Exmouth - Water Babies

Dinner!

David with his boo boo

Fishing with the turtle

We have fallen into like with Exmouth.  The weather is constantly sunny and beautiful.  The weather has been late 20s everyday.  The drive to Exmouth was very long and warm.  We stopped at Coral Bay along the way.  It had a beautiful clear blue beach with lots of young families.  At this time of year it is expensive and almost impossible to stay there so we just enjoyed the sights for a bit and then headed on to Exmouth.  When we arrived in Exmouth we learned that most of the caravan parks were full.  This was not good as it was coming close to dark.  Luckily, the lady at the caravan park that we pulled into was determined to call around until she could find a place for us to spend the night.  The caravan park is about 15 minutes out of the town and right next to the lighthouse, close to all the beaches as well.  The next morning Sam and David went out for a surf, David body boarding.  I was actually working up the courage to try and try out either surfing or body boarding.  After being tossed around by the waves David had enough and decided to come in, only to find out that he had a massive gash on his foot from something off the reef.  Right after seeing that a guy came walking towards us with a face and head full of blood.  His surfboard’s fin had hit him in the back of the head and he had a massive gash.  After the two incidents I was lightheaded and sick to my stomach.  My courage spell had completely left me. 

After the beach we headed into the city where the boys applied for jobs at IGA and I put my name on the relief teacher list at the local school.  We plan to stick around here for a few weeks to earn some more money and enjoy the area of course.  Next stop was our plan for our dinner…..catching a fish.  We spent all afternoon fishing (and watching a massive turtle just metres away from us playing in the waves) and after having enough we headed to another place and within 5 minutes of being there Sam caught a fish, spangled emperor.  It was huge, definitely not what I was expecting us to catching.  It was a beautiful looking fish as well.  Another couple was also fishing there so they came over and helped us bleed it and told us how to fillet it.    As we started chatting and they asked where I was from I found out that they had actually just come back from Saskatchewan.  They were in Canada for 27 days spending most of it in Ituna and Regina for the Royal Progress Show.  Usually people have never even heard of it so to run into some random people to have them just come back from Saskatchewan was pretty neat.  We went back to the caravan park and had a very yummy dinner. Yay spangled emperor.

Yesterday we went snorkelling at what we have heard is the best snorkelling place in the area.  The place is called Turquoise Bay.  There are two parts to it.  You can either do a drift snorkel or you can swim around in the bay.  Since we really enjoyed the Drift Snorkel at Gnaraloo we decided to do that one first.  The current was pretty strong so David and I ended up doing it twice.  We saw lots of really cool fish.  I cannot get over the shapes and colours of the different fish.  I saw a little brown sting ray with blue spots.  I thought   it was a cool looking skinny fish and when I got closer I saw the rest of the body.  Further on we also saw a squid.  Ugly thing.  It saw us coming and hid in a little hole where we could still see him.  We headed over to the bay where I was the only one wanting to snorkel so I hopped in hoping that this wouldn’t be the time where I run into a shark.  The coral was much more colourful this time.  Similar fish.  This time I saw a gross cuttlefish.  If you do not know what they look like google it.  They are also very ugly.  Just as I was about to call it a day for snorkelling I swam between some coral and came head on with a turtle.  For a moment I felt like I was in Finding Nemo.  I quickly got out of his way and turned around to watch him swim past me.  How cool!  I definitely had an exciting day of snorkelling.

Tomorrow we have decided that we are going to have a swim with the Whale Sharks.  I am pretty nervous.  I am sure it will be a blast though.  Google whale sharks to learn a bit about them. 

Tata for now,

Holly and David

P.S. Funny thing just happened.  I am sitting in the caravan park writing my blog and 3 emus just walked past my window.  They are all over this town, in the parks, in the car parks, in the caravan parks, etc.  It is so weird to see them everywhere.