We are on holiday!

Tuesday 23rd August 2022

The wind picked up again in the night, and was still quite gusty in the morning. I cooked pancakes for breakfast and we had a pretty relaxed morning, then mid morning thought we better check out the beach.

It was windy, but walking around to the lagoon, whilst still quite gusty, was much calmer. Bonnie and I got ready and jumped in for a snorkel. It was absolutely amazing! Fish in every shape and colour, beautiful corals in purples, pink, green, orange and brown, anemones, the biggest sea urchins I have ever seen! So stunning, Bonnie couldn’t believe her eyes! It was so so much better than the snorkeling at Coral Bay! There was a bit of a current but I had my fins on, so Bonnie held on to me and we floated about together. Bonnie started to get pretty cold so I brought her back in to warm up in the sun and I went back out to have another look around! The tide was quite low, so I mostly skirted the edges and deeper channels, to avoid both breaking the coral and also scratching my legs on it!

The cold was getting to me as well so I headed back in. We decided my wetsuit was too bulky to bring with, but it would be nice to have at moments like these!! Richie went for a snorkel and I hung out with the kids. He came back quite a while later raving about the snorkeling – a first as far as I know, he is normally not too fussed about it! He also found a great hole at the end of the point, so Bonnie and I went back to have a look. By this time the beach had become a bit busier with other snorkelers, and quite a few people just sitting in the water!

The ‘hole’ at the point was amazing! It is a small, deeper section – maybe 2 – 2.5m deep, with thousands of fish, not at all bothered by our presence! Such amazing colours – rainbow coloured wrasse and parrotfish, bright blues, yellows, greens. I wish I had an underwater camera with me! We had an amazing time just watching the fish swim about, and for some reason the water is slightly warmer here. Even Otis could see the fish here, without putting his head in!!

By this time we were all feeling pretty hungry! I took the kids back while Richie tried some fishing – the lagoon is a fish protection zone but you can still fish for squid in it. We had some lunch and a rest, then around 3:30 Bonnie and I went back for another snorkel. This time the tide was coming in, and only a couple of people were in the lagoon. Bonnie just wanted to go in the hole at the point again, so we had another swim about there (mostly just staying in the same spot!). Bonnie saw a small shark and was a bit spooked by it, but was happy to stay in. The lagoon is a nursery for sharks- on the walk back we saw six of them swimming about. In fact it seems at every beach in WA we have seen sharks, much more visible then we are used to!

We got back just in time for a play in the sand dunes while the sun was setting, then Richie got a fire going. We ended up with a couple of neighbours in the afternoon – apparently the campground has really filled up today! It meant that the fire pit we were going to use was now a bit close to one of the caravans, so we used a little portable brazier that a couple in Litchfield had kindly given us. They were very sweet about it, they said they hadn’t used it at all but thought we were the perfect family to have it, so we’ve been carting it around ever since, using it to weigh down the tarp on windy nights! 😆 It actually works really well though, maybe we can use it for BBQs at the river when we are home!

Richie cooked up both fish for dinner – they were both really delicious! Then I took the kids to bed and Richie went fishing again.