More Amazing Reef at Coral Bay

We stopped in at Exmouth for a few quick supplies and souvenirs before heading a couple of hours south to Coral Bay, arriving there around 3pm or so. Coral Bay was a funny little place with a couple of caravan parks, a small hotel, a few restaurants/cafes and a couple of small shopping areas. The beach that all this fronted onto was absolutely stunning though, a flat crescent shaped bay with white sand dunes sloping down to the azure blue water all the way around the bay. The water just seems to get brighter and brighter!

Having just come from the freedom of camping at Ningaloo, it was a bit of a shock to pull into the busy caravan site, but the kids were happy to see a jumping pillow and playground where they could form a kid posse and set up some kind of hierarchy.

After some play, we went for a walk to the beach to watch the sunset and then had delicious birthday pizza at the restaurant next door.



Too much sun?  Too much red dust? Or a healthy sunset glow...

Next morning we made plans to jump on a semi-submersible boat - partly because we thought the kids would get a kick out of it and partly because our combined attempts at snorkelling were to date fairly woeful.  This turned out to be a fantastic idea!  You could see the reef from where you stood on the beach.  Once we got in the boat we got to have a really good look at what we were missing out on, on account of poor snorkelling technique. We have never seen coral like this before - such a wonderland - and this included Rich who actually does know how to snorkel.  There were heaps of huge fish, some of which are used to the boats (they are fed) and follow it around a bit.  About 100 metres off shore, there is a massive lump of coral called 'Ayers Rock' - about 10 metres across, many hundreds of years old and visible from the water during low tides.

Upon returning, Rich was inspired and went snorkelling out to ‘Ayers Rock’.   Kel and Ari went for a walk in search of the reef shark nursery.  Despite some daring wading to the edge of the sand bar, no reef sharks were sighted, but there were plenty of sting rays.  Ari succeeded in terrorising a million birds, pretty unusual for her, and Dylan made sandcastles on the beautiful beach.  A week later Kel was thankful she didn't spot any sharks when a lady was attacked by a reef shark up the road at Torquoise Bay :!



Ayers Rock

Back at the caravan park, we noticed the Bremmers roll in and spent the rest of the arvo hanging out.  Next morning we were off, saying the long farewells all over again, but probably this time for real. Back on the road and heading to the place the kids have been eagerly anticipating, Monkey Mia!