Coral Bay

Coral Bay is a little piece of paradise flippin' miles away only 6 hours drive from TP. We went for the long weekend (Labour Day, since you ask).
Coral Bay's attraction is the proximity of the Ningaloo Reef to shore; you can literally walk out 20 metres, stick your head under water and greet a turtle. The sea is as clear as glass and, at this time of year, as warm as a mug of tea. The area is largely unspoilt and undeveloped and close enough to Tompers that we saw a familiar face everywhere we went!

It's a tough gig

F & E at the lagoon

Tiger sharks...do your worst!!

Much snorkeling fun was had by 3 members of the family. Freya, as I have previously documented, is half-fish, and yet has a profound fear of sub-aquatic wildlife. I will refrain from describing her fear as irrational since a fella got munched by a tiger shark in Coral Bay not so long ago and a 300kg Queensland groper (big fish!) currently menaces the jetty where the dive boats dock. Here's some footage I pilfered from YouTube...

Esther is a novice snorkeler but she had the very experienced Dr S Giles as a buddy and was soon showing typical Esther enthusiasm for her new hobby.

Ready to snorkel?

...and away they go

It was great to see Sarah again and good to hear that she is getting a well earned rest in her latest locum post after her hellish turn at TP. You can read Sarah's take on CB here, she has some excellent writing on Tompers too!
Our camping buddies for the CB trip were Jacinta and Matt, and very affable camping buddies they were too. They joined the Jonkers on a sunset quad bike ride along the beaches and through the dunes.

Matt and Jacinta; Freya and Esther both manage a photo bomb!

Indeed the quad bike ride was voted holiday highlight by both F & E. Freya will argue that she got the best deal because she got to ride pillion with Ade while Esther had to make do with me; although, in my defense, I did give the bike some welly coming down a huge sand-dune.

Freya to Darcy: Mine's bigger than yours!

Coral Bay sunset

I loved the quad bikes too but for me the holiday-best-bit was the glass bottom boat/snorkel trip that we did. The reef is amazingly beautiful, and I swam with (reef) sharks!

Wait a minute...is that a manta ray?...

...no, it's just Ade, entertaining child left on boat!

Me and my handsome husband

Girls steered us home

I think we'll come back.