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We were cruising along the highway, 100kms from Coral Bay, girls watching DVD, me trying to rest and Matt following that white line when the tranquillity was destroyed by a severe tyre blow out. The front right hand tyre was destroyed. Needless to say it was changed over without too much bother except for the little girls complaining and wanting to watch the proceedings next to the busy highway.....stressful!!
It was an amazing contrast pulling into Coral Bay, such a remote location, yet so busy. Coral Bay consists of 2 large caravan parks, hotel, backpackers, small local shops and many tour booking outlets. There were hundreds of people there. We merged in among other vans feeling quite out of the place after the tranquillity of Red Bluff. The girls were soon to adjust due to the discovery of a playground and swimming pool. Even ‘Carrie’ liked the pool as the water was sooo warm. The girls constantly nagged us to go in the pool, driving us crazy but the upside being that Ella’s swimming improved more in 2 days than in 2 years of lessons. Throw back of the warm water was that Ki developed an ear infection in 1
day.
Coral Bay is very picturesque with lots of sea life. Huge snapper swim right up to the shallows just out of arms reach. We all enjoyed snorkelling and swimming in the bay.
The other highlight of Coral Bay was its open air pub/hotel. We ended up eating there for 2 out of the three nights that we stayed. (Also cheaper than the supermarket, for example one block of Cadbury choc $8.90, 500g block cheese $15.00, even TicTac’s $2.30 just to name a few.) The pub had a great atmosphere with coloured lights, music, grassy areas for the kids to run and play, all with a view of the sun set over the bay. All importantly it had Cooper’s on tap!!
We did put the ‘Tintanic’ out at Pt Maud just around the corner from Coral Bay for a bit of a fish, no luck on the dinner front but Ki loved catching little Trumpeter’s, you should have seen her face as she reeled them in.
We departed Coral Bay, drove to Exmouth for a quick stock up. After visiting supermarket, chemist, petrol station and tyre store we had spent about $1000 in 2 hours -
scarry!!! We couldn’t get out of that town quickly enough.
Matt’s Eye View
Beyond the Bluff lay the quiet shores of Coral Bay, never mind that the swell was due to pick considerably as we left. Coral Bay is an iconic WA holiday location and for that reason the two caravan parks were chock full of a mix of the travelling grey army and a variety of WA travellers on their yearly escape. Very crowded, but the snorkelling was fantastic, the massive Emperor and Snapper moving around in the shallows were amazing, they seemed to be chilling in the sanctuary zone close to all the off duty fisho’s just to say a collective haha. Even with my crusty old hand spear I could have feed the family for weeks...but it wasn’t to be. We beach launched the tinny off a semi-protected headland inside the reef but the reality of fishing with kids meant we stayed inside the reef and all we got were a few Stripes, fun for the girls, Kianna managed a double header! A good way to get rid of some of the most expensive bait (only squid) I’ve ever come across, on that subject it seemed
everything in Coral Bay was about three times what you would expect to pay, ie $15 for a block of cheese...vegemite sandwiches again. The pub did have Coopers on tap though....we went 2 nights out of 3!
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