We are on holiday!

Sunday 21st August 2022

We woke up after the coldest night we’ve felt for a while – not too uncomfortable, but we were looking for layers, and a reminder we are heading south for the winter!

We had breakfast then packed the car to go to Coral Bay for the day, just under an hour away and a popular reef destination. The drive was once again beautiful, so much to see on the roadsides!

Coral Bay itself is a pretty weird place, and I assume exists solely for the tourist trade. It seems to consist mostly of caravan park and dive tour operators. Anyway we found a spot to park and lugged our stuff down to the beach. The big appeal of this area is the proximity of reef to the shore – you literally only need to go a few metres and you are in the coral!

Bonnie and I prepared for a snorkel – you can see the fish swarming around before you even get in! There are so many fish, including massive emporer fish cruising the shallows. Though the coral here is diverse, it is all brown. Apparently normal for there, but after seeing the amazing colours on our reef walk at Cape Keraudren it was perhaps a bit disappointing- Bonnie definitely had expectations! We didn’t last long in the water – Bonnie got water in her mask, then up her nose, and we had to abort to get a drink! The water is also surprisingly cold – I suppose we have gotten used to warmer conditions!

We had lunch on the beach, then I went for a solo snorkel while the kids went to climb some sand dunes along the bay. I went to a reef a bit further from shore, but honestly there wasn’t that much to see – lots of brown coral and a few fish. I joined the others after my swim, and we had fun leaping over vegetation on the steep dunes, no doubt contributing to the dune erosion but it is hard to resist!

Richie went for a snorkel while the kids built sandcastles, then Bonnie finally felt hot enough to get back in the water! This time the snorkel was more successful, but the cold still got us quite quickly so we did a pretty quick loop in the water, watched a few fish then headed back out.

Feeling pretty tired by this point we decided to head back to the station. We tossed around the idea of staying an extra night, but the best snorkeling is apparently up in Cape Range NP, which is 2 hours from the station and too long for a day trip. We decided to stick with the plan of heading south, and find a good fishing spot.

Back at the station our old neighbours had all cleared out and new ones moved in – a friendly couple from Perth and a young family from Melbourne, with 7 and 9 year old girls. Bonnie couldn’t resist joining the girls in playing under the sprinklers so the kids spent a fun afternoon getting very wet, then on to the playground.

The family is doing a similar loop to us, but over 7 months instead of 3! They have also been really organised and booked a lot of their sites well in advance. I did learn that to stay in Cape Range NP, where they are heading next, they booked online at 3am, 180 days prior to their arrival date (which is when bookings open), and even then they missed out on the site they wanted! 😳 I didn’t stand a chance!!

We grabbed some drinks and snacks and did a walk to some sand dunes with the idea of watching the sunset, except we left much too late and the sun set half way there! It was still beautiful though, and gave a lovely view over the property.

A band had started up while we were gone. Given it was not far from our camp site there was no ignoring it, so we watched for a while. They were a fun cover band, playing all the songs everyone knows! Otis and I enjoyed a good dance session – he has some excellent moves! Bonnie felt tired, shy and not so keen, so after a few songs we retired for showers and bed, where we heard out the rest of the performance!