Onslow to North West Cape

We've done quite a bit since we last wrote so will just backtrack a little.

Onslow:  a very isolated little place on the coast, not much going for it really.  However just out of town and a few kilometres in from the road is a massive gas plant project which employs something like 4000 people!  You'd never know unless you know someone who works there (Colin and Di).  It doesn't help the town much as they're all fly-in/fly-out workers housed, fed, entertained etc onsite - Onslow only has a pub, one restaurant, a couple of general stores and the beach.  There's also a salt mining operation there.

Under the salt conveyor, Onslow

The salt conveyor jetty, Onslow

We went to the restaurant in town for a beautiful dinner with Colin and Di.  We both had Red Emperor with a quinoa salad, absolutely delicious.  

Our next port of call was Exmouth, where the US navy had a base during the second world war. Along the peninsula before reaching town are a couple of good lookouts with detailed information boards and photos, a great way to brush up on some history!

The town is nothing special - as with most towns in the northern part of WA it's not that old and is really just a service centre.  It's all about the surrounding areas, in this case mainly Ningaloo Reef.  Because we didn't arrive until 6ish and needed to get groceries, we stayed at one of the caravan parks in town.  It's a good park with good facilities but crowded, noisy, expensive and a reminder of why we prefer bush or national park camps.  

Often we are forced to stay in caravan parks - many
shires have a blanket ban on camping anywhere else.

The next day we headed right to the tip of North West Cape to stay at the Ningaloo Lighthouse park, much quieter and more pleasant than the town park.  Such an amazing area up here with great views from the lighthouse lookout.

Overlooking NW Cape and the Lighthouse caravan park

Watching for whales from the lighthouse ...

... and saw plenty, with calves

North West Cape from the lighthouse lookout

One thing I loved about the view from this lookout was seeing what I called 'the map of Australia' - or at least the map of this particular peninsula.  It's such an expansive view that the shape looks just like on the map!  I know, I know ... so it should.  But to stand there and see it ... oh well, I guess you had to be there :)  

It was here I was able to catch up with my friend Kaye's daughter, Kathleen, who grew up with Shane.  She's been living in the west for 4 years and is spending a couple of months up here during winter.  It was fantastic to see her; we were camped next to a couple of her girlfriends too so had some good company.

As we couldn't camp in the Cape Range National Park without queueing at the Ranger's Station at 6am each day in the hope someone left, we spent another 4 nights at the Lighthouse park and did day trips in.  Having seen the NP campsites we're actually glad we did it this way, as they're very exposed to the wind and sun.  Will write again shortly about our Cape Range/Ningaloo Reef experiences.