DAY 159 - 26/07/2010 - Coral Bay, WA

Today started off cool and breezey but came good by lunchtime.

I spent most of the day at the beach with Taylah and Lilly my little beach bums.

Not a cloud in sight

What a beautiful beach!

Alicia and Waz stay back at the caravan. They don't feel like going to the beach today.

Taylah and Lilly play in the sand and are in and out of the water. I enjoy sunbaking and read my book.

When we've had enough of the beach we head back to the van to find Waz and Alicia playing Yahtzee.

Feeling a little pekish and we've yet to try the much bragged about pies from the local bakery. The bakery is only a short walk from where we are staying so we decided to walk there. Our neighbours, Phil and Judy from Exhibition Park in Canberra used to live and own the local Post Office and Newsagency in Coral Bay. They gave us plenty of do's and contacts in Coral Bay and they were the ones who told us that Wazza's pies here were a must try for any visitor.

The bakery is packed with people and everything looks so good. We bought some pies and jam donuts. The pepper pie was our favourite and absolutely delicious and so were the jam donuts which oozed jam.

Walking back from the bakery

Lilly resting her little legs.

When we return home Lilly and Taylah have a play with the little neighbour, Noah. He is almost 2 years old and very cute. They pass the time kicking a soccer ball to one another. Its not very often Lilly comes across kids her age so she really enjoys playing with Noah. Noah and his extended family are from France and are in Australia for a 6 week holiday. They are travelling in motorhomes and plan on seeing the whole of the west coast. Years ago they had done the east coast of Australia and have always wanted to return to do the west coast.

Tonight we pack all our outside things ready for our departure tomorrow morning. Its a cool night and the uggy's are out.

DAY 158 - 25/07/2010 - Coral Bay, WA

Beach day all day today. The nights here have been coolish but the days have been great. It is so pretty here.

Coral Bay

Lounging about

Lilly and I walk up to a lookout behind us to take some great photos and enjoy the scenery.

We all had a snorkle in amongst the reef. The coral here is absolutely huge and so alive.

Warren went out snorkling first while the girls played in the sand and I baked. He came across a large sea turtle and swam with it for ages. After he told us this we were so envious of his experience and couldn't wait to get out there ourselves and hopefully see a turtle.

We all love burying Lilly. Its the only thing that keeps her still.

When Alicia and I went out for a snorkle, we also managed to spot and swim with a large sea turtle. What an amazing experience for us to share together. One I never expected to encounter and one I won't forget. We followed behind him and he wasn't fussed at all. He casually swam along and would munch on coral every now and again.

We were out for quite some time looking around and enjoying the underwater jungle when I thought I better look up and see where we are. Suddenly the people on the beach looked so small and right then I thought we could quite easily come across a Reef shark here and the coral was so dence looking and we felt really alone. We were at least 200m from the shoreline. We high tailed it out of there and didn't stop until we hit the shallow water.

Another great day in Coral Bay!

The moon was so bright and flawless against the purple sky

DAY 157 - 24/07/2010 - Exmouth, WA & Coral Bay, WA

I have been aniticipating my visit to Coral Bay and we are finally here. Woohoo. Heard so many great things about this place.

Not having booked accommodation was a big no no but luckily we got a van site at the Peoples Park Caravan Park which is directly across the road from the beach. SNAP THAT UP! We are here for 3 days of bliss. The weather forecast is great which is all we can possibly ask for.

Home Sweet Home.....for the next 3 days.

Coral Bay is a very small beachy town and its gorgeous. Apparently the bakery has the best pies around so thats definately on our list of things to do here.

Coral Bay is still on the Ningaloo Reef so there is plenty of snorkling opportunities here.

We quickly set up camp and then head straight to the beach. Its low tide so we thought we would save the snorkling till tomorrow and plan to get here at high tide.

We strolled along the beach instead and enjoyed the scenery. The water is a gorgeous colour but sorry Turquoise Bay is still number 1.

Lilly chasing seagulls

The girls hand fed these huge snapper fish that swim right up to the shoreline. They practically jump out of the water to get food out of their hands. Lilly was both intrigued and a little freaked out by these fish.

We spent the rest of the afternoon making lounge chairs out of sand and resting on the beach.

Heading back to camp

Tonight we enjoyed some yummy fish and chips for dinner. We are on a mission on trying the fish and chips from most places we stay at. So far Coffs Harbour is in the lead and Darwin Wharf runs a close second.