The tiny resort town of Coral Bay sits like an island between a vast area of semi-arid land (the closest thing to real desert that we've driven through) and the Indian Ocean. The bay is part of the Ningaloo Reef, somewhere we'd been hoping to visit for a while. Initially we'd planned to camp a bit further North, at Cape Range National Park, but we decided that we'd go a bit easier on ourselves and on little bird, and we took 3 nights in town at Coral Bay instead. We had two long days of relaxing and enjoying life by the sea, still coming to terms with weather that is cool enough for us to enjoy being outside!
Ningaloo is fringe reef (not barrier reef) meaning that the coral starts just metres from the shore, so no long, expensive boat trips, just a short stroll or bike ride to the beach, jump in the water and this is what you see:
I went out both days and it was some of the best snorkelling I've ever done with coral gardens that seem to stretch on for ever and an incredible range of fish. Our underwater camera finally died during my first swim so I missed getting photos of the big schools I saw swarming over the reef the next day, but I'm happy enough with the shots i got.
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You might have seen some billboards around the East coast in the last year or so with a picture of someone sun baking and the caption "skin cells in trauma". Well, sadly, that would be a suitable caption for this picture of little bird taking her first dip in the sea.
You can see the concerned look on her face - I thought she was just worried that the water was cold, but she was really trying to say "daddy my face is burning!" Poor little darling came out with a red face later that evening that looked worse in the morning. It feels pretty awful for us looking at her puffy face, and when we take her out it feels like we're carrying a shining red beacon that says "BAD PARENTS". She's sleeping now, and I hope she'll be looking and feeling better tomorrow. And of course, she's still been as cute as ever, cooing away to us and to anything else that catches her eye.
Next day was a relaxing day at home and out of the Sun. I captured this little moment of my girls chilling out together in the camper.
As ever we keep moving onward, and after a bit of a meander through the North of WA, we've now turned resolutely southward. Next stop: Carnarvon.
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