July 22 - 29 Osprey Campground, Cape Range National Park

July 30, 2018 - Reading time: 3 minutes

As we departed Ningaloo Station, we thought it would be hard to imagine a camp site being as beautiful! The drive back to Exmouth for restocking was a little tedious being the fourth time we have driven it but once again the effort was rewarded as our campsite at Osprey in the Cape Range National Park is simply superb as you can see from the photo below

We had eight wonderful days, walking the beaches, fishing, snorkelling and at the same time fighting the predominantly off shore breezes. It was wonderful to look out over the lagoon to see countless turtles swimming, fish cruising by and about one hundred metres further out seeing the 4 to 6 metre swell smashing into the reef with the spectacular spray flying of the back of the waves as they broke.

We also had two fantastic walks into the interior of Cape Range exploring both Yardie Creek and the Mandu Mandu gorges. Both were wonderful and gave a real insight into the desert meeting the sea. Cape Range is certainly a wild environment and early explorers would have found it extremely difficult to survive here but you are surrounded by beautiful wildflowers and spectacular scenery.

The highlight of the week was certainly our Whaleshark adventure…a day out to swim with the monsters of the sea! The swell the day before was topping 6metres which saw the cruise cancelled, so we had our fingers crossed and our Travel Calm tablets packed! The ‘lagoon’ (between the reef and the shore) was a bit churned up so the morning snorkel was postponed and we headed straight out to find the Whalesharks- spotter planes help do this. The group was divided into 2 lots of 10 and you had to be ready to get in as soon as you were told! With one group in they move on to drop the second group out in the direction the shark is swimming.it is an amazing process. Over the morning we had about 5 turns each. The third swim was the best when the monster decided to circle us- it was amazing. We took some underwater video, but, we had a pro photographer with us who provided us with a DVD and USB at the end- his photos were incredible! After the whale sharks we headed back to the lagoon and on the way we saw so many humpbacks still heading north, it was like a highway! Once in the lagoon we saw dugongs and dolphins, and did a great drift snorkel – great fish and coral! All in all it was a terrific day