Lap of Oz: Days 85-87 Osprey Bay

Days 85-87 At Osprey Bay, Cape Range National Park

Day 85

Today we were heading into Cape Range National Park. As this is a national park, there are only toilets, no showers or drinking water, so we had to fill up our water tanks at the Visitor Information at Exmouth. While there was learnt about the Western King Prawn.

Then we headed to Cape Range National Park, our campsite was site 6 in the Osprey Bay. This is the only placed we have had to book in advance. Bookings are done online and you need to book at least 1-2 weeks in advance in high season, which is what we did. We thought site 6 would be good looking at the map online, but when we arrived, there was a large sand dune right behind our site, so we didn’t quite get the view we were expecting. Sites 9, 11 or 13 would have been better for views, though not sure about the winds.

There were lots of this gorgeous Stuart’s Desert Pea flowers everywhere.

This was the view from our van door!

It was, what we thought, quite windy when we arrived and set up. Little did we know that this was nothing compared to what we were going to get in the next couple of days.

Anyways, that afternoon we headed down to Osprey Bay Beach and Sandy Beach and the boys learnt to snorkel. Then we went back to the van, cooked tea and watched the sun set over the beach.

Our rather large site with its own beach access in the back corner.

The view from our site.

Looking back at our campsite from the beach.

A panorama of the beach and our campsite.

The boys loved snorkelling at the Osprey Bay Beach.

And at Sandy Bay Beach.

And then it was time to watch the sunset!

Day 86

Today, after a restless night spent listening to the howling wind, we were up early and off to visit the Lighthouse. On the way, we had a mother emu with 5 little babies following her. They were quite a little way ahead of us and my mobile doesn’t zoom very well, so the photos aren’t that flash.

At the lighthouse was a radar. It is surrounded by old sandbags that are now World War II heritage artefacts.

The view from the top of the hill. It was extremely windy and the boys were struggling to stay on their feet, so we didn’t stay very long before heading back down the hill.

Then it was off to have a look at the Turtle Centre. The turtles come here between October and January to lay their eggs in the sand, so we, unfortunately, were unable to see any.

Then it was off to Turquoise Bay for some more snorkelling.

Then we had a quick look at Oyster Stacks on the way back to the caravan.

Apparently you are only supposed to snorkel here when the tide is over 1.6m (I’m pretty sure this was the right height) and it was not going to be a good time while we were here, so we could only look.

That evening, we also had tea while watching the sunset.

We saw these tracks all over the sand dunes, while going for a quick walk to take a photo of the sunset.

Day 87

The wind last night was worse than the first night, so again we were all up early. Today we went for a drive down to Yardie Creek, where you can go on the Yardie Creek River Cruise.