Up early, and on the road to Coral Bay having secured an unpowered site the day before.
We really enjoyed Coral Bay when we were here 20 years ago, so were excited about returning.
Coral Bay is just "down the road" from Exmouth - although "down the road" means 100 miles!
Arrived at 11am, and its a great campsite - several other people also trying to secure a site. Although WA school holidays end on Monday, its still heaving.
The only thing we recognise about Coral Bay from last time is the beach - which is unchanged. Pristine white sand, and coral just 20 metres off the shore. The other thing we recognise is the perfect weather - its about 27 degrees and hot today, no clouds, much better than the 2 cloudy days we had at Exmouth so its shorts and t shirts all day today.
When we were last here that was one hotel with a backpackers section (10 beds from memory), 1 small campsite and one small shop attached to the hotel. Us and the half dozen backpackers we were with were from memory the ONLY people on the beach which we had to ourselves.
Although it has a population of just 200, it now has 2 huge campsites (probably swelling the population to 2000), 2 small supermarkets, coffee shops, smoothie bars etc!. The beach was busy - but still plenty of space.
As Joseph has been less confident about snorkeling while at Exmouth we pre booked a Coral Bay glass bottom boat and snorkel trip - this was well worthwhile. Although there is coral just 20 metres or so from the shore, the boat took us about a quarter of a mile to the outer reef for a snorkel. Its a marine park and very well maintained - so the coral is in excellent condition and allegedly better than the barrier reef. We saw some fantastic coral, colourful fish and 3 turtles.
Eleanor and Katherine overcome their trepidation and did some great snorkeling. Joseph had a little snorkel - but being so close to the reef there was a fair swell and drift, so he retired to the boat fairly soon and stayed with the boat driver chatting and feeding fish. The rest of us were in the water for an hour, Jim was the one who struggled the most negotiating the rip tides in one place - swimming to stand still while the girls seemed to negotiate this section with ease. All in all we were in the water for over an hour - but the sun was beating down and the water was very warm so this was no great hardship.
The afternoon was Josephs choice. All he wanted to do at Exmouth was swim in the campsite swimming pool and we fobbed him off as we did not have time, so the afternoon was his choice beach (which is 50 metres from the campsite) or pool. Joseph chose the pool and was in the pool playing for more than 2 hours, before we dragged him out (very reluctantly!) to go to the beach to watch the sunset over the ocean (which we did each night as backpackers 20 years ago).
Then tea and bed. The kids love it here - and have been given the choice - either another full day here - or dolphins at Monkey Mia (which is a 400 km detour from the main road. They have chosen the dolphins so we are off tomorrow).
Stayed at Bayview Campsite, Coral Bay
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