The wind was already up after our not so good night sleep. The camper over the other side of the area we are in decided they would have a huge barney at about 2AM that went on for several restarts with much throwing of camping gear and drunken yelling plus slamming of tail gates and the like! You can hear a fart four campsites away so you can imagine how loud this was. One of the disadvantages of caravan parks but they are very strict up here on illegal camping with $100 on the spot fine no questions asked and up to $1,000 for repeat offenders.

Just out of town is the first part of the VLF (Very Low Frequency) transmitter station. Ironically it was renamed the “Harold E Holt Naval Communication Station”. The urban myth is Harold was transferred to a Russian submarine when he disappeared and this station is for submarine communication.

Unfortunately the swell and wind was going to make our snorkelling day a bit ordinary but we ventured out to see the sights of the west side of the peninsular while the morning temperature warmed up a bit. It was only 15 overnight and 20 seemed cool as we headed off mainly due to wind chill. I wanted a close up look at the US naval VLF transmitting station. The antenna array is the tallest man made structure in the southern hemisphere at 387M tall. The building under the main tower is 4 stories high but it does not look it. It is difficult to really see that the array is so big without a reference beside it. The antenna is 2.52Km diameter and a total of 408 tonnes is suspended above the ground and rated to 500Km winds being a cyclone area. VLF is used to communicate with submarines and this is the largest VLF transmitter in the world.

US Navy VLF station.

After looking at an old wreck of a cattle ship on the point and seeing several whales in the distance we ventured high up on the headland to the light house lookout. Here we sat for ages watching surfers, whales and the coming and goings on both sides of the point. The wind was really strong up here and it was difficult to stand outside the car. There was plenty of swell breaking over the reef that is very close to shore every where here. We dropped into the turtle centre before we headed down to the main visitors centre about half way down the west side for a look and then onto turquoise bay for a snorkel.

Wreck on the point

How to build a boat ramp

Turtle centre

Turquoise bay has coral reefs barely a few meters off shore. Unfortunately the wind and swell had churned up the sand in the water and the visibility was quite low compared to 2 days ago. We still saw plenty of reef fish, corals and all manner of marine life just a few meters off shore sometimes in barely a meter of water. The water temperature was about 22 so you still got chilled after a while, it being below body temperature. We sat on the beach for a while before moving on for a late lunch.

Back on the light house headland for lunch we sat for ages as whales in all directions were tail slapping, breaching and splashing about. Plenty of surfers still about including one stand up paddle board guy who could surf the waves standing up as well when he wanted to. Eventually we dragged ourselves away and fuel up on the way back to camp and put the camper back on for a timely exit tomorrow morning. We have enjoyed our time in Exmouth and it would be a great place to visit again for swimming, diving and snorkelling. There are also several walks here we did not get to do so plenty left for next time.

White splash (centre) is a whale breaching

Light house