Day 78, 79

Woke up and did the same thing in the morning as yesterday afternoon ie drive. Arrived in Exmouth around 11.30. Exmouth's attraction is it's the entry town to Ningaloo Reef and the national park. We went to the visitor centre im town to find out what the deal was with camping and it appeared there was no deal, the park was full. Furthermore there was no booking facility for the one hundred odd sites in the NP, it was first come first served at 8am at the ranger station outside the park. It didn't turn out so bad though as we went to a carvan park about 20km from the NP entrance and spent that arvo relaxing by a pool... much more holiday like. We planned to be up at 4 am the next mroning as we heard some people were illegally camping at the park entrance, but as it turned out my alarm (or rather my setting of the alarm) saw us up at 6am. We were 8th in the que outside the ranger station and as it turned out the first nine got through, which was rather typical according to the ranger. We found our campsite, then drove over to the NP visitor centre which rents out snorkel gear for $15 for 2 days (for campers). By 10 am we were at the beach in the water. Various corals start appearing as close as 5m to the shore so you can snorkel without having to go very far. The water was
suprisingly warm but the wind was howling and as soon as any part of you was exposed it was freezing. Unluckily the weather is meant to be like this for the next two days which is how long we are planning to
stay. We spent the whole day down at the beach, was really nice aside from the wind, but the reef was really great. Overall though a very relaxing and enjoyable day and a half.