Day 69: 6 August – $20 rent for a multi-million dollar view

Author: Mrs A

From: Cape Range National Park, Mesa Camp

To: 14-Mile Beach, Warroora Station, just south of Coral Bay

Distance driven: 216 km

Distance hiked: 4 km

Footsteps from a soft fine white sand beach bordering the world heritage Ningaloo Reef, panoramic turquoise water views, fall asleep to a million stars and the sound of the surf breaking 1km away and the gentle lapping of the rising tide on the sand just metres from your bed…all for $10 a head per night. Not bad eh? This is tonight’s camp spot – we think potentially the next two nights as well, given we are well stocked up on water, wine and food.


We rose early and went for a walk along the beach near Mesa Camp, in an attempt to savour the last of the beautiful location, unsure of where our day would take us. We then packed up and pulled out of our campspot at the allotted 10am departure time, heading back into Exie to fill up on water.

From there, we headed south to just south of Coral Bay. We skipped Coral Bay itself – even the Lonely Planet WA book suggests it is extremely overpriced and overcrowded – and decided to be self sufficient for a few days, ‘wilderness camping’ on a sheep station. Warroora Station clearly has been offering camping for some time, with a camp host (volunteers who stay for free and certain perks, welcoming visitors in, taking their money and allocating sites) and a number of camp areas along the coast. We missed out on the last beachfront site by seconds, and instead opted for an ocean view spot on ‘the ridge’. The Ridge is actually only slightly up above the beach (about 5 metres!) on top of a sand dune. Sites are quite large and the views commanding. There is very quick and easy access to the beach, and we are very happy with where we are. 


We had a short walk along the rockpools at low tide – so many interesting shells and creatures, beautiful green crabs and even a huge octopus trapped in a tiny pool, biding his time until the tide came back in. We thought of that time with Jenny and David when we rescued a moray eel from a similar situation…


We watched the sun set with a glass of Pino Grigio and then enjoyed a Thai green curry with the last of our Netflix. We haven’t seen good broadband download speeds in a long while, and have now run out of entertainment…what shall we do now?!

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