Exmouth, WA

I recently spent a week traveling from Exmouth back to Perth along the west coast. I originally booked a Skywest flight up to Exmouth with the intention of driving by myself in a rental car / SUV back to Perth over a week, sleeping in the car / caravan parks / under the stars or a swag. The trip is roughly 800 miles / 1300 km, or the distance from Seattle to San Francisco. My better judgement finally won (assisted by some prodding from coworkers) and I ended up finding an adventure backpackers group to travel with for the roadtrip portion.

To explain my decision, we must cover both the size of WA and secondly (and most importantly), its isolation. I don't think most Americans would have an appreciation for the vast size of Western Australia. The state of WA covers 2.5 million square kilometers (approx 1 million square miles). That’s four times the size of Texas and larger than Western Europe. However, WA's population is a mere 2.3 million people, 1.7 million of which live in the Perth metropolitan area.

To further explain, I'm going to use an something I found online to capture your attention: "Take the western portion of the US all the way to the eastern borders of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana and add in, say, Kansas for good measure. That’s roughly the size of Western Australia. Place a metropolitan area about the size of Austin, TX somewhere in the vicinity of Los Angeles and then scatter another 600,000 people primarily along the coast. Separate Canada and Mexico by vast oceans, and you’ll have WA."

The rest of the Australian population (20 million) reside primarily along the east coast, separating West Australians from their neighbors by thousands of miles of outback desert. WA is truly isolated. It has been said that it's the most isolated city in the world. This claim has been disputed with Honolulu, Hawaii and Auckland, NZ....just depends on the measures you want to use. But you get the picture.

So there were obvious reasons for me not to travel alone. If it were the US or Europe, I would think nothing of it. In WA though, towns are few and far between, with no mobile reception between them. And considering I can't even change a flat tire, I think I made the best choice. (And I know my parents would be nodding their heads furiously as they read this).

I flew up to Exmouth on a Saturday, and had a few days to enjoy relaxing on my own. The town of Exmouth is a 13 hour drive (or a couple hours flight) on the NW Cape Peninsula with the Exmouth Gulf to the east and the Ningaloo Reef to the west. The Ningaloo Reef is a 260km fringing reef - the longest fringing reef in the world, and the only reef positioned so close to a land mass. The reef was just recently World Heritage listed. Although not as popular (or as big) as the Great Barrier Reef, the Ningaloo Reef is so close to land in some places that you can just walk out into the ocean and start snorkeling. The GB Reef is separated by a deep lagoon / channel and requires an expensive boat trip to access it. Not fun in rough waters or for people who get seasick....imagine me ralphing for 12 hours straight. I think I lost 14 lbs in one day back in 1998. So I'm a big fan of this fringing reef business!

In addition to the Ningaloo Reef, Exmouth is also famous for migrating Whale Sharks. The coral spawning of the reef produces an abundant amount of plankton that draws in the whale sharks on their migratory path. The whale shark, a slow-moving filter feeder, is the largest living fish species in the world. The largest one confirmed was 12.65 meters (41.5 feet) and the heaviest weighed more than 79 tonnes (79,000 lbs). Their average life span is 70 years! And I swam next to one (mine was estimated to be about 5 meters or 16+ feet). It is not cheap, but it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. For about $400, various tour operators will take you on a full-day Whale Shark experience. Several kilometers out to sea, their spotter planes spot the Whale Sharks and you get in and swim with these gentle giants. Whalesharks are still relatively mysterious and much research is being done. (Note: the picture below is from wikipedia as I did not take any photos on the day. The image is at the Georgia Aquarium and uploaded by Zac Wolf.)

A little about Exmouth, where I spent 3 days enjoying life and sun. This little town of 2,000 has a bit more history than you'd think. After the retreat from Java in March 1942, Allied naval forces needed a base for replenishing submarines against the Japanese. Both Darwin and Broome were too exposed to air attack. Code-named Potshot, the base was also a rest camp for submariners. An airfield (now Learmonth, where I flew into) was constructed to provide fighter defense for the base. Z Special Unit used Potshot as a staging base for Operation Jaywick in September 1943 in which 7 Japanese boats were sunk in Singapore Harbor. The town was basically abandoned after it wasn't needed anymore. Then, in 1967, the Naval Communication Station was built after an agreement was established between Australia and the US. Its primary mission was that of a radio relay station, passing messages between Australian and US command centers, submarines, and surface ships. The 13 large antennaes (numbered 0-12), are Very Low Frequency (VLF) transmitters. Tower Zero (in the center) is the 2nd tallest structure in the southern hemisphere (387.6 meters high or approx 1300 feet).

My first 3 days were on my own before joining up with the group. I had a rental car and took a look around, did some nice walks, spent a day at the beach, etc and just generally took in the sights of the area: 

• Cape Range National Park; Thomas Carter Lookout over the Charles Knife Gorge
• Pebble Beach
• Potshot Memorial (commemorates Operation Potshot 1942-45)
• Krait Monument (tribute to Operation Jaywick)
• SS Mildura Wreck (1907 cattle ship wreckage visible from shore; later used in WWII for allied planes bombing practice)
• Vlamingh Lighthouse and the view! (named for Willem de Vlamingh, who explored the coast and named Rottnest Island and the Swan River in Perth)
• Migrating humpback whales....so many it got a little boring! "Oh look, there's the 40th humpback." "Eh, think I'll have some more chips."
• Dolphins

Tuesday, I met up with the backpackers adventure group and spent the day snorkeling at Turquoise Bay. We set off for our first destination on the drive back to Perth, Coral Bay, on Tuesday evening. The rest of the trip will be covered in the next post. Hope you enjoyed reading about Exmouth as much as I enjoyed visiting!

The VLF towers

Sunset over Indian Ocean

Emu in Cape Range National Park