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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