Do you find the spot or does the spot find you? Does your mood make somewhere special or does the place make your mood? The jury is out for me on this matter. I have just camped for two nights at Billy Goat Beach but could easily have stayed longer: it was another ‘Yardie’ location for me with interesting visuals and a variety of activities. The dramatic stormy sky, building upon my arrival, was no doubt a contributor to my enjoyment of this beach. I also experienced my first substantial shower since South Australia, which provided the perfect amount of time for cooking dinner. This dish was actually very good – better than it looks in the photo – with the slightly charred look a planned (!) visual to match the threatening skies. Then back to storm watching with photos 5a through 5d all part of the same front – the cloud looked like a painting where someone had crudely swiped several brusque paint strokes across the canvas. The cloud stayed put for more than an hour allowing plenty of time to go for a walk, find interesting beach curios and return for more storm watching. The next two days provided more wonderful experiences: enjoying a juicy blood orange; finding a secluded beach (from a choice of 3) for Tai Chi practice, skinny dipping and naturist walks; breakfast pancakes made with ‘blood orange’ eggs – bought from the same blood orange stall, maybe that’s what the chooks have been eating; snorkelling with small diaphanous jelly fish (well, snorkelling but also batting them out of the way with the noodle) and weirdly shaped fish; and drinks and nibbles with friendly fellow travellers (http://www.whitefellawalkabout.com/western-australia scroll down to Green Head for a professional photographers capture of the storm clouds). The ‘weird’ fish deserves further mention; it was hiding behind a floating piece of algae and was no doubt as surprised as I was to find another living creature on the other side. “Geez, she’s weird”, it probably thought. The fish was greenish in hue such that it gradually disappeared as it sank towards the sea bed where it was neatly camouflaged. It’s body ‘decoration’ was the astonishing part: sticking out from its body it had what looked like sections of highly magnified ice crystals with a particularly prominent antenna sticking out from the top of its head. No camera and only one brief glimpse before it sank out of sight. I snorkelled a second time but was not granted another visit from this strange fish. Billy Goat Beach was a top spot, which has whetted my appetite for a return trip to Ningaloo Reef for Christmas and New Year. When getting my snorkelling gear out of its bag for Billy Goat Beach, I re-read the slogan on the package “Your passport to a whole new world”. Not an idle boast!
I can’t find Billy Goat Beach or Ningaloo on Google Earth? where are you near?
Billy goat is a few km north of green head. Ningaloo reef extends from approx exmouth down to carnarvon. At xmas i’m going back to cape range national park which is near exmouth. Don’t you love the name billy goat beach?