Duotone DRIVEN Magazine No.04

My destination was the small coastal town of Exmouth, the gateway to the World- Heritage-listed Ningaloo Marine Park. The waters off the coast here are one of the only places in the world where the mysterious whale shark, the largest fish in the ocean, reliably congregate each year. Situated on the west side of Exmouth is the Cape Range National Park, a spectacular place of rugged limestone ranges and breathtaking deep canyons. Here the arid coastal plain of Cape Range adjoins the pristine waters of Ningaloo Marine Park with striking contrasting scenery, this is raw nature at its best. And that’s precisely where I set up my first camp. Still “only” 35 kilometers from town and with shower facilities and drinking water from the taps provided in the campground, it was a good compromise for my first week to get my head around the area before moving my base deeper into the National Park. Driving out the gate of the camp­ ground the first morning, I went to the coast. Walking along an incredible beach of the finest white sand, I stumbled onto some rather strange-looking impressions in the sand which resembled the tracks of a monster truck tyre. It wasn’t long before I spotted two mating turtles drifting on top of each other just a meter from shore. Further up the beach, a few more dark blobs caught my eyes – more turtles. The Ningaloo Coast is one of the most important turtle-nesting rookeries in the Indian Ocean. From November to March, many thousand turtles return to their nesting sanctuary here each year. A picture-perfect bay with spectacular turquoise butter flat crystal clear water became my daily foiling playground. The wind in the mid-afternoons can get pretty strong along this coast, however, saying that I also enjoyed a number of magical light wind sessions cruising in perfect see-through water with the most mind-boggling reef and coral formations below. It was better than any glass-bottomed boat. With regard to waves, things get tricky in this area. The most popular stretch of surf breaks is completely protected from the Seabreeze, and other breaks are so far out to sea on the barrier reef you need a boat to get there. If you somehow do manage to score, it’s an unspoken rule in the Northwest to celebrate it quietly amongst your mates instead of shouting it from the rooftops and plastering it all over the socials. I would highly recommend not ignoring this advice.