4 Stray Katz: Chilling with the turtles at Osprey Bay

Osprey Bay

Monday 17^th- Friday 21^st October

After escaping the wind for a night at Bullara Station we headed through Exmouth and around to Cape Range National Park where we were booked for 4 nights at Osprey Bay Campground. The bay is home to many turtles who feed on the grasses and weed that grow close to shore. Every time we got in the water we saw turtles (8 was the most we saw in one snorkel). The turtles are so used to humans they let you float nearby and watch them eat or allow you to swim near them as they glide through the water. We made the most of the great weather doing the following:

Tuesday:

Drifting down Turquoise Bay looking at the lovely coral. We saw 2 turtles, heaps of large schools of fish and a shark under some coral- there was a hole in the coral up the top so you could see the shark’s head (safely).
Snorkelling around the big coral bombes at Lakeside. Strangely enough, we saw a turtle get bullied by a fish. The fish kept lining the turtle up, then swimming straight for it, bumping roughly into it. It was very unusual to watch. We also saw some huge fish, 3 reef sharks and Jackson found masses of sea urchins living in a section of coral he looked under.
Watching the turtles feeding on sea grass at Osprey Bay. We spent about an hour swimming around watching these lovely creatures up close.

Wednesday:

The boys went on a fishing charter – check out their catches on the ‘Reeling in a big one’ post.
Emilia and I kayaked and paddle-boarded to a mooring site out from Osprey Bay. The snorkelling was awesome, with amazing coral bombes and such a vast amount of fish. On our way back to the kayak we spotted a big (2m+) shark under some coral. We swam up as close as we dared, and we are pretty sure it was a Bronze Whaler shark. On the way back we spotted a few turtles popping their heads up for air, and I did a spectacular fall from the paddleboard but thankfully I didn’t lose my hat or sunglasses!
Emilia and I spent the afternoon snorkelling the bay at Osprey again as we couldn’t resist spending more time with the turtles.

Thursday:

Daniel and Emilia kayaked and paddle boarded out the deep snorkelling site and had another wonderful snorkel out there.
Jackson and I did a snorkel in the bay and we saw 7 turtles, 1 stingray, an eel (I think it was a Moray eel) and heaps of Emperors. One poor Spangled Emperor we saw had 4 big chunks taken out of its back! The funniest thing from this snorkel was when Jackson disturbed a small fish (about the size of his hand) that got very angry at him and tried to attack him! It swam right at his face and he had to retreat quickly. He tried a few times to get close, but every time he got within a metre of the coral that the fish was guarding, the fish attacked. We were laughing so much our snorkels filled with water.
After utilising the internet at the nearby Visitor Centre, Emilia and I did another snorkel at Lakeside. The visibility was terrible and the current was super strong, but we still managed to see 2 turtles, a big reef shark and heaps of really big Catfish. We had a hard time swimming against the current, and it was made even harder for me as I had to hold my bikini top in place. We’d decided not to wear our wetsuits which was a bad idea as the current kept pulling my top off! Luckily it was bad visibility otherwise I would have given the other snorkellers a bit of a show!!
Back at camp, Jackson and Daniel spent the afternoon in the bay. They saw 8 turtles in just one snorkel, as well as 2 massive Giant Queenies (over 1 metre).

Friday:

Once again we were ambitious and decided to squeeze in another snorkel before we left. Emilia and Daniel kayaked and Jackson and I paddleboard to a coral bombe about 500m out from shore. The wind and waves were pretty strong so the paddle out was hard! After attaching the kayak and paddleboard to Daniel’s wrist we all snorkelled around the pristine coral. I decided to swim back to shore to make it easier (the paddleboard is much easier with less weight). It was certainly a long swim in but I saw heaps of turtles so it was worth doing.
After packing up we parked in the day use area so Emilia, Jackson and Daniel could get back in the bay- with the aim being to get a photo of Emilia with a turtle. They succeeded and she was super happy.
As we were about to leave an old Kombi pulled into the carpark. Daniel recognised it from some YouTube videos he’d watched. Karstan and Maxine (from The Block fame) have a channel documenting their journey around Australia in their 1968 Kombi. Daniel had a good chat with them and they shared ‘Kombi’ stories.

We decided to do the Yardie Creek Crossing as it wasn’t flowing and it was only a bit of soft sand that Daniel was confident he’d get the van through. Before crossing we did the short walk up Yardie Creek Gorge and were surprised to see a colony of bats in the mangrove trees. We spent an amusing 15 minutes watching them stretch their wings, curl up like Dracula then stretch out again, whilst continually screeching and squealing. The kids were highly entertained by one of the larger male bats, who proudly displayed his rather large tackle every time he stretched out! We were lucky enough to see a few baby bats as well.

The crossing itself was trouble free and we saved ourselves 2 hours going this way, instead of the whole way around via Exmouth.

Osprey was just as good as we remembered it, and we were certainly blessed with good weather for the 4 nights we were there.

Ready for a snorkel at Lakeside

Emilia loved using her underwater camera for the first time.

Some of the stunning coral we saw during our snorkels at Turquoise Bay and Lakeside.

Some of the many turtles we had the privilege of seeing during our time in Cape Range NP.

We all love it when the turtles poke their head out to get a breath, we always snorkel up with them and pop our heads out too!

Enjoying the delicious beef patties we got from Bullara Station. We haven't had red meat for a while (been eating fresh fish instead) so we were all craving it. The burgers were the incredible!