Yardie Creek

After a quiet night at Yardie Homestead we had a leisurely morning and a slow breakfast before departing around 9am. Our track took us just a few km's south to the entry station at Cape Range National Park. We checked in with the ranger and then proceeded another 46km South to the Yardie Creek camp site. The whole camp only has 8 bays, we are in bay #2.

These camps, like most in WA National Parks, have a Camp Host -

a volunteer who stays from April to September to make sure everything runs smoothly in the camp. There is no water here, not even bore water, none whatsoever. The closest fresh water source is in Exmouth about 80km away from this camp. We have brought 120lt of fresh water in our caravan tanks and it has to last for 3 nights.

The camp site is great with shade from trees on both sides, a very nice long drop toilet opposite and only 50mt walk to the beach. We are well inside Ningaloo Reef here and we can see the huge Indian ocean swell breaking some distance off shore where the reef meets the ocean. Although its a long way away we can clearly hear the the big waves breaking. On our beach the waves are only 20cm high and produce a soothing sound that has the same effect as sleeping pill.

The camp site is only 20mt away from Yardie gorge where people can take a little boat cruise up the Yardie river into the gorge. The river mouth is currently closed and 4WD's can drive down along the coast for some distance.

Our camp was set up and we were ready for action before 11am. Preparing fishing gear took up a bit of time but after lunch we hit the beach with our fishing rods to see what's out there. Alexander caught some type Threadfin but it wasn too small. I saw dozens of stingrays and we had a mid sized turtle going up and down the beach.

Just on sunset we tried our luck in the creek which has good fish habitat with mangroves on one side and deep rock ledges on the other. Alexander caught a couple of miniature Fingermark and I hooked an undersize Travelly.

Night time in this remote place is very different. There is no power, no television and no lights to pollute the night sky. No noises other than those produced by nature and the little waves up on the nearby beach - very peaceful indeed.

Here is the link to todays travel map.