Yardie Creek Road

A decision needed to be made.  Do we return to the western side of the peninsula and follow Yardie Creek Road south to Ningaloo Road.  This risk with this option is the Yardie Creek crossing.  There is no bridge and there might be a water crossing.  That is a possibility during winter.  The internet also mentioned the crossing can be affected (flooded) by the tide.  The second option was to retrace our route south from Exmouth down the eastern side.

The decision was to proceed with option 1 and if the creek crossing wasn't feasible we would be forced to return to Exmouth and follow option 2. 

The green shade in the map below is Cape Range National Park.  South of the park is a Defence Reserve which can be crossed using the designated track.  However stopping and camping is prohibited.  Further south is Ningaloo Marine Park.

Once again we needed to purchase a National Park day pass at the pay station and then headed to Yardie Creek. 

There are a number of camping areas along the coast.  But no vacancies in the National Park.

We did stop to view the reef and one of the numerous beaches.

Yardie Creek was dry with vehicle tracks suggesting others had previously crossed.  However the sand in the creek bed looked soft.   We deflated the tyres to 20psi, engaged 4WD and promptly sank into the sand.   

Whilst Carlin deflated the 4WD tyres to 18psi and the trailer tyres to 14psi I got out the four recovery tracks and placed one each 4WD wheel.  The Isuzu and trailer popped out of the ruts and we successfully made the crossing.

From this point onwards it's mostly a narrow sandy track.  I was slightly surprised when we met three 4WD's towing caravans going in the opposite direction.  I hope they made it across Yardie Creek.

Motorhome out here?

Once we reached Ningaloo Marine Park we observed numerous caravans camped down near the beach.  There are no facilities and collecting firewood is forbidden.  The cost of camping here is $8 per adult per night. 

We continued on down Yardie Creek Road (actually a track) before turning onto Ningaloo Road at the junction.  This took us back to bitumen and we then went to Coral Bay.

I suspect this town survives on tourism in the summer and keen fishermen all year round.

The caravan parks all appeared to be full which probably isn't surprising for the time of year.  Being squeezed in with many others isn't my idea of a holiday.  Fortunately we humans are all different!

The small shopping mall has a central courtyard.

There is a beach. 

We refuelled the Isuzu and continued our journey finding another of those free Highways Department 24 Hour Rest Stops just before dusk.

 

Back to cold nights!