Ningaloo Marine Park

The Ningaloo reef is world famous for being one of the few places in the world where you can have the opportunity to swim with whale sharks. Unfortunately we missed the whale shark season but still very much enjoyed our stay.
We camped in Cape Range National park,  just behind the sand dunes,  80 metres from the ocean.

We had four wonderful days of walking on the beach,  building sandcastles, exploring rock pools.  Luka and I tried our luck snorkelling but with little success. Due to the constant onshore wind the sea was rather choppy and the water murky due to the disturbed sand. Despite this,  we were very fortunate to see a couple of  turtles,  a blue spotted stingray,  a large blue-green sweetlip fish and many ghost crabs from the beach. Around the camp and in the dunes were dozens of kangaroos and at least one emu.

We visited the turtle information centre and learned about the life cycle of marine turtles,  who will start nesting along the beaches very soon.
The visitor information centre also had excellent information and displays of the local wildlife and marine life. We also watched a video filmed by a scuba diver at the Ningaloo reef.  Despite it being just television,  the fact that it was filmed so close by made it seem highly relevant.
The downside of camping so close to the beach is that we had problems with strong winds for our whole stay. We removed our awning after it nearly flew away,  put away or tied down  anything that might move and put extra tie-down straps on the camper trailer.  Despite these precautions the canvas flapped noisily and we got little sleep.

Overall,  however,  it was a remarkable and extremely worthwhile visit.  I would love to visit again during whale shark season,  perhaps when all the children are old enough to snorkel.