Exmouth

Another day in paradise but unfortunately our stay in Cape Range National Park has come to an end. The first photo in this blog shows this great camp with Ningaloo Reef behind it and the Hammerhead wave on the horizon.

After arriving in Exmouth just after 9am the first job was to see if we could get onto one of the whale shark cruises - we were booked in by 9:30 and checked into the caravan park down the road by 10am. After camp setup we went to into town for some more shopping and upon our return started to get ready for fishing.

Today I purchased a netting license so we can use our cast net to get catch fish. I spent a little bit of time casting the net in the caravan park. Net casting is a bit of an art and I just couldn't master is until a fellow camper took pity and showed me how it's done. I think with a bit more practice I'll be able to manage.

Later in the afternoon we drove to the jetty next to the submarine communication station for a bit of fishing. Ilse and Alexander both caught a fish referred to as "Happy Moments" in reference to the immense pain induced by their numerous spikes. We took it easy getting these fish off the hook. Ilse put one of them back into the water, just under the jetty, so I could get the pliers. As she was standing there with her 25cm fish in the water, on the hook, something really big shot out of nowhere and grabbed the fish together with line hook and sinker.

Although we all caught something, Ilse was the only one to get a take-home sized Bream. We went to the fish cleaning table just after the sun went below the horizon. I have never seen so many mozzie as what we had at the fish cleaning table, thousands of them descended upon us and we I had to fillet really quick and get back in the car.

We had the Bream for dinner and once again had to listen to Ilse pointing out that she has caught the biggest fish this afternoon.

Here is today's travel map.