Day 93 24/6/2011 Cape Range - Lakeside and Oyster Stacks

Day 93 24/6/2011 Cape Range - Lakeside and Oyster Stacks

Aaahhh Yardie Creek, nowhere to rush to this morning so we just relaxed and drank coffee, Zac went off fishing in the creek whilst Callum and Claudia decided to use the shower/toilet tent as a new bedroom. They moved their toys into the “new room” and played happily for a few hours, Pete and I even managed a walk on the beach!! Oh to relaxing.



this is how close they snorkel!!



Just before lunch we headed off to the visitor centre to find out more about snorkelling places and then we hit the beach at Lakeside.  We learnt from others at Lakeside that there was a strong current so we dropped our towels at the spot where we wanted to get out and off we trouped up the beach to get in about 500m from our exit point.

The drift snorkel was fabulous, we cruised with the current in warm water floating over the top of beautiful bommies and were privileged to have such a dramatic display of fish, big and small and all the colours of the rainbow.  The kids were also very excited to spot sting rays hiding in the sand.  From our rough measure their wing spans were bigger that my arms extended!!

On our second snorkel I found a puffer fish hiding under some sticks.  As I snorkelled down to the fish I grabbed the sticks and the kids were delighted to see the puffer fish dart away.



Oyster Stacks



We enjoyed a yummy picnic lunch on the beach and then headed to Oyster Stacks.  We had been advised at the tourist information centre that we could only snorkel the Oyster Stacks on a high tide of over 1.2m, we were in luck today the high tide was 1.25m. We arrived at Oyster Stacks just on high tide so quickly looked for a spot to get in.  It is hard to describe the Oyster Stacks but if you imagine the Nullabor meeting the sea but with only a drop off of 50cm then that is what we had to negotiate to get in. The rocks were sharp so we needed to enter the water with our fins on.  Well we did it without any more foot injuries YIPPEE

The snorkel was spectacular, you literally pushed off from the shore and there you were snorkelling over fabulous coral, not bommies and sand but coral for as far as the eye could see, soft and hard coral as well as three prominent outcrops of oysters, hence the name.  Whilst snorkelling we needed to remain aware of where the oyster outcrops were so that we didn’t snorkel into them!!.  The array of fish was even greater than at Lakeside and for the first time Zac and I caught a glimpse in the distance of a black tip reef shark.  Zac quickly bobbed up in excitement exclaiming “mum it’s a shark!!” I said I know but then in the excitement he took off after the shark to get a better look, unfortunately Callum and Claudia, oblivious to why Zac was snorkelling so fast followed him, so of course then against the strong current I took off after Zac to tell him that it really wasn’t wise to chase sharks!!! Zac promised never to do it again!!

It makes sense once you enter the water why you can only snorkel here on a high tide.  At times the coral was less than ½ m under us, Pete and I were very mindful not to drop our legs and we continually cautioned the children not to tread water as they cleared their masks.  I was very grateful for our spring suits as they offered us a small level of protection from the coral but luckily no one sustained a coral cut!!

We enjoyed the snorkel so much that we clambered back over the rocks to our entry point and did it again.  We can’t snorkel again at Oyster Stacks until Tuesday as the tides aren’t high enough but we will definitely be there.

We headed back to the caravan tired and salty; we had set up the bush shower before we left so we at least had hot water to rinse our hair, and a warm bucket of water to wash the salt off ourselves!! Did I mention that there are not any showers provided in National Park camping sites!!


Oyster Stacks - the fish were to fast for me to photograph
Luckly coral can't move.

 In celebration of having such a successful day snorkelling Claudia and I cooked some M&M cookies!! Yummy!! Pete and I have continually commented how grateful we are that our kids can swim.  The current was very strong at both sites where we snorkelled today, but as the kids are competent swimmers we were a little less worried!! I have accepted that snorkelling with children is not about what we see rather it is about a quick look under water hoping to see a fish and then a head count above the water to make sure we didn’t lose one in the current!!  Periodically we had to fin quickly to grab someone’s fin and drag them back to the group!! Not how I remembered snorkelling prior to children!!

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