Kristy’s Chat Exmouth – Quobba



Exmouth, a great place for turtle romance.



I’m a good catholic girl, I believe that God created us just as we are.  I don’t believe, like some evolutionists would like me to believe, that we evolved from a fish.  I’m sure that evolution has played a part in who we are today but only to say that it has fine-tuned us.  For those however who favour evolution as an understanding of our being I encourage you to visit Exmouth in the month of November.  From the moment we stepped onto the beach we witnessed the mating practice of the green sea turtle and to watch it would have any evolutionist scribbling away at a new hypothesis about humans evolving from turtles.  The practice is simple and oh so familiar.  The male turtle approaches face to face, quickly swings around the back and mounts.  The poor female then proceeds to fight for breath while she carries him around in the ocean.  He humps away happily.  She gets battered by waves and under his 40+kg of weight again fights for breath.  He humps away happily.  Fortunately for her a wave causes them to separate, she turns and swims towards him face to face, this time however she rears up and slaps him in the face with her fin a few times.  It was hilarious.  For obvious reasons the females prefer to be approached when they’re in the shallows.  To add to the issue, females will often take themselves up onto the beach for a bit of respite from the rigours of mating season only to have a big burly human bloke carry her back into the water trying to save her life (and perhaps impress his own lady friend).  Dear God don’t let me come back as a turtle!

Having said that it was beautiful to watch the turtles mate.  We then wandered along the beach looking for evidence of turtle nests and were lucky enough to find quite a few.  Little did we know what lay ahead?   Taz, Ry and I attended the information centre the next day and read up on all the rules of watching turtles mating, resting, laying and hatching, we covered all life cycles just in case we were lucky enough to encounter one or two.  Our first dream was realised when, while we were snorkelling a green sea turtle swam right up to us and then just effortlessly seemed to fly off.  We tried to keep up but they are deceptively quick.  Later that night I told the kids that we would go for a walk along the beach.  We recited all the rules of turtle encounters to Chris and Taj and set off along the beach. 

 A couple of hundred meters down the beach we came across a turtle exiting the water.  Immediately torches went off, we all dropped to the ground and pretended to be rocks.  Ry was the perfect drill sergeant making sure Taj stayed still for the entire 40mins that it took for the turtle to get to the dunes, dig her hole and start to lay.  Once laying we were able to commando crawl up behind her to within a meter and watch her lay egg after pearly white egg into her nest.  It was amazing.  Once she covered the nest and headed back to the water we were able to pose for a couple of shots.  To our delight she changed direction and came right up to us leaning a flipper on Taj’s leg.  Unbelievable!   We were all so thrilled that we forgot the time difference and rang Grandma (at midnight Melb time) to share our joy.

The water here is unlike anything I’ve seen yet.  It’s every shade of blue and Turquoise Bay is possibly the pinnacle of beauty.  Here we spent the day snorkelling along Ningaloo Reef.  Many people say Ningaloo is better than the Great Barrier and I have to say I agree, but it is a close call.  The coral gardens are better on the Barrier but the fish are much bigger over here and you don’t need to get on a boat to swim on the reef.  The only disappointment is that we have arrived on the West coast just as the summer winds start to pick up so the water was a little choppy.  Nevertheless we took it in turns to swim across the reef one parent and child at a time. 

 Taj had a quick try but it was too rough so he stayed on the beach.  Tamsyn got to swim with a real life shark and also learnt what it was like to see her dad poop his own pants.  Ry got to swim with a turtle and watch massive red emperors cruise past within hands reach.  I saw fish that I’ve never even seen in an aquarium and others so large that I would have thought it was an entirely different species.

After a morning of very successful fishing I thought we may never get the kids to leave Exmouth but the van was packed and hooked onto the car.  We had simply stopped at the jetty to pass a few hours because the day’s drive would be short.  Little did we know that Ry was plotting a plan to stay another night.  In our absence he started chatting to a local fisherman.  The next thing we know he has invited us all to stay at one of his houses for the night.  Need I say we found the locals in Exmouth to be incredibly friendly and welcoming.  Cheers Des, we had a lovely peaceful night’s sleep!

We travelled south to Coral Bay and found yet another piece of WA paradise.  Yadda yadda, yeah blue beaches, white sands, you know how it goes.  I could really get used to this part of the country.  Unfortunately though tourist season is very much over for this coast as the winds pick up and the cyclones threaten.  Many of the tour operators have already closed for the season so our promise to take Ry and Taz out on a charter to catch red emperors has been shattered.  Taj on the other hand is pumped, apparently he’s “so bloody sick of fishing”.  We headed out to the jetty to try our luck but only landed a few Long Tom’s until Taj, armed with his new trusty hand line hooked a massive moray eel.

  I almost died when he started screaming “Yeah I got  ‘im.  Yeah I got da eel.  C’mon Mum help me get him up.”  Well I had no idea what to do, I battled and balanced as I dragged the beast up over the rocks as it slithered and slimed trying to bite and entangle me.  Finally I made it to the car park where I sent Taj running to get Chris (cheering all the way).  No glory shot unfortunately; there was no way I was picking him up after he spat out the hook.  The following night the big kids and Chris went out and finally returned with dinner and many stories to tell.  I’m starting to doubt my parenting skills as I sit and listen to my only daughter tell me how she had misjudged the setting for her drag and placed too much power in the fins of the fish.  Isn’t it time she started talking about movies and fashion?

OK so this paragraph should be dedicated to Quobba, a beautiful little station by the beach with great surf, blowholes, lagoons and rugged cliffs to fish from.  It should be about Quobba but due to the previous nights big catch Taj and I were outvoted 3 to 2 in favour of staying here for another night.  There are worse things in the world and it did mean that we got to watch about 50 sharks swimming in the shallow protection of the marine sanctuary.  I always thought that shark breeding grounds were an urban myth but honestly this was like daycare for sharks.  The extra day also gave us the opportunity to see the fish feeding on the beach where hundreds of massive Red Emperor come in to feed daily (they clearly know that we’re not allowed to fish there).  The highlight of the day though was eating the delicious Spangled Emperor that Chris and the kids caught the night before.  It was delicious.  With everyone agreeing we all headed out to repeat the previous nights feats.  Yeah now I’m conviced that Chris and the kids bought the fish from a boat.  Snag after snag, tears, snap offs, tangles, more tears and no fish.  That’s it, Taj and I will never head out for a spot of night fishing again.  Cold milo and biscuits in the van is a much better option.

Lets hope Canarvon provides the chance for a surf or a bit of sailing.  This fishing is taking over our lives.

Until next week, love and miss you all,

Kristy.