Cape Range

Wednesday 10th June
It now feels like we've really reached the tropics - it was warm last night and when we woke up the temperature was still 20°C. We had breakfast outside the caravan under the watchful eye of a rather inquisitive Emu which came up close to check out what we were having. We are well aware that one is not supposed to feed the wildlife, especially not with bread, but our neighbours, a retired couple, weren't so well informed. While we couldn't persuade the well meaning neighbours not to feed these large birds they did change from bread to apple - a much better choice for a wild animal. As you can see by the photo they also got our kids to do some of the feeding.
After the first excitement of the morning was over we commenced our trip into Cape Range National Park which stretches some 70km down the coast.
Our first stop wast the visitors centre which had a very interesting display of bottled wildlife (snakes etc.) but we didn't have time stop for long as our first activity in the park was a cruise into Yardie Gorge on the southern end of the Park. Yardie Gorge was fantastic and tour is run by the local ranger who explained about the mangroves, marine creatures, geology and also the Black Footed Rock Wallaby of there aren't many left and they are expected to be extinct in the next 20 or 30 years. We were lucky enough to spot a few of these rather small (1 foot high) but extremely cute animals which reside in the near vertical walls of the gorge.
After the cruise we moved a little bit further north to Osprey Bay and had lunch beside the beach before going for a walk along the rocks. It was our intention to spend the rest of the afternoon working our way back through all those nice beach locations, such as Turquoise Bay, to the park entrance. However, our plans were cut short when Alexander, in youthful exuberance, running on the rocks, fell over and cut his knee on the jagged rocks. With blood running down his knee and a moderate amount of pain, I tended to the wound but the cut was deep and full of sand which I couldn't clean out safely.
After I stopped the bleeding we drove nearly 100km back to Exmouth and attended the local Hospital where the nurse got almost all of the sand out of the wound. This new wound, together with the Stingray wound will prevent Alexander from snorkeling and any other water activities for a the next few days.
By the time we finished at the hospital it was too late to go back to Cape Range so we caught up with Ron and Vicki, a couple from Echuca, to exchange some travel plans and other stories.