Jan. 28: Karratha to Exmouth (Ningaloo Reef)


We woke up in Karratha after a lovely night sleep in a quiet, air conditioned room. We headed to their restaurant for breakfast and then G and the girls headed to the pool for an hour while I packed the car. We decided we'd rather get to the World Heritage Site, Ningaloo Reef, than stay another day / night in Karratha so off we went! We left Karratha at 10:30, bound for Exmouth and the Ningaloo Reef. The drive distance today was 547 km / 340 miles and G did the whole thing again (despite me offering multiple times to drive!).

C has been obsessed with the Famous Mr. Ed for many months now, despite never really seeing anything more than a 1 minute youtube clip and hearing stories from me about him. She got a 30 year anniversary book (published in the 90s) from her Auntie Courtney for Christmas and brought the book with her. She was excitedly telling the server at the restaurant this morning all about him and showing off her book. The book made it to Karratha!

Off we went. The outside temperature hit 43 C today (109 F) so we (of course) stopped to see if we could fry an egg on the ground and on the car. We didn't accomplish much ... we thought ... but when we arrived and got out of the car, I saw fried egg all down the hood of the car. HAHAHAHA.

Some 5 hours later, we entered the World Heritage Site. We also found one of the most random road signs ever. And we saw more and more - so many - of the termite mounds. They literally covered the landscape, as frequent as a cherry blossom is in SE in springtime. We were amazed by it. Other cool things we saw within moments of arriving in Exmouth:

(1) a Perentie lizard (whom we later learned is named Lucy by the hotel) - she caught a live seagull. We watched this happen! The perentie lizard, a goanna, is the largest predator in the Outback. Perentie lizards are the 4th largest lizard in the world and apparently are rarely seen because of their shyness. They grow up to 8 feet long and the average length is 5'9". They weigh average 33 pounds but can get up to 45 pounds. The one we saw today - Lucy - was approximately 3 feet in length. (2) a group of emus crossing the road! Right after we saw them, S saw an emu crossing sign and about died!!! We had dinner at the hotel after hitting a grocery store so we're set as of tomorrow morning. I went to the visitor center to learn about the kid-friendly snorkel sites. We're off on our first snorkeling adventure tomorrow! (I also updated pictures from Broome in case you want to look back through some old posts)











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