Exmouth, on Maley Street

The depot on Maley Street

The Exmouth depot is at 10 Maley Street, in the town grid. Office hours are 09:00 to 15:00 Monday to Friday, and 09:00 to 11:00 on Saturday. The office is closed on Sunday.

Maley Street is a short walk from the town centre, which makes this the most convenient depot for anyone arriving without a vehicle. Learmonth Airport is about 25 minutes away by road, and the transfer is a taxi or a pre-arranged pickup rather than a shuttle bus that runs to a timetable. The depot is the smallest on the list, which is why the vehicle is worth sorting before you fly, and campervan hire in Exmouth has the town, the hours and what is kept there.

The depot lists after-hours collection and return as available. Confirm the arrangement when you book, because a flight that lands after the office closes is a common arrival here.

What this depot is for

This is the depot the rest of the site is written from. It serves two kinds of trip: the fly-in, where the vehicle is collected after landing and used for the cape and the reef, and the drive-in, where Exmouth is the end of a long run up the coast from Perth or down from Broome. All five sit on the cape road that starts in town, and for a trip that ends here rather than starts here, campervan hire locations shows where it could have begun.

Both end up at the same place, which is the park gate. Cape Range National Park starts at the edge of town, the sealed road runs south along the cape to the Yardie Creek crossing, and the reef is a few metres off the beach for most of that length.

Five things to drive to

Turquoise Bay. The beach most people have seen a photograph of before they arrive. The current runs along the shore rather than against it, which is what makes the drift snorkel work: walk south along the sand, enter the water, and let it carry you back to where you started.

Oyster Stacks. Five islets standing off the reef, and the best snorkelling in the park on the right tide. WA Parks notes that it can only be snorkelled at high tide, so this is the one stop that is timed by the water rather than by your plan.

Yardie Creek. Where the sealed road ends and the range meets the water. A two-kilometre walking trail follows the rim of the gorge, and the cliffs above the creek are one of the few reliable places on the cape to see a black-footed rock wallaby. Boat tours run up the gorge from the crossing.

Vlamingh Head Lighthouse. At the northern tip of the cape, on the road out towards the communications station. It is one of the few places in Australia where you can watch both a sunrise and a sunset over the ocean from the same point, because the cape turns the corner here.

Jurabi Turtle Centre. North of town on the cape road, and the base for the turtle nesting and hatching seasons. Nesting runs roughly November to January and hatching roughly January to March, and the centre runs guided walks in season.

Where the seal ends

The park road is sealed as far as the Yardie Creek crossing. Past that point, WA Parks lists two small campgrounds that can only be reached by four-wheel drive: One K, about a kilometre south of the crossing, and Boat Harbour, about three.

The two canyon drives on the eastern side of the range, Charles Knife Canyon and Shothole Canyon, are unsealed as well. Everything else — the beaches, the campgrounds on the western side, the lighthouse — is on bitumen. All five sit on the cape road that starts in town, and for a trip that ends here rather than starts here, 4WD hire for the unsealed side shows where it could have begun.

That is the whole decision, and it is made in town. If the plan stays on the sealed side, a two-wheel-drive campervan reaches all of it.

Before you drive out

Three checks, in order.

Park entry: Cape Range National Park charges standard entry fees, and a valid park pass covers them. The Ningaloo Marine Park itself has no entry fee.

Alerts: campgrounds in the Ningaloo Coast area have been closed for repair after weather damage, and a closure changes the shape of a week rather than a day.

Marine warnings: between November and April, WA Parks warns that box jellyfish and Irukandji can appear in these waters.