Coral Bay

We were so excited to be going to Coral Bay, the joy of staying in a caravan park with amenities after a month of free or cheap camping.  Which meant a month of minimal water, infrequent showering and dirty clothes and sheets!  That first shower was bliss...the kids even moaned in delight.  Charlotte was so so excited when she realised she got to have a shower everyday whilst we were here.  Oh dear what have we put our kids through.  Plus Coral Bay is this lovely little beachside town with a few tourist places, a couple of caravan parks and resort.  It just has this relaxed holiday feel about it.  You pull your togs on and wander across the road for a swim.

Clean hair at last!

The weather wasn't overly lovely, a little on the cold side.  But we still managed to hang out at the beach and have some fun.  I can see why this place is booked out years in advance during the school holidays.  Just a beautiful little location.  Had a couple of nice snorkels at the main beach and also around the point at the other beach.  Saw lots of interesting coral, these weird cabbage like structures.  And had some fun chasing a sting ray.

The view from a little lookout at the end of the beach.

Mark went out on a scuba dive trip from Coral Bay, and did two dives at 10m.  By the sounds of it he had a fabulous day with lots of marine life.  He saw a few big reef sharks, snorkelled with manta rays and lots more.  Apparently he got rather close to the sharks, hhmmm I'm sure it was safe of course. Wish I could have gone too but not sure me ears would cope with the deep water.  One highlight for Mark was when a big school of big Trevally swam all in around them, pretty cool whilst diving.

One the day we arrived we raced over to see the fish feeding.  We waited around for ages for the 330 feeding but no one came, we weren't the only ones waiting.  Only to be told later that they only do it on certain days!!  The kids were good though and we went back the next day.  Was a laugh watching the kids feed these big fish.  They kept commenting on how the dads would like to catch one!  Jake threw a piece of food in then decided he wanted it back and almost got his finger bitten off when he tried to retrieve it!

We took a drive down near the boat ramp to some 4wd tracks and had some fun in the sand.  The view was pretty magic looking back at the boats bobbing in the water.  We had a laugh watching three guys trying to pull out their mate who had gotten bogged in the sand.  Not sure they liked our enjoyment at watching them!  We stood and chatted to another couple from down south and got some good tips on the area.  Plus Mark and Craig sussed out some fishing spots, surprise surprise!

Mark had a little fun one night and managed to catch a nice sized shark.  He was pretty proud of himself, you can't half tell by the grin on his face!

Speaking of seafood, I bought some prawns from Exmouth.  Vik, Craig, Mark and I had a rather yummy feed of them one night.  Tiger prawns and king prawns, not sure which ones I preferred, they were both so good.

We went for a drive out to one of the other beaches.  Then managed to get ourselves a little bogged in the soft sand.  I worried a little but a bit less air pressure and off we went.  But I forgot to take any pics, oops.  Then we stopped at what we think is a motor bike or 4wd track and took the cruiser up some ramps.  Kids thought it was hilarious.

Whilst in Coral Bay we arranged to meet up with another travelling family who I had noticed were in the area through the Travelling Australia With Kids (TAWK) facebook site.  We met Liam, Kelly, Fred and Lily from Sydney.  It was great to meet up with another travelling family and hear all their stories.  The adults stood about yacking and the kids played lego and loom bands. 
We also have to mention the bakery in Coral Bay, a must if your in the area.  The food was delicious, especially the pepper steak pies.  A real treat for us after weeks of cooking all our own meals.  I asked Jake what his favourite part of Coral Bay was, thinking it would be something he and Zane did together.  But alas no, his favourite part was the bakery!
We only had four nights at Coral Bay but easily could have had more, especially if the weather warmed up.  Definitely a place to visit if your after that seaside town experience.