Well I am happy to report that Day 18 was better than Day 17 and this has EVERYTHING to do with the weather - I am not ashamed to admit it! We left a rather soggy Coral Bay fairly early this morning for the 150 km drive to Exmouth – again the drive was through very dry countryside – desert almost, the typical red rocky soil, and shrubby plants. There was still rain coming down, but there was blue sky in sight and by mid day, the clouds had cleared and we were back to sunshine. The desert had received its fair share of the rain last night, and there were pools of surface water everywhere, usually with animals and birds drinking it all in.
Exmouth was an interesting place (military naval communications town and RAAF airbase) – I always find it very disconcerting to see homes with no gardens – must be my Victorian background that expects everything to be green and lush – but somehow a house without some kind of lawn and garden around it looks like a bald lady – there is just something missing! Most of the homes were nice enough, but the front and back yards were dirt – even the fancy homes that are being constructed around the canals – just naked!
We decided to not actually stay in Exmouth, but to continue on to the tip of the peninsula to a caravan park called the Lighthouse Caravan Park, mainly because it is at the foot of a steep hill on which a lighthouse stands. From the lighthouse you can see around for almost the full 360 degrees, most of which is beautiful ocean. The ‘done’ thing is to have sundowners at the lighthouse while the sun goes down – which we did … but before then, we set up our van and then headed off down the coast (on the other side of the peninsula to Exmouth) which is mostly national park … and I must say ….
I have not been to an Australian National Park that was quite as vibrant with wildlife as this one! One gets used to a variety of wild animals in African National Parks, but we have kinda become used to quieter parks in Australia – well I am not sure if it was the rain overnight or what, but the bush was teeming with life. We saw hundreds of kangaroos, groups of emus, a family group of bustards, a sea eagle and her nest (the eagles seem to nest in every possible tower they can find); two feral horses in the most appalling condition (not surprising how we stuff our horse with expensive feeds, yet these survive on stones) and an echidna. This was the highlight of my day …… he was so engrossed in eating the ants in an old log, that he had his eyes closed, with ants crawling all over his face, tongue darting out to lick them off and suck them in, that we were able to get very close. He looked like a kid in a lolly shop – in absolute heaven, sucking up as many of those angry ants as he could! The dissonance of emotion was striking – some very angry ants swarming around as their home and community was completely destroyed, and a VERY satisfied and pleased echidna eating them up.
Rich could not resist one last snorkel on the Nigaloo Reef (which he tells me was on his Bucket List to do before he dies) and which he absolutely loved: he saw a big green turtle, a vast variety of fish, lots of different coral and a group of game fish all in the space of a short half hour. He related to me a cute little tale about how all the small fish had been swimming around in a variety of directions as he passed and then he suddenly noticed that they were all swimming in formation quite close under him – wondering about the reason for this, he then saw a group of rather large game fish prowling – predators to the little fish – which explained their sudden coziness! J
The laugh of the day was that while we were walking down this lovely deserted beach, I spotted a large black crab in the water. Rich went straight in to ‘play’ with the crab and took off one of his crocs to poke it. It reacted REALLY aggressively, standing up on its back legs and waving its big nippers in his direction. He went a little closer with the croc and the crab suddenly latched on with one of its pinchers. He jumped back to discover that surprisingly, it had detached its entire leg and scuttled off, and Rich was left with a whole crab leg attached to his croc! No problem to him, he pulled it off, put it in his pocket and cooked it for dinner! Talk about eco-friendly – that has to be one of the best win-wins I have ever come across! Crab loses his leg but keeps his life and Rich gets a nice appetizer before dinner! Long live the crab!
As I type this, I am sitting outside under the most magnificent night sky I have seen for quite some time – it must be clearer and brighter because there are no city lights around – whatever the reason, it is more spectacular than I remember it being before. Several times today, in the face of great beauty, I have been struck by how all this wonder exists, day in and day out, night in and night out, under the sea and on the surface of the earth, and often unnoticed by most. Us little humans, busy about our lives and scurrying around to achieve our endeavours, take so little time to stop and enjoy all this gorgeous creation, and yet there it remains, breathing, living, reproducing, existing – for our and God’s pleasure …. I am so grateful for the opportunity and time to enjoy this wondrous world that we live in.
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