To the South

Once we said goodbye to Exmouth and the Ningaloo reef, we faced a 1300km road South.  Most of what we wanted to see on the way back was compacted into the last of the three days.

On our last night in Geraldton Diana found a homestay on the highlands looking out tacross the ocean and we received one last Indian Ocean sunset.

Just south of that are the famous leaning trees which are trees that have been bent by the winds and a photo op to stretch our legs.

The big attraction however were the Pinnacles- a number of rock formations springing out of the desert sands two hours north of Perth.  They have a car loop and a walking route through the area.  We opted for the walking/ running loop and discussed the finer points of a dodgeball party for Liam.

 

One curious add on from the journey is the constant sightings of "Wicked" vans- individually painted rental campers that you see all over the West, most of them contain non-family friendly sayings, but I did get a picture of the "Beatles" van.

Call me Ismael

I really could not see travelling to Exmouth and not trying some fishing.  So Liam and I joined up with O'Brien Charters for a day of deep sea fishing.  After an hour of chugging out to the reef area we were treated to a whale watching interlude with a set of humpback whales flowing with a few hundred metres of the boat.

In go the lines and Liam was one of the first to reel in a fish, a trigger fish, not good for dining, but great for the smile on his face.  I had to wait for another spot as the sharks started snapping up our boat's fish.

The amazing thing is how clear the water is, you can see what is on your line fairly far down (and sometimes what is chasing it!).  When I hooked my first fish, I thought it was a tire.  It took over five minutes just to reel it in up close to the surface and then there it was- a cracking red emperor almost a metre long.

Okay we are all kids when you catch a fish and this is easily the biggest I have ever hauled in.

To sum up the day- whales, sharks and dinner- priceless!