I'm Back - Picture Heavy Post

Well I had a great holiday.  Mind you the first 3 days I thought I was holidaying in Hell as the temps were in the low 40's (Low 100's), then the weather levelled out to the mid 30's (low 90's) which was much more agreeable to little ole me.
The other half went fishing just about every day and didn't catch a thing but I think that is karma as he had just come back from a weeks fishing charter with his limit of 20kg of fish fillets.
So with out further ado here are some holiday snaps.

This is the shipwreck of the SS Mildura, The SS Mildura was a cattle ship on its way from the Kimberley when it got lost in a cyclone in 1907. It was a 2217 ton steel steamer built in Glasgow in 1901. The Mildura was wrecked on March 10, 1907 when it clipped the North West reef. The crew was rescued by SS Burrumbeet but all the cattle on board were left to die.

Salvaged timber and iron from the Mildura were used in renovations at the Yardie Station homestead. The hull sat on the reef until WW2 when it was used for bombing practice.

 Okay, now this doesn't look like much but it was a Bronze Whaler shark about 1.5m long.  I saw this not long after arriving at a small beach and thinking gee what a great place to have a swim!!

 This is Learmonth Jetty, where we spent about 5 hours fishing and catching nothing. This is where I saw the shark in the above picture. Mind you I didn't mind not catching anything as we saw sting rays, dolphins, and other marine life.

 We went out on a glass bottom boat to look at the coral and marine life. It was the beginning of the turtle mating season and yep we saw it LOL
This is the website to look at the tour and wonderful people that run it (they are currently nominated for a Western Australian Tourism Award, Good Luck Guys!!)
Ningaloo Ecology Cruises

 Now this is Coral Bay, I had never been there before and the colour of the water just blew me away.  Coral Bay is basically a small holiday town which is slowly being commericalised, but it is to soon to say if it is in a good way or a bad way, I might go back and visit in 10 years and cast my vote then..........

 No kidding this was the road!! Then you had to cross a creek to rejoin the road. Needless to say we didn't use my Brother's 4WD to try this!!!

 

 We just happened to stop for lunch here, this is Mauds Landing and a few years ago it was going to be the site for a Marina - luckily that didn't go ahead!  The Threat To Mauds Landing

The 3 pictures above are just shots of the landscape, and at the right time of year you can see whales frolicking in the ocean - Now I have lived here in Australia for over 20 years and up until last week had never seen a real whale, but Friday afternoon after getting off the plane and going for a drive I saw my first ever in the flesh real whale and it was awesome!! They weren't super close to shore as normal as they are currently doing the migratey thing to cooler waters.

 This is looking down over a caravan park, the large pole things in the back ground are all part of the United States/Australia communications base. Because Exmouth is a cyclone prone area the poles can withstand winds up to 500km per hour.

 This is Vlamingh Head Lighthouse, Due to the location of this lighthouse it provides sweeping views of the Cape. It was built in 1912 and was originally known as the North West Cape Lighthouse on Vlamingh Head. This lighthouse was built because of the wrecking of the Mildura in 1907 along this coastline. The first light to come from this lighthouse was on 10 December 1912.

It was damaged by Cyclone Vance but today it is fully restored. It also has the distinction of being Australia’s only kerosene burning lighthouse.


Well I hope you enjoy looking at my holiday snaps if you want any info about where I went, what is there to do there etc just flick me an email or leave me a comment..............