Days 67 – 69 (Sun 7/11 – Tues 9/11) – Coral Bay

Finally departed Cape Range and Exmouth Sunday morning (around 11 am and quite hot and bothered by then) and set off for Coral Bay. Ally & Jeff planned to stay one more day but move to Exmouth for the night and then join us in Coral Bay the next day.
Coral Bay strikes you as the quintessential tourist centre. The town consists of two caravan parks, the Ningaloo Reef Resort and several small shopping centres (relatively minimal supermarket supplies). Apart from that there are millions (slight exaggeration) of tour operators, offering everything from glass bottom boat viewing, to quad biking to snorkel spots, kayaking and dive and snorkel cruises to view various types of wildlife, depending on you interest and budget. Weren’t sure what to try after our disappointing snorkel cruise in Exmouth so procrastinated with domestic tasks like laundry and board repair (Chris had acquired some fibreglass and araldyte in Exmouth and was ready to make a mess) until our partners in crime showed up next day. Next afternoon went to view the reef shark nursery up the beach in Skeleton Bay (after booking a half day manta ray tour for the following day) and independently snorkelling off the beach in Paradise Bay late the next afternoon. Although the expectation was that it would be very similar to Exmouth, the coral surprised us. Great gardens of corals of different shapes and sizes – plates, staghorns, cabbage shaped coral – looked a bit like either an English cottage garden, or what I imagine the Hanging Gardens of Babylon might have looked like. Several blue spotted rays, lots of schools of brightly coloured fish and the usual variety of tropical reef life abounded.
Nice to have the civilisation of fresh water showers on tap again but the park was busy and noisy compared to the quiet of Cape Range.
Went out on our manta ray tour with Coral Bay Adventures. Great crew (Stuey, Jud and Lucy) and great day. Snorkelled two great sites and saw lots of fish and fantastic coral. Sting rays, damsel fish, bannerfish, parrot fish, wrasses, butterfly fish and on and on! Reef sharks on our second snorkel and turtles poking their heads up all over the place. Had the privilege of snorkelling with a manta ray. The majestic creature we swam with was barrel rolling to feed and was significantly more graceful in the water than we were.
Got back from our cruise a bit before 3 pm, picked up our CD of photos (4 way share) and set off in the hope of making Carnarvon for the night by a reasonable hour, on the way to Denham. May also get my glasses repaired in Carnarvon before we leave (yes our next minor disaster, can’t go from day to day without something livening things up!).