We arrived at Coral Bay and booked into the Coral Bay Caravan Park (8/10)- it finally felt as though we were on holidays! We were exhausted and ready for a relaxing break (you may mock us; but travelling is hard work)! This place is a tiny seaside village located at the beginning of the world heritage Ningaloo Reef. It consists of only one main street that has two caravan parks, a pub, pizza place, tourist booking companies and overpriced speciality stores - when on holidays what else do you need? The problem with feeling like you are on holidays is that we looked for a beer at 4pm each day which is not ideal on a three-month holiday...
Coral Bay has a population of only 190 people and with the closest shop almost two hours away I recommend you bring along all your food and drink required for your stay. Fortunately we stocked up in Carnarvon. We ate out of the fridge all week and promised the kids a special treat dinner at Bill's on the last night. The added bonus is that we ended up sitting next to the real "Bill" and founder of Coral Bay. Bill Brogan - who is now aged in his mid 80's - arrived in Coral Bay in the early 1970's to go scuba diving and decided to turn it into a tourist town.
Dusk was the best time at the beach - we arrived at the beach in the morning and left at dusk. Snorkelling and paddle-boarding, reading, sleeping and of course the odd bit of arguing!!
What made Coral Bay so special was the ability to snorkel straight off the beach. It allowed our family - even six-year-old Thomas - to experience the reef and witness some of the most amazing, colourful, underwater creatures. Coral Bay is a popular holiday destination for Perth locals and we were there during school WA school holidays so it was very busy.
The snorkelling was amazing at Coral Bay only metres from the shore. We spent hours snorkelling the reefs making friends with our underwater creatures.
Oh what a feeling....Bella enjoying the sunset
The only tourist 'thing' we booked into was the Dune Buggies (7/10) - there were two companies, one of which catered for our family. They had the choice of two or four seater dune buggies - we hired one of each. That also meant I was allowed to drive..... There was only once were I stopped at the top of the dune and needed 'strong' encouragement from Matt (the dune buggy host) and my nine-year-old screaming at me to 'floor' it. I only did 3000 bunny hops according to my co-pilot. He obviously didn't understand that that was due to the vehicle I was driving, not the driver. Those buggies sure can hop.
Sand buggy time. The Review Committee concluded that mum was a better, faster and 'funnier' driver than dad!
We left Coral Bay and travelled 360km to Exmouth to enjoy more of the Ningaloo Reef. Ningaloo Reef was declared a World Heritage Area in 2011 and is recognised as one of the largest coral reefs in the world and has something very few reefs can offer - to be accessed straight of the beach.
Exmouth has a population of 2250 people and was a town pretty much founded (created, developed) due to the Americans - which is a bit weird. But apparently in 1963 the Yanks made an agreement with the Aussie Government to build a VLF Communications Station on the tip of the North West Cape. This was as a consequence of the rapidly escalating Cold War and the need to be able to communicate with the nuclear warhead equipped US submarines. There were 13 communication towers (numbered 0-12 not 1 - 13 due to some superstitious reason). Not that it looks it, but the tallest of the towers stands just under 400m tall and is the second tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere. It just looks like an extra large power pole. The town was pretty much built on - or around - these weird looking structures that sends messages to dudes driving the submarines. I wouldn't think there would be such a need for it these days. Ironically the structures have withheld the ever so common cyclones that often frequent the area. The yanks left in the early 1990's and the Aussies now maintain it. Without knowing the detail I think the yanks build it; left it and it now costs the Australian Government to maintain a communications system that is rarely, if ever used. It is called the Harold E Holt Communications Station - which is also a little weird. Maybe they used the system, calling his name trying to find him while he was lost at sea.
Fortunately the town has survived the closure of this service and is now focused on the tourism trade.
On the first night we drove to Vlamingh Head Lighthouse to view the sunset. It's meant to be one of the best places to watch the sun set in the West and it didn't disappoint. The was a large contingent of tourists that congregated to have a drink and watch the end of another beautiful day.
Watching the sunset with our travel-buddies 'the Raudeys' at one of the best views in Western Australia - Vlaming Head Lighthouse in Exmouth. Ironically we discovered the guy sitting on the back of the blue ute next to us played footy with Matt at Fitzroy. (I think they kissed when they discovered each other as they hadn't seen each other for 28 years!!)
The first day at Exmouth would've been one of the best days of my life (besides child birth, marriage rah rah rah.) The Stevens' family boarded the Ningaloo Blue boat to swim with the Whale Sharks (12/10). Whale Sharks are the world's biggest fish and seem to congregate at Ningaloo Reef (Why wouldn't you? It's a beautiful place!) and can grow up to 12 meters long. For our family of six (2 adults, 4 children) it cost around $1300 which is a lot of money but worth every cent. All of us swam with the whale sharks include six-year-old Tom (he held onto Dad's shoulders). We had a mini snorkel in the morning which was amazing and then went to the outer reef to find a whale shark.
The colours under water were amazing. Not sure what this was but it was alive and moved. This was on the floor of the ocean.
Sometimes it takes all day to find a whale shark and sometimes they have to share that one shark with a number of other tourist company. We got to swim with four sharks and we were allowed one-hour with each shark. They divided us into two groups of 10. So it was 10 in at a time. Overall we probably had over 20 opportunities to jump in and swim with a shark for about five minutes. The feeling swimming alongside them is really out of this world (actually under water...) At one stage we got to see two sharks cross paths and then there was a school of dolphins. Our tour leader said in the five years she has been operating she has never seen that before.
Nick and Bella managing to smile, cuddle, look at the camera while swimming with the whale shark - these two did not miss a swim and were utterly exhausted by the end of the day.
Bella and Nick again....
Will jumping off the boat! Nothing like a swim in the middle of the ocean.
I initially said Tom was too young (the swell on the outer reef was rather large). But he begged (and cried and pleaded) to go and ended up having two goes (and saw the whale shark both times!). I couldn't believe this little six year old was kicking away - with the help of a noodle - in the middle of the ocean chasing a 12metre whale shark!
The tour company was great - the food, tour operators, boat were fantastic. And we finished off with a celebratory champagne. We were all celebrating because on our way back to land we saw a three-meter tiger shark. Thank goodness it was not on our way out or there may have been less participants.
Time for a champagne (the kids had lemonade) - perfect ending to a perfect day!
The next day we were utterly exhausted but when you only have two full days at a new place you really need to keep moving in order to see everything you want to see.
The following day we travelled out to the Cape Range National Park to spend the day at some more beautiful beaches. My absolute favourite was the Turquiose Bay Drift Snorkel where you would hop in, let the current pull you along a couple of hundred metres, get out, walk along the beach and jump in again. I had done plenty of amazing snorkelling the day before so instead grabbed a noodle and floated down the beach. It was a bit of a bummer having to walk back in order to jump back in (I was calling for my dune buggy) but life's a beach..... We also stopped at Oyster Stacks and Lakeside.
It was a perfect day to recover from a hectic day swimming with the whale sharks. The weather was perfect!
Swimming at Turquoise Bay - the water was as good as it looks
So Coral Bay, Exmouth and Ningaloo Reef got a massive big tick from the Stevens Family. We are heading inland after this to Karijini National Park and will be saying goodbye to the beautiful beaches and hello to the red dirt....
From the Stevens'
#makingmemories