Coral Bay to Blow Holes (Quobba)

Exmouth and Cape Range to Blowholes Quobba

Hi all!!! Long story cut short but Exmouth and Cape Range National park was so overcrowded and the camp sites all packed we didn't bother with it and wasted $100 fuel checking it out.   We drove about a 185km round trip down to the southern end of the Cape Range National Park and unanimously decided that we were not prepared to wait in line at 7 in the morning to hope and jag a camp in the National Park with a weekend coming that had nothing to offer that isn't everywhere else and with a fraction of the cost and hassle.

We stopped into Coral Bay and again the reef is on the mend from a cyclone last year and really was ordinary compared to the likes of Tangalooma Wrecks or the GBR.  We had a quick snorkle and some happy snaps follow but we were really impressed when we chanced upon a magnificent little spot called the  Blow Holes Camping ground at Quobba about 70km north of Carnarvon.  Pictures following will tell:

PS: Having all sorts of trouble with font and copy paste on these subheadings so the size and style may vary?

The reef at Coral Bay, pretty ordinary with bleaching and needs a few dry years and RnR from cyclones.

Jessy Bell snorkelling at Coral Bay, the water is beautiful and clear and did we mention cooooold! 

Yep....it's freezing...Jessica couldn't stop smiling cause her face had frozen....we all laughed and gibbered as we walked  back to the park.  Thank God the water comes out of the tap hot from the artesian bore and after 20 minutes we got our feeling back in our toes!

The Magnificent coastline of Quobba Station!  Kerriann's brother (Ronny) spoke of a place that he worked on a sheep station in WA and raved how it was a magnificent location and they lived on Lobster and fish caught off the nearest hot spot.  When we got to Quobba I thought how this must be very much what he was talking about and guess what......?  Same location!  This is a quiet little spot that doesn't rate in any tourist brochure but we loved this location and only left due to the weather and time.  Best place yet that we have stayed (except Koolpinyah!).

Next to our camp are rock pools full of coral, clams and reef fish. The girls walked down with some bread and got a few fish frenzied in the shallows; magic spot! 

We watched the local fishing with a float that had a hole in it into which they pressed burley of their choice and from the float is a line with a single number 14 or smaller hook on which they put a maggot or choice piece of bait.  I watched another young bloke and copied his rig by cutting a bait jig  into two pieces (each with 3 hooks) putting a light sinker on the bottom and as I had no floats I used a piece of rubber camping mat and basically we outfished the locals at least 5 to 1!!  Here is Cheryl with a double hook up and the locals were mumbling and grumbling as we pulled in Gar after Gar using prawn as bait on the small hooks.  Of most interest was the fact that the Gar were predominantly taking the bottom hook!  None of the locals over the following few days chose to modify their rigs sticking with the useless float system as we continued to pull Gar in beside them hand over fist!   What happened to live and learn?????

Jessy Bell with a nice Gardie (local name?)  Best Spanish bait and we met some Land Base Game fishers who we have 12 of the biggest Gar we caught having seen their old and freezer burned rotten gar knowing how good a fresh bait would be!




And right next to the gar spot (see the people behind me on the beach which is right in front of our camp 20 metres from the water) is a patch of sea grass and the biggest squid I've ever seen caught off the beach with ease!  We kept two of these beauties and the following was the nights meal:





Fresh Gar fillets in Coriander, Chilli, Garlic, Lemon and Lime together with Salt and Pepper Squid!!

While we were sitting on the beach fishing for Gar; Doreen or Doug the Dugong swam by so we grabbed the snorkeling gear and swam out through a cloud of about 50 000 gar (that we were fishing) and had a swim with Doreen (or Doug).  Unreal!!!  She just poked along and didn't mid our presence before we stopped as we were swimming where people were fishing and didn't want to upset the locals anymore than we were out-fishing them HA HA!

So what do you eat after fresh squid and fish....... WA Indian Ocean Rock Lobster of course!! One this size in the shops is $40!  Only thing is you can only catch them by hand (the licence endorsement is also $40....40 for boat, 40 for nets/traps, 40 for lobster etc.... you get 10% discount for 2 or more endorsements but a great way to raise money for fisheries and research!) I got this one just near camp in the fishing zone. There were others but without a spear gun and out of practise the buggers are slippery little suckers!

And the finale....Oysters Kilpatrick!  Picked a jar of oysters here in no time and they are plentiful and sign say you can pick-em!  I couldn't figure out why no-one else bothered as their size was as you can see perfect for eating off the rocks.  The odd one like this that broke on intact we took back to the campfire and cooked up with a dash of black horse!  Blow Holes Quobba is the best and it was only $5.50 a night to stay there with a dump point and rubbish bins. 

Time to keep heading south and the vans heading north are in the hundreds each day!  Seems everyone has a van and is travelling around Australia!  See you soon! xx