After seeing in the new day at Vlamingh Head I headed over the road for a camp brekkie on Jurabi Beach, then stayed for a marathon beachcombing session. I’d forgotten how freeing it is travelling solo!

I hadn’t seen a beach as good as this since I was a kid, when we camped at The Blowholes or Coral Bay a bit south of here.

So much awesome crap; no doubt helped along by the tropical cyclones that blasted through here recently. I’d have loved a souvenir shell or two but it’s all protected reserve; so take only memories, leave only footprints.

 

Sand stone? Shell blocks?

It felt like I was walking along a beach from my childhood, and seeing this stirred even more memories…

This old piece of junk reminded me big time of Carnarvon – especially the beach near our house. We lived at the staff accommodation for Nor West Seafoods, which was originally Nor West Whaling (yes, whaling) which dated back to the 1950s, but whaling at Babbage Island dated back to the turn of the century. Us kids would find all these rusted out iron wrecks scattered throughout the sand dunes around the factory and the prawning jetty (and the One Mile Jetty), so eroded we couldn’t even tell what they used to be. Equipment of some sort, forgotten, and eventually the dunes and grasses took over.

And as it turns out it’s a part-time nursery as well; Ningaloo’s three endangered turtle species all use this beach during their nesting season from November to March. I wasn’t here for that obviously but I still stopped by the Jurabi Turtle Centre on the way back to the car. If you want to come out one night during either nesting or hatching season PLEASE stop by the centre first – it’s an interpretive display built to educate you in turtle etiquette so you won’t disturb them. Things like shining torches around could be enough to prevent the females laying their eggs, and when on average only one in 1,000 hatchlings survives to breeding age, every single egg is precious.

If you like you can also be a part of the Ningaloo Turtle Program and be a volunteer ‘turtle tracker‘! Because there’s a lot of beach to cover on the North West Cape researchers need extra hands to collect data such as locations of nests, successful hatches, and any disturbances. I bet the boys’d love it… next time.

 

 

– Michelle