Monday 13Th we moved the 150 K's to Coral Bay fully expecting to have trouble finding a site in one of the two caravan parks. We were happy to find a spot at the Bay side Park which has small and very sandy sites. We have been very lucky when it comes to getting sites, I think that getting away early and arriving before noon has a lot to do with getting a good site, the early bird syndrome works. We made contact with Tony Bullivant and Elaine on arrival at the Park, it was good to catch up with them again, and compare experiences. Coral Bay is at the Southern end of the Ningaloo Marine Park, it is a beautiful sandy bay with a coral reef just meters off the waterline. We took our swimming goggles and went for a swim. The coral is not like the reefs in Cairns, it is hard coral and has distinctive shapes, even just swimming with goggles we saw heaps of fish, both small and large. I had difficulty swimming, I am finding that my shoulder gives me a lot of pain if I strain it and as a result I am hesitant to give it any reason to hurt me, so I do not swim as well as I used to. Judy booked us on a submarine style glass boat for the next day, it was a really good way to see the reef and the fish. We shared then trip with about 20 other people and a young lady with a lovely accent, I cracked up when a rather stupid old man asked her if she had picked up her Irish accent in America, and she replied no it was in Scotland actually.
This trip was well worth the money ($43) , we found it totally relaxing and very beautiful, the boat is designed so that you sit and look out at an angle of 45 degrees and look at the sights. The crew feed the fish and as a result they follow the boat looking back through the windows at us the people. The biggest of these fish is the "Spangled Emperor" these are very curious fish that swim beside you as you swim off the beach. Our trip included a snorkel with equipment provided, we found this to be not so good because the water temperature was quite cold. I also find the water in this area to be very salty, sounds ridiculous but it is saltier than the coastal area that we are used to, and after a couple of accidental mouth fulls I returned to the boat and watched out the windows, it was a lot easier.
In the afternoon the staff feed the fish along the beach, the fish seem to know when the feeding is about to happen and gather, they swim between peoples legs and go into a frenzy when fed. The Spangled Emperor's dominate but parrot and other fish are also around.
We went for a long walk along the beach the next morning and found a snorkel mask, so Judy went and purchased a snorkel and noodle and spent a pleasant afternoon over the reef while I sat around typing a blog.
We tracked Greg and Soph Pinner down for a happy hour later that afternoon, Greg had booked a fishing trip for the next day and there had been a couple of Black Marlin caught earlier today, so we have our fingers crossed for Greg to catch a big one tomorrow.
We will be moving on to Carnarvon in the morning, so its a quiet night.
Southwards 240 K's to Carnarvon, an oasis in the desert, this highly productive area grows heaps of fruit and veggies by pumping water out of a dried up river. The river flows for about 8 weeks during a wet year, although it does not always rain every year, as was the case last year. There is a large aquifer under the dry river which fills during a wet year and the farmers buy water from this source, they are strictly regulated by the water authority to protect the water source. The supply of fruit and veggies is huge and the price attractive, this is a great place to restock the larder.
Carnarvon is a great town it is well laid out and has a good community feel about it, people are friendly and there is a positive spirit to the place. Judy reckoned we needed to get some exercise so we decided to go for a walk the next morning, we walked from the town to the jetty and back a distance of about 6 k's, it took us the rest of the day to get over it. However after lunch we found enough energy to have a bowl on the caravan parks bowling green. We both went really well considering how long it was since we had bowled. It was later that night that my shoulder caused me to regret bowling, I think that there will be no more bowling until I get the shoulder fixed.
Friday night we watched Collingwood beat Geelong and proceed to the grand final. I am elated but a little sad for Geelong as I feel that this is the end of their power era and they might have to rebuild for a while. Collingwood still have the job in front of them but we can only hope that this will be our year.
We made contact with Pat and Pete from Melb who were staying at a park down the street. We are both heading towards Perth and are running to a similar time schedule, so its likely we will come across each other often. We joined them for a trip to the Quobba Blowholes about 50 K 's away. We had a picnic lunch and walked a beach looking for shells for the grand kids and later that night joined them for dinner and drinks which was a great night.
We visited a local farm called "Bumbaks" for a tour. We found the tour to be very interesting and informative and could not help admiring the local farmers for their persistence in developing new farming techniques to cope with growing with minimum water and value adding to their produce. They grow table grapes, watermelons, mangoes and bananas and they produce 80 different products such as jams and sauces and spices. The tour guide is the wife of one of the sons and is a very good guide, it was interesting that this 32 hectare farm supports four family's, one can only admire these hard working happy people.
We visited other farms and bought lots of fresh tomatoes,capsicums etc, we also bought mango sides (frozen because they are out of season at present) and visited the local seafood outlet for prawns and sand crabs. All were delicious and really good value for money.
The last full day we visited the aboriginal culture center for lunch, with Pete and Pat and all enjoyed a beaut lunch cooked and served by country people who are training in the hospitality industry. All in all we really enjoyed our visit to Carnarvon and were sorry to be moving on but looking forward to new challenges at Denham and Monkey Mia.
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