The first day in Coral Bay

After our stay in Cape Range Nationalpark and one night in Exmouth, we drove on to Coral Bay. There we realized very quickly how small this place is. There were two large campgrounds that already took up half of the town. A hostel, a few cafes, a small supermarket and of course the beach.

First we went to the beach and were fascinated by how beautifully turquoise the water is here. In Coral Bay it was also very windy again, which made it very fresh. However, in a place as beautiful as Coral Bay, we could see past that.

After we we have been on the beach, we first went to the supermarket. The supermarket was extremely overpriced and we didn’t have a large selection. So we roamed the aisles for quite a while, trying to find cheap groceries that we could use to cook dinner.

After finally finding something, we drove to the campground. Since we had two campsites to choose from, we ultimately chose the campsite that was a little emptier. In the kitchen we started preparing dinner.

Originally we had planned to take the ready cooked meal to the beach to have dinner there at sunset. However, we were not ready in time for sunset, which is why we ate in the kitchen at the campground and then drove to the beach. After the meal we drove to the Coral Bay boat harbor and parked our car there. We got there just in time to catch the last bit of sunset.

A day in Coral Bay

The next day we had planned to continue towards Carnarvon in the afternoon. After we were told that here on the beach, similar to the Cape Range National Park, you wouldn’t see much of the reef, I decided to do a snorkeling tour beforehand. This should go further out to the sea.

So after breakfast we drove to the beach and waited there for my tour to start. However, at that time I received an email that the tour could not take place that day.

But since I really wanted to see the reef while I’m there, I booked the same tour for the next day. So we had to extend another night at the campsite. We then spent the afternoon there, until we drove back to the supermarket later. There we tried again to put together a dinner as cheaply as possible.

Dinner with a view

We then started to prepare our food in the camp kitchen. After everything was prepared, we packed our dinner in the car and drove to the beach. We ate there with a view of the sea and the sunset.

After dinner the sun had not quite set. So we hurried to pack everything back into the car and then ran up the next dune to watch the sun just setting. We also found a place sheltered from the wind on a rock. From there we then observed how the sky became darker and darker and finally only the bright full moon shone.

Since it was getting a bit chilly, we went back to the car and drove back to the boat harbor like the evening before. There we enjoyed the view of the dark water.

Snorkeling at the Ningaloo Reef

The next morning we first packed our tents together. Then we had breakfast in the camp kitchen and then drove back to the beach. Before my snorkeling tour started we went to the supermarket to buy something for dinner. After all, we wanted to head straight to Carnarvon after the tour.

In the afternoon I finally went to the boat. This was a glass-bottomed boat, so that we could see the reef while driving across the sea from the boat. I couldn’t see many different animals but the reef looked very impressive from the boat.

Arriving at the snorkeling spot, everyone jumped straight into the water. The underwater world was very impressive. Also like on the boat I could see different corals and some colorful fish but again no turtles. After about 20 minutes everyone climbed out of the water onto the boat and we continued to the next snorkeling spot.

Freezing at the sea

Because it was so windy and I was now wet, it was very cold on the boat. The water temperatures were pleasant, but I was still very cold at the second snorkeling spot. That’s why I climbed out of the water very quickly and was happy when we finally went back to the beach. The second snorkeling spot was also very nice, but didn’t differ much from our first spot.

Fortunately, Mathis picked me up right away on the beach and I jumped straight into the hot shower from the campground. I really enjoyed the warm water after I was so cold.

After the shower we went out of Coral Bay to the Blow Holes. We wanted to go there in the late afternoon because we didn’t want to spend another night at the expensive campground in Coral Bay.

Our first Kangaroo Accident

The night drive to the blowholes was very exciting. As soon as it finally got dark we couldn’t drive faster than 40 – 50 km/h because kangaroos and rabbits kept running in front of the car. Even though we were incredibly careful, we couldn’t avoid a kangaroo running into the back of our car. Of course we stopped immediately, but the kangaroo was already gone. We couldn’t see anything on the car either, which is why we assume that it wasn’t that bad for the kangaroo.

We arrived at our campsite near the Blowholes late in the evening. The campsite was fortunately sheltered from the wind, even it was very close to the beach.

As soon as we arrived, we set up the tents and then cooked something to eat. After dinner we went to sleep.

The spectacular blowholes

In the morning we slept in and packed our things as soon as we got up. But before we made our way towards Carnarvon, we were at the beach and the blowholes. These are holes in the rock right by the water. If a wave comes, the water flows straight up through the holes. We found these blowholes very spectacular.

We then drove on to Carnarvon. Carnarvon wasn’t particularly impressive, but we had to shop there. In Carnarvon we then made a huge bulk purchase for the coming weeks, since the only cheap supermarket was in Carnarvon to Gerolton.

After our shopping we left Carnarvon in the afternoon. At 4.30 pm we wanted to drive the 350 kilometers to Monkey Mia. When it got dark we had to drive pretty slowly like the day before because there were always kangaroos and rabbits on the road in front of us. Since we could only drive so slowly, we arrived at the campground in Monkey Mia at 11 pm.

If you would like to know what we experienced during our time in Monkey Mia. Please read my next blog post Spending one week in Monkey Mia – Australia Travel Diary.