepping off the beach. Two days of snorkelling and swimming in the warm crystal clear waters with plenty of coral, fish and a few rays spotted. Fleur and Ellie celebrating what might just be the best beach so far! It's also worth recording that on day 104 of our trip it actually rained, for a full 10 minutes, our first rain on the trip so far, but not enough to wash the car or caravan. 

Turquoise Bay in the Ningaloo Marine Park - another full couple of days snorkelling at the many beaches up and down the reef, it is now starting to become a problem to choose the best beach, there may be too many to choose from. Trip Advisor voted Turquoise Bay the second best beach in Australia.

Sunset at the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse which stands at the northernmost tip of Cape Range on the Coral Coast. The Lighthouse overlooks Lighthouse Bay and has the distinction of being one of the few places in Australia where you can watch the sun rise and set. Another lighthouse landmark on our journey as we stop heading north and turn to head east.