With only a single day to spend in Cape Range National Park we were a bit flustered about what to do.  After being woken up by the noisy pack of galahs in the next campsite we had a walk along the beach after breakfast, this turned into an impromptu dip … until Blake discovered the dinner plate sized crabs lurking nearby.  Back at the van I proposed an itinerary that garnered only a few murmurs, so off we went.

 

First stop was Yardie Creek to have a look at the gorge and the river crossing.  Then maybe a few stops on the way back to check out some of the other campsites and beaches.  It was about this time that I realized that I didn’t bring any board shorts … so the mention of swimming  only brought a frown to my brow.  By the time we’d completed the walk into Yardie Creek Gorge the heat had turned into continual requests for a swim which had created a near permanent frown.

Lies, lies and lies! The road never ends, we're not even halfway yet ...

Oyster Stacks

Our stops on the way back, that didn’t involve any swimming only made things worse.  We soon had back tracked to our campsite though and the required boardies had been acquired.  We did manage to get a look at the Kurrajong campsite, where we’d originally booked and also another snorkelling site at the Oyster Stacks.  Just more jaw dropping scenery at every turn.  Gorgeous beaches on one side of the road and the mountain range with 4wd trails, gorges and old wells to explore on the other makes this a very interesting and accessible National Park.

How amazing that the best place we’ve found, so far, is also the absolute furthest from home at 3500 km as the crow flies.

I promised the family that we’d go back to Turquoise Bay for the afternoon swim again and that partially appeased them.  They still wanted a dip NOW though, so we headed up to the other end of the National Park to work our way back.  We had a look around at the Vlamingh Lighthouse lookout.  Good views from up there.  Got to see some of the famous cape range brumbies, but had nothing for them.

We had a look around at the Turtle Centre.  No turtles at this time of year though.  Since it was on the beach, the kids took it upon themselves to just jump on in.  We were all a bit hot and bothered so we ended up spending about an hour there splashing about.

A few other short stops on the way back soon had us at Turquoise Bay again.  This time we tried out the Bay beach.  This section has a different selection of coral and fish … obviously a group that needs less water flow.  In this section we saw more sea cucumbers, giant clams, eels, as well as lots of bright tropical fish.  Plenty of fish that had found crevices to live in too and since there was no current to fight here we could hover around and check them out as much as we liked. Even better, I remembered to bring the underwater camera and all the snorkel gear was behaving itself.

Sundowners at the campsite with Ukelele and Trumpet entertainment

Dinner was Red Emperor … from Thailand.  A bit silly when a fellow camper had caught plenty of Red Emperor straight off the beach at the campsite … but there ya go.  An early night tonight since we got a huge day of driving tomorrow.