Cape Range to this beautiful river.

The last few days I've been heading down the road to the national park and visiting different spots. I am constantly shocked when I enter a national park and it doesn't have trees. Even on the way there when there are no trees for 100s of kilometres.

I've visited Turquoise Bay, The Oyster Stacks and Sandy Bay. There is one road from here to Yardie Creek that travels along the strip of flat land between the ocean and the parallel Cape Range. It is shockingly treeless.

Each day I've ridden past the same horribly unhealthy dingo. She is in a bad way and I think she's probably surviving on road kill, which is why I see her near the road so often. I've also seen my first emus and these little red kangaroos. Red in colour, but I doubt in species.

There are probably another 10 beaches and bays that I haven't visited. The Oyster Stacks weren't actually a beach but a rocky section of coastline where the reef is right at the shore. The highlight there was this really colourful fish that used its front fins to swim and didn't move its tail. It looked hilarious. Apparently that's what this species does. As I don't have flippers I also use my front fins to swim so it was probably laughing at me as well.

Yesterday I went to Sandy Bay. It was marked on my map but I couldn't remember when or why I'd marked it. When I arrived I realised. It is probably the prettiest beach I've seen. It was virtually empty too. There isn't coral at Sandy Bay but I saw quite a few humpbacks jumping around out the back which was cool.

Today I went back to Turquoise Bay. There are 2 sides to it so I went to the other side for a look. It was right on high tide and the current was ripping through so I could only go in for 10 minutes before I was washed down to the rip. I did this a few times and saw a reef shark. It was about a metre and a bit long and was just going about its business. I tried to follow it but the current was too strong.

It would be easy to spend a lot more time here exploring the beaches. They're so nice that I've only now remembered that I went for a walk along Yardie Gorge yesterday. It was nice, but kayaking through it would've been a much better way to see it.

Finally, I forgot to mention this foreign couple that have arrived here. I think they're Spanish. They came by taxi with more luggage than I've ever seen and have set up about a metre from my tent, despite there being tons of room everywhere. It must be my lucky day because today another group of Spanish people set up right next to me on the beach upwind and proceeded to quick sand everywhere. There was about 50 metres of empty beach on either side of me.

This couple have about 100 litres of water in 1.5 litre bottles (there is drinking water here) and 6 massive suitcases plus a big backpack. They're in a 3 man tent which is only slightly bigger than mine. The taxi here must've cost them an absolute mint. The airport is about 50km away. Not to mention that the national park is still about 20km away and the snorkelling beaches about 30km. They seem nice enough though. Good for the economy.
...

Today I left Yardie Homestead. I stopped for petrol at Exmouth after forgetting that I filled up at the Homestead before I left. So I put 2 litres or so in. While I was there a bloke came up to talk about my trip. He asked if I did the Gibb and I told him no. He said one of his workmates was killed in a road off the Gibb. I don't know if I mentioned it previously but he is the guy I heard about in the news and is the reason I bought the epirb. I always wondered how he died.

I knew he got bogged. Apparently when he got bogged he was trying to push the bike out while still in his gear and passed out from dehydration and then died. I always thought he was stuck for ages but I guess he was already dehydrated when he got stuck.

Anyway after that I went up the Charles Knife Road into Cape Range from the opposite side from where I was camped. The range runs up the middle of the peninsular. The ride was really spectacular. The road goes up a bit if a ridge with gorges on either side. I went to a lookout that looks back in where I'd camped. It was a long way away and I could just make out the lighthouse. I took a video of about half the trip back down so I'll upload it when the internet is better.

I also saw an Emu with 2... Chicks I guess. Good luck spotting them.

On the right, not too far off the road.

I headed for Coral Bay but with the wind and how expensive it is I decided to keep going. It looked like a town made up completely of caravan parks and these parks were absolutely rammed.

I'm now camped next to a beautiful river. I can hear the water burbling away, which is a bit of a worry. 

That's the river in the background.