Lots of Photos!!!!!!!!!!

Quickly put some captions to the photos - they took so long to upload I havn't got much time left

Denham

Denham - skipping rocks

Sunset at Denham

Shell Beach - Our Names

Shell beach close up- each shell making up the beach is no bigger than my toes

fooling around at sunset on the beach at Denham

Sunset at Denham (Shark Bay)

Shell Beach

One Mile Jetty at Carnarvon post 84

Post 88 a good vintage :)

Dinner!!!!!

Visit from the Cookie Monster (it was a lost bet/dare)

Fishy!!!!

More Dinner!!!

2 at a time!!!

Sunset from One Mile Jetty

Snorkelling at Quobba Blowholes (well around the corner)

Starfish :)

Whaleshark

Another Whaleshark :)

Snorkelling Ningaloo Reef --- follows

Whalesharky

Don't you touch that Butt!!! Hard to see but there's a little fish out in the open water - reminds me of Nemo

Dampier & Red Dog

Fishing muddled in- this is outside of Exmouth

Lunch at Dampier - Nice view!

Stewarts desert pea :)

Entertaining Ben

Staircase to the moon - A long exposure it almost looks like a sunset except for the stars :)

Staircase to the Moon

Moonrise at Port Hedland

 

Sunset at Cape Leveque (well just around the corner)

Cape Leveque red cliffs

Ben Caught a Giant Trevally

Ben Posing

Beagle Bay Chapel - Mother of Pearl EVEERYWHERE!!!!

(note inlays in floor, around windows, alters, pictures)

Mother of Pearl Alter

Dinosaur Footprints at Broome (Tanya's hand for scale)

Billy Goat

Sun Theatre Picture Gardens - Broome

Love the Seating <3

Boab Prison Tree - 7km out of Derby

Myall's Bore - Longest Cattle Trough in the Southern Hemisphere - 122m long

Fooling around at Myall's Bore - Sexy eyes

That's all Folks!!!!!

......well for now......

Whalesharks and Beaches and Fishing and Sunshine These are a few of our Favourite Things

Well we arrived Today in Derby and it's been a fun filled week (and a bit), we start the Gibb River Road Tomorrow but for now I will catch you up on recent events.
Exmouth was a great launch pad to explore the area, but the best part of out stay and highlight of our time on the western coast was our tour into the Ningaloo Marine Park to swim with the Whalesharks. They took us out on the boat and after a short ride down to some bombes close by and went for a morning snorkel to judge everyone's capabilities in the water. The snorkeling was good but visibility not so good because of wind on top of the water. We then went out to the outer reef and south to find the elusive whalesharks that spend most of their lives so deep down in the ocean that their migratory patterns aren't known. We found one pretty quickly, we had all been split into 2 teams earlier and the other team went in first on a quick swim following the shark, we were close behind dropping in about a minute later but alas the first whaleshark dived and we didn't get a glimpse. That same whaleshark popped up to the surface again a few minutes late and we were in the water again (we were in about 40metres of water) swimming fast to catch up, this time we did catch him and he was a beautiful 3-4 metre long whaleshark who with one flick of his tail was swimming faster and faster but getting to the other side of him I had an uninterrupted view of him, he started turning in and with the photographer and another girl who had caught up we had to stop a touch as to not run into him. We swapped off the shark shortly after this and he dived again. The next shark was a little smaller and totally cruisey, just sunning himself and circling around again and again he was really fun but after our groups' swim with him they found another larger shark not far away from that one at 7 metres long he was the biggest shark we'd see that day. Even a lazy shark would move fast with a tail that big and so we were in for some more quick and hard swims, Ben kept up from the start and I dropped off a little on the last drop (by now we'd been in and out of the water with the whalesharks for at least an hour). Swimming with such large animals is so hard to compare to any other experience, its amazing!!!!
While we were still in Exmouth Ben spent the afternoon fishing and managed to catch a juvenile humpheaded maori wrasse, a parrot fish and an octopus!! On the Sunday we headed out of Exmouth on the road up to Karratha. When we got to Karratha we found that the caravan park was fully booked out so we ended up getting a room at the Best Western hotel for the night which was nice. The next day we went for a drive up to Dampier and had a look at the Red Dog statue and the mission for seafarers and then had lunch at pub. After lunch we headed of to Port Sampson for the night. Once we arrived at Port Sampson and had set up camp for the night we went for a walk along the beach where I found an octopus in a little pool on the sand flats at low tide, which when poked with a stick changed colour to a bright red before shooting out a jet of water at me.
The next day we headed up to Port Headland for a couple of days so that we could watch Queensland win 7 straight series in the state of origin. While we were in Port Headland we had a look at a little place called Rocks Of, the owner of which was really nice. While we were there we got a couple of really nice souvenirs.
On the way up to Broome we had a stop over at a roadside camp which is 168km north of the Sandfire roadhouse. When we arrived in Broome we checked into the Roebuck Bay caravan park (where we were only 50 metres from the beach) before going window shopping in Chinatown (Ben will say that Tanya stopped at EVERY shop that sold pearls but he is wrong, and anyway what's wrong with looking at all the shiny pearls in the pearl capitol of the world). Ben booked us onto a fishing charter for the next day which is why he could stand the window shopping. Saturday heralded an early start for the fishing charter where we didn't catch a lot of fish but we did catch some very nice eating fish, cannot think of the name right now and Ben is not helping. Ben did catch the biggest fish out of the two of us, a giant trevally which was too big to be any good to eat, the greatest catch of the day was a Kobia which was filleted on the boat and a few of us got to have a share in the flesh.
We departed from Broome to go up the Dampier peninsular for Cape Leveque, where we were hoping to hire a boat for a couple of days. Alas was not to be but we did meet up with a couple of friends we had made the previous day and had a swim at the nearby Cape before making camp on the next peninsular in the bush. The night was wonderfully warm and we were able to sleep with only the fly net above our heads under the stars, the next day was perfect weather, blue skies, sunshine and a light breeze and I would have love to be able to send some home to everyone freezing there.
As we couldn't hire a boat we headed back to Broome so we could restock the few things we still needed and get ready for the Gibb, and now we find ourselves in Derby about to depart.