Coral Bay - It's Great To Be Back!

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Tuesday 31st and we were on our way to Coral Bay. Today’s journey was not too long at 238 kms and was fairly uneventful. At roughly the half way point we pulled in to Minilya Roadhouse for a break. When we arrived there was one car/caravan and a smallish road-train. By the time we were ready to leave there were about 10 car/caravan combinations and a second HUGE road-train. It had three long trailers and, in total, must have been about 100 meters long - probably the longest we have ever seen. We got chatting to some fellow caravanners about good places to stay and we were pleased that the huge wagon went back out on the road before we did so we didn’t have to worry about it wanting to overtake us. We kept the CB radio on but there was not a lot of “chat” happening today.

We arrived in Coral Bay at about noon and we were pleased to see that it hadn’t changed very much. We knew that the building of a new resort had been turned down since our last visit so there were still just the two caravan parks, one holiday resort complex and a few shops. Somehow we had managed to get into the “Peoples Park” caravan park nearest the beach and we had a spot on the third row. Apparently spaces in this park are like gold dust. Sites are usually booked up two years in advance and at school holiday time it’s three years!! I only rang about two months ago so I assume we were given a spot following a cancellation. The site we were given did have a bit of grass around the edge but was mainly sand and a bit uneven. Graham was really unsure exactly where to put the caravan to make the best use of our tiny bit of green. It was a wide site and I persuaded him to park over to the right but it meant that, although the van was level, we were stepping out of the van onto sand. Probably I should have left it to him to pick the best spot – he’s usually pretty good. We have a bit of a groundsheet which we used to cover most of the sand so all was not lost. Because of our somewhat ‘cushy’ camping lifestyle over the past few months, we were caught on the hop a bit when we discovered that the general water connected straight into the caravan could not be used for drinking or cooking. Drinking water has to be collected from special taps. Fortunately for us, one was very handy but it did remind us of the scarcity of water in much of Australia.

Coral Bay is a very special place and that’s because Ningaloo Reef is a fringing coral reef and at 280 kilometres long is the largest of its kind in the world. It is also the only large reef positioned so close to landmass, often being less than 100 metres from the shore. Coral Bay is one of the rare places on earth where you are able to walk from the beach straight onto a coral reef. In 1987 the reef and surrounding waters, which are home to more than 500 fish species, 300 coral species and 600 mollusc species, was designated the Ningaloo Marine Park and soon it is likely to be declared a World Heritage Site.

Once we were set up and had devoured our sandwich lunch, we had a bit of a stroll to the beach – all of 50 meters away – and realized why we fell in love with Coral Bay on our last visit. The weather was brilliant and the beach looked amazing. The tide was low and the darkness of the coral reef was clearly visible within easy swimming distance. We couldn’t resist the temptation and were soon down on the beach again ready to snorkel over the coral. Before we got in, though, our attention was drawn to a crowd of people on the water’s edge. We thought they were waiting for a boat trip to depart but then more and more people appeared. Curiosity got the better of us and we discovered that fish feeding was taking place – a regular occurrence every afternoon at 3.30. Multi-coloured fish of all shapes and sizes were swimming around right at the water’s edge taking advantage of a free feed. Often they would swim through and around the legs of people stood just a few feet into the water. When we eventually started snorkelling we were greeted with the same array of fish and more, and the coral too was a variety of shapes and colours. We knew we were in for a good time here.

Dressing for snorkelling and tidying ourselves afterwards was easy. We are just a two minute walk away so could go to the beach and return in our “bathers” and wetsuits, and outside hot showers were just a few metres away to rinse away the sea water. We had a wander along the road and around the little shopping precinct where I picked up a few tour leaflets. Later in the evening, with the stars shining brightly we sat out with a torch, Sarah and Darryl’s astronomical chart and their compass and tried to identify some of the myriad of shapes that twinkled above us.

The following morning, Wednesday, Graham had gone for a quick walk when there was a loud knock on the caravan and it was Alan and his wife who had been camped opposite us on the caravan park in Carnarvon. They were in the ‘other’ caravan park and had just come to be nosy and to see how posh people lived! There has been an on-going joke amongst caravanners that the campers on Peoples Park are from the Capuccino/Winnebago brigade. It has to be said that most of the people we’ve met here are not your typical down to earth Aussie camper so perhaps there’s something in that. Our next door neighbours for the last three days never spoke to us all the time they were here! They spent one hour setting up their caravan and the next three hours setting up and then continuously adjusting the biggest satellite dish we’ve ever seen on a caravan park. Just for three days, that all seemed a bit excessive. Alan and his wife will be visiting Coral Bay again later in the year so just wanted to see if it would be worth paying the extra per night to stay slightly closer to the beach. (I think they decided that it wasn’t!)

Before going down on to the beach, we visited a tour guide to see if there were any trips that might appeal. Swimming with whale sharks is the number one event here but is extremely expensive and not altogether satisfactory with a huge element of luck involved. Seeing a whale shark is not certain and to keep up with one you need to be a pretty swift swimmer. Also, they swim very low in the water so even if you saw one, the view may not be brilliant and so we opted for two alternatives – a simple two hour trip for Thursday and a special five hour one for Friday. After making those bookings we went to the beach for – yes, you guessed it – another snorkel. It’s an easy location for snorkelling as the water is calm and warm so all we needed to get right was to make sure we had a good seal around our goggles (more difficult for Graham with his beard/moustache) and to perfect getting in and out of the water with flippers on without looking ungainly – not as easy as you might think!! The afternoon was much the same. After a brief lunch we were back on the beach snorkelling. One of the reasons for so much snorkelling, apart from the fact that we love it, is to develop a bit of serious expertise as the two trips we’ve booked ourselves on to both require a fair degree of snorkelling competency – the five hour one especially.

In the evening at the BBQ area, not too far from us, a karaoke session took place - all monies collected to go to the Flying Doctor Service. We pictured in our minds Sarah taking a leading role in the proceedings. It attracted a large crowd but we just enjoyed(?) it sitting by the caravan. Dave, from the no. 1 site in the park (who is here every year for 5 months – we met him first at Kalbarri) entertained the crowd with a variety of songs and a couple of electric guitar tunes, and a lady from opposite us did a couple of good Patsy Cline type renditions. Otherwise, apart from just a couple more contributors who could just about hold a tune, I’m afraid it was the usual procession of people who think they can sing but most who definitely couldn’t, murdering some perfectly nice songs in the name of entertainment. It lasted from 5:30 until 9 o’clock, but it was entertaining! Then it was time for bed.

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Photos

What's going on here we wondered?
fish feeding of course!