Trippin' round Oz: Cape Range National Park

What a little piece of paradise this area is. We arrived at our campsite to enjoy a pretty amazing view. It was blowing a gale and unfortunately the wind did not let up the entire time we were there. It didn't stop us enjoying ourselves but a little less might have been better. We had been on site for no longer than 30 minutes when we had our first visitors. Dennis and Marion just happened to take a look at this campsite and found us. Now how uncanny is that. We had been meaning to send them a message but due to no service on our phones it was impossible. Within the next 20 minutes Kirsty and Dave had also found us and we all chatted and gas bagged for ages. It was lovely to have so many guest to welcome us to CRNP. Kirsty and Dave ended up staying for lunch so we did not get far for the day. We ended our first day in Tulki by walking along the beach, watching the stingrays in the shallows, kids playing in the sand dunes and drinks with the camp-site hosts.

Our camp site at Tulki

An echidna we found in the scrub.

Sun has set at Tulki Beach

Our second day in Tulki we got going nice and early to visit several spots. We headed for Yardie Creek gorge and walking trail. We were expecting it to be very warm and the walk to take around 2 hours. Well it definitely warm but the time for the walk was halved. They really do make their times for dawdlers. The gorge was really pretty and the walk to the rim was up and down but very nice. While at the top we were treated with a visit from a kangaroo. It scared Nigel half to death which was a little funny. It came from over the rim edge and bounded just short of 2 metres away from him.

After we left Yardie Creek we headed back down the road to the Oyster Stacks. An amazing snorkelling spot. Nigel and I ventured in first while the kids decided to stay on the side. It was such an awesome site that we talked Austin and Jordan into coming in. My goodness when they hit the water they both dissolved to tears and screamed the place down. The panicked look on their faces made us realise that the only way we were getting them in was to get them to trust us. It took us several minutes to calm them both down and then finally Jordan did a little snorkelling with Nigel and I. Austin would not move too far from the edge and only just managed to put his snorkel face in. They still saw some amazing fish and coral as they water was just plentiful. It would have been really amazing if it was calm. Visability was really good so the waves causing the chop was only a little annoying.

Before panic sets in.

Almost calm.

Having a go finally!

Our next stop was to Turquoise Bay. Wow what an amazing picture perfect beach. Just perfect. The visibility was fantastic and the water nice and warm. Again the kids elected to stay in the shallows but Nigel and I ventured out again to the coral and looked at the pretty fish and coral. We spent a couple of hours on the beach and in the water. It was a lot of fun. Not having enough of this place we headed for there the following morning hoping that by going early the crowds would not be around. We were right. We were on the beach with 2 other families. It was really lovely again out there but the visability was not as good as the previous day. Still a fabulous view though.

The final afternoon at Cape Range we spent with Dennis and Marion. We took in many of the other areas of CRNP. Lakeside was our fist stop. It is also a snorkelling site but we decide just to walk along the beach and take in the view. Next we headed to the bird hide at Mangrove Bay but with the amount of talking and noise our kids were making it was near impossible to see any birds. They had all scampered away. Our last stop was along a section of beach just outside of the national park. We had been told there was hundreds of mating turtles in the water. They were right. We saw so many of them it was amazing. The big old girls were beaching themselves regularly to ward off the persistent males trying to mate with them. They were just exhausted.