Setting up, we didn’t bother with the seats. Happiness is :)
Visibility was incredible. The green coral photo above was taken from the kayak and was in about 2 metres of water. Out near the outer reef edge we could clearly see the sandy bottom and the water had to be at least 15 metres deep. Although we packed the snorkels/fins we didn’t go in as the water was so clear we could see everything clearly above. We saw several turtles, a black tipped reef shark, star fish and heaps of large reef fish. Deciding to come in and pack up, we were surprised to see it was after 11 – as they say, time goes fast when you are having fun.
We didn’t get into Exmouth until lunch time, did a shop, refill of water and headed south.
The road south is open plains, and red sand hills covered in spinifex with thousands of termite mounds, as their favourite food is spinifex.
We turned right at a marker (thanks Rick) which was put into our memory map as a shortcut to the beach. The track takes you to the camping area at Pt Bruboodjoo and is the easiest way to get there.
We are tucked in behind the sand dunes and right on the point. We expected sand flies but so far haven’t noticed any.
I checked the weather because it seemed like a change was coming through. There was a severe weather warning (Flooding, Hail, Lightning) for the Gascoyne area – which is the area that we are in. A bit of frantic searching on the map for the places listed. Luckily we are about two hundred kilometres north of the anticipated target area. It’s a little frustrating not knowing if the places being listed are just down the road or a thousand kilometres away. Should have studied WA Geography more closely at school :)
We have camp entertainment. There is a large colony of Zebra Finches who are nesting in the trees. We have a group in the tree next to the camp. They are very amusing in their antics. We have put out the water dish and it’s a big hit. They had emptied it by lunch time :) They are having a great time having a bath, obviously a treat in this arid zone. Glen calls it the day spa. There was also a cut down milk bottle full of old water left by someone else and we have refreshed it. We noticed that they are collecting fibre for their nest building, so we frayed an old piece of rope and that was also swooped upon immediately.
There are two nests in the tree and are surprisingly large for such a small bird. They make a very messy nest with a overhang entrance. We think that there are young in one of the nests. We hear a group urgency call, sounds just like Mum or Dad has arrived with food. Nesting is from October to April, so there’s a good chance. There is a Grey Falcon (?) (still trying to get a photo and confirm what it is) here, that is chasing the finches. It comes into the tree to try to flush them out into the open, but they are smart enough to stay within the tree deep in the branches.
The female (both pictures above) is not as brightly marked as the male. They are very sociable and seem to have a lot of various calls, more so of any other birds. The above female hasn’t got the pure white stripe on the face as yet, so must be quite young.
The male has nice little orange cheeks. Their tails are actually spots, but from side do look like zebra stripes.
Some heavy cloud has arrived this afternoon, but we aren’t expecting rain. The plan is to take the rough track down to Coral Bay for a day visit tomorrow.
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