Tuesday, 10 September 2013

7 September – 10 September 2013 – Coral Bay




We had to pack up the van today as our two weeks in Exmouth had come to an end.  It took us a while as “our garage” had become a dumping ground over the last fourteen days.  Josh refuelled and filled the tanks and we were set to go by just after 10am – saying goodbye to other families in the progress.  We stopped in at Exmouth to cast our votes in the 2013 national election, picking up a few sausage sandwiches in the process to support the local school.  Then into the IGA store to pick up groceries before driving out of town.  It was only a couple of hours drive south to our next stop at Coral Bay.  Coral Bay is also on the Ningaloo Reef but is just a small town with a couple of shops and two caravan parks.  We pulled into Bayview Caravan Park which was the first on the way into town, and we knew that some travelling friends were here in this one also.  We pulled in around 3pm and the girls quickly got to making a birthday box for their new friend Jasmine.  Today was her tenth birthday and her family had invited us over for a birthday party, drinks and dinner.  The first thing that all the kids did was go to the heated pool before returning for some party food and a further play at the park.  By this stage, the wind had picked up and everyone was searching for warm clothes and a wind block.  We were pretty full after yummy pizzas but had to try a piece of birthday cake.  Kylie had spent two days baking multiple coloured layers of cake, decorated around the edges with musk sticks and topped with lots of icing and bubblegum balls – it was delicious!

Sunday was a bit of a lazy day.  We farewelled Andrew and Kylie and the kids yet again and walked across the road to see what the shops here were like.  Well, it’s nothing to write home about but they do have a great bakery, a newsagent, a nurse’s station, a small grocery store and a few tour shops.  Back at the van, Josh was watching a bit of a hazy footy show and I decided that the kids needed to finish the last fortnight of school work.  We sat in the van for majority of the day and complete the last two weeks of work so that it could finally be sent.  We even managed to get a bit of a start on the tomorrow’s fortnight of work – it felt good to not be behind the eight ball.  This afternoon the kids met up with some more new friends that they had met at Yardie Homestead and got out of schoolwork for the late afternoon, and headed to the park instead.

Monday morning Josh was still concerned about a knocking noise that he’s been hearing in the front end of our car, so we all piled in and went to the boat ramp car park on hard flat ground so that he could get under and have a look.  He couldn’t work out the noise so packed up the tools and we walked down to the water for a squiz.  The water is still crystal clear here – it is STUNNING!!  Really, you wouldn’t even need to go snorkelling to see the fish – you can see right through the water.  We got back to the van and decided it was time for a snorkel.  Before just jumping in, we went to the little information booth first.  The lovely man was so helpful and passionate about his job and making sure the kids had a good experience that he told us exactly where to start and end our snorkel  and what to see, in particular, not to miss out on Ayers Rock (apparently this one is beneath the water).  We headed out and first thing that we noticed was how different it is here, compared to further north at Cape Range N.P.  The coral is very different, there are a lot of large corals which look like massive roses, there also seem to be fewer big fish but lots of schools of smaller fish – still plenty to see.  The water was really impressive – the visibility was crystal clear!  We snorkelled for ages, probably over half an hour and the kids were loving duck diving down to the coral to get a closer look at the fish.  We were only about half way to Ayers Rock and the kids were getting cold so we began to head towards the beach a little to drop them off so Josh and I could keep snorkelling.  In the midst, I spotted a small manta ray and pointed it out to Samantha, then called Josh and Zoe to come over quickly hoping that it wouldn’t swim away.  As they approached, the manta ray became a little startled and with one swift move of its wings it made a lot of ground – but thankfully then settled again.  I stayed with the kids while Josh chased it for a while for a closer look.  Its times like this we really regret not having an underwater camera.  We dropped the kids into shore and then swam the rest of the way to Ayers Rock.  It was quite a way out so we were happy to be back on land when we returned.  After packing all the snorkelling gear away we headed back to the van for a bite of lunch and a little more school work.  This afternoon we headed down to the bay to watch the fish feeding.  There was a guide telling us about the fish, which I think were spangled emperors.  She was just feeding them some pellets and the fish were swimming amongst our legs in rather shallow water.  They were not shy at all!  We were even handed some pellets ourselves to feed them and they were just hanging around waiting for more.  Apart from a bit more school work this evening, it was a quiet and relaxing night.

Josh went to the reception area this morning to fix them up for another night here – we were originally leaving here on Monday but keep extending it for another night because it is just a hard place to turn your back on.  After breakfast, Josh let down the tyre pressures – we were going 4wheel driving today and throwing a bit of fishing and snorkelling in along the way.  We headed south over the sand dune tracks and arrived out of the sanctuary area at Five Finger Reef so that Josh could have a spear fish while the girls and I tried our hands with their little rods.  It wasn’t the best place.  My first throw in and I was caught on a rock…. on top of that, the seagulls kept stealing the prawns out of my bag sitting up on the beach.  The kids got bored pretty quick when there was no fish appearing on their line, so they threw the rods down and grabbed their snorkelling gear instead.  They were having plenty of fun on their own so I grabbed my gear and decided to get in too.  Josh came back not long after with no fish – sad.  There really weren’t many large fish about except for parrot fish so we just had to go without.  I actually got to go for a snorkel by myself this morning so headed out to the edge of one of the finger reefs.  There was plenty to see if you looked hard enough.  Back on shore we all had lunch and then jumped in the car and moved on.  We drove over some tracks and to the top of a large sand dune where there were also a few quad bikes loitering.  After a few happy snaps we noticed that a car in the distance was attempting to drive up a steep sand dune.  First time – fail, second time – fail, third time – fail!  No luck.  Sami wanted Josh to drive down and have a go himself and he wasn’t keen on the idea – but he does love a challenge.  He revved it up and up we went, but only to about the same spot as the previous guy.  We started to slide back down the sand dune, part of the way on a sidewards slant.  He obviously wasn’t going to give that another go!  We stopped at a few other spots, one in particular where Sami decided to pull out her magnifying glass and burn a piece of kangaroo poo – thanks Woods boys for this great idea!  Further on we found a little bay of our own so parked the car and nearly tumbled down the dune to where the beach was.  I wasn’t happy when I realised I’d left something in the car and had to climb back up to get it.  We all got back in the water and went for a snorkel without our fins as we didn’t need to go far out to be swimming over coral.  While out there, I saw some kind of brown and white striped eel which I now know is a zebra moray eel.  I called the others over but he swam away before they got to see him – damn!  We had a great time frolicking in the water all on our own!  After a snack we left this pretty spot in search for more.  We drove back out of the southern end of Coral Bay and made our way to the Northern End.  There were plenty of flat plains with a long beach along the coast but we didn’t go for a swim here.  Instead we headed back to the van and decided that our final snorkel for the day should be in Coral Bay itself again – the kids wanted to see Ayers Rock.  It was after 3.30pm by now and we headed to the beach.  The wind was picking up and we were actually tossing up whether it was too cold to go in – but Zoe was desperate to get in so - one in, all in!  Surprisingly, the water was actually quite warm.  We dove on in and there was a lot to see.  We just floated along and couldn’t get enough of what was in front of us – just beautiful, especially the large groups of parrot fish!  We had momentarily forgotten about Ayers Rock and just swam and swam and before we knew it, it was already about 4.30pm.  As it was getting late, we decided to swim straight to Ayers Rock and, from there, straight into the beach.  On the way back in, Zoe spotted a sting ray and there were lots of really big sweet lips just near the shore.  I think they were checking us out as much as we were them.  It was 4.45pm by now so we got dried off and headed back to camp to shower, have dinner and rest after our busy day.






















































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