Nyinggulu

What a magical week we've had on the Exmouth Gulf and the North West Cape. This is Baiyungu, Thalanyji and Yinigurdira country and we feel privileged to be able to spend time and enjoy this extraordinarily beautiful part of the world.

In language, Nyinggulu (Ningaloo) means "Deep Water" and we've spent a fair bit of time on it, in it, and admiring it. But before we get to that, our journey here included a couple of nights at Bullara cattle station, which we reckon is worth a mention. Our overseas followers might wonder why we'd choose to stay on what is essentially a dry, dusty cow farm. There's quite a few cattle stations in the north and west parts of the country that open up their gates in the winter months to travellers like us. We've stayed at a few and I really take my hat off to these family-run businesses who have found a way to supplement their income by providing a rustic camping experience along with the creature comforts including home cooked meals and barista coffee. Bullara is a third generation cattle station covering approximately 250,000 hectares of dry, red and dusty land. They've sectioned off a large space to cater for travellers like us, and they do it a lot better than many other caravan parks we've stayed at. We really enjoyed our time there and would definitely stay again.

From Bullara, we moved on to a caravan park just half an hour south of Exmouth, on the North West Cape. This time last year we were on the other side of the country making our way along the Whitsunday Coast and past the Great Barrier Reef. Long-term followers of our blog might remember me commenting that just when you think you've seen the most beautiful beach in the world, you turn a corner and there's another one. Well we're having a similar experience here. It's not that the beaches are more beautiful than the Whitsundays (although they are very beautiful), but it seems every time we drive over a hill and catch another glimpse of the Indian Ocean it takes our breath away all over again.

Ningaloo Reef is World Heritage listed and for good reason. It's home to an incredibly diverse range of terrestrial, coastal and marine habitats and there's evidence of human life in the area dating back 55,000 years. The reef itself is one of only two fringe reefs (as opposed to a barrier reef) in the world that has successfully grown to the west of a landmass. The other is in Malaysia.

I was lucky enough to find a good bloke to look after the Labs while I enjoyed a bit of time on the reef, firstly in a glass-bottomed boat and then in the water with a snorkel and flippers. Cruising over the top of the coral we had the benefit of expert commentary - including an interesting fact about parrot fish who, to protect themselves from reef sharks, blow a big bubble of mucus from their mouths that encases their whole body in a "snot bubble" while they sleep. Sounds a bit like hay fever season at hour place, but that's probably too much information. Along with the parrot fish we saw an abundance of other reef fish, as well as Green Sea Turtles and the critically endangered Hawksbill Sea Turtle. There were reef sharks, crayfish, clams, and, of course, a wide variety of corals that are thousands of years old. Magical.

At this time of year, the calm deeper water beyond the reef is a playground for humpback whales and their young as they rest and build their strength ahead of their long migratory journey back to antarctic waters. Each autumn the whales migrate from Antarctica all the way to the warm waters north of Broome, where they mate and give birth to their calves. Then when the calves are strong enough, they head to the Exmouth Gulf for the mums to rest and for the young calves to grow and learn the skills they'll need for the journey.

My second Lab-free adventure of the day was a sunset whale watching cruise. Prior to yesterday, I'd been on five whale watching cruises - on the east coast and in New Zealand - and had not seen one whale. I'd spent plenty of time with my head in a paper bag, but not admiring frolicking whales. I didn't share this snippet of information with my fellow passengers until the boat had left the marina. And I was a little more optimistic about my chances of seeing whales here; there are so many of them they can be seen from the beach.

We didn't have to wait very long. We'd barely cracked open our first drinks before a mother and calf appeared about 100 metres away from the boat. Over the course of the evening we saw dozens of these amazing, majestic animals. We saw a mother and calf tail-slapping in unison; and watched as that same calf practiced breeching - an important part of whale hygiene. At one point our boat was literally surrounded by whales and when the skipper cut the engines we sat there in silence just listening to the sound of the whales splashing, breathing and singing. It was a very memorable night. And the weather was perfect so there was no need to bring out the paper bags.

Here's a collection of photos taken over the past week. Some of Bullara; some taken through the glass bottom of the boat; and some from my sunset cruise. Although the whales were in abundance, none came close enough to the boat to capture any spectacular photos. But I had fun trying.