Gnaraloo Station - our first taste of the Ningaloo Reef

Gnaraloo - The supposed 'real thing'

5 April to 7 April 2013

The morning of Dad’s 63^rd birthday we walked up the hill to the Quobba lighthouse to get reception to sing happy birthday.  It was a windy spot but a beautiful view. We could even see the nearby blowholes doing their stuff.  (They were very impressive blowholes).

We were disappointed with Gnaraloo Station. It’s expensive to camp there ($60/night for our family) and yet they couldn’t fix a light bulb in the toilet block where they had warm showers and there was no sink to the laundry tub.   Minor things I now, but when you’re paying that much money you want things pretty schmick. 

Our camp was right on the edge of a ridge overlooking the 3 mile lagoon and we did enjoy watching 3 sharks attacking a big school of bait fish.  Hugo and Simon on their first snorkel swam with a turtle!  And the reef up at Gnaraloo Bay was pretty nice but the current was swift so by the time I got  a chance to go out (after Simon had gone out with Hugo and then Isobel) it just wasn’t safe. 

It was while we were camped here that we realized the polyblock that is part of our treg hitch had split and we needed to drive carefully all the way back to Carnarvon (about 180km much of it on corrugations and sand). We made it back safely and even managed to tow the trailer into the repair workshop before it split off altogether!  Thank goodness for our RACQ Ultimate membership which paid for our emergency accommodation while it was getting fixed (and would’ve picked up the cost of towing the trailer to the workshop if we hadn’t wanted to give it a shot).

The view from our tent at 3 Mile Lagoon.

Gnaraloo Bay

I can't imagine why WA is trying to get rid of these kinds of shacks that once graced much of their coastline. Point Quobba.

Quobba blowholes roaring.

Where we should've camped: Red Bluff at Quobba Station. This is where one of the lifeboats of German sailors reached the coast after destroyed the HMAS Sydney.