For anyone making the trek up the Coral Coast of Western Australia, it's easy to bypass the little turn off to Coral Bay and continue on the extra 155km to Exmouth. But this would be a big mistake. Huge! Coral Bay is the southern gateway to the world renowned Ningaloo Reef and it's a little slice of paradise.
I'm not sure if you could call Coral Bay a town. The whole place consists of two caravan parks, a resort, a pub and a tiny shopping centre with an IGA and a dive shop. There are a few houses nestled in the sand dunes but this whole place is strictly monitored by the government, and you can only live in Coral Bay at one of the few houses if you work in Coral Bay. You can never buy your own home in the town either - they are all on 99 year leases to prevent further development. So basically, there's no retirees, just a big tourism trade which sees both caravan parks jam pack full and weddings and things held at the resort (there was one on when we arrived).
But the very best thing about Coral Bay, is that the Ningaloo coral reef is just metres from the pristine white shores, bringing the amazing underwater world into easy reach of even the most inexperienced snorkelers.
The reef at Ningaloo is widely described as ten times better than the Great Barrier Reef and you really can walk up to your waist in water (which is a beautiful 26 degrees in temperature), put your head down with your snorkel on and see sea turtles, sting rays, a huge range of tropical fish, colourful coral, the odd reef shark and the enormous snapper that this place has become renown for.
Because much of the reef and ocean front in Coral Bay is a sanctuary zone, you can't fish in the area and this has lead to a really friendly bunch of norwest snapper making these sandy shores their home. Every day at 3:30pm, you can feed the snapper and it really is a fantastic experience. They'll eat the fish food right out of your hand and rub up and down on your legs like a puppy dog. And they have the most friendly, lovable faces and look you straight in the eye as they splash around your feet. But I couldn't help but notice the drool on the lips of a lot of the people feeding these magnificent fish, and the thought too, did cross my mind as to what a lovely dinner one of these guys would make!
A few tips and suggestions for your next stay at Coral Bay:
- The place has no town water and this means after a lovely day swimming in the ocean, you can enjoy a bore water shower in the caravan toilet blocks, with the water smelling something like a black sand mine and almost as salty as the ocean itself. Gross. We found a dip in the salt water pool to be more refreshing!
-Bring your own snorkeling gear with you. It's sooooo much cheaper to buy some flippers and mask at KMART in Perth, than at the super dopper expensive dive shops in town.
-Fill up with petrol before you arrive, as we paid $1.89 to get us to Exmouth.
-Bring bottles of aeroguard and some mozzie coils as the sand flies, normal flies and mozzies are really, really friendly.
-If you're keen to do a glass bottom boat cruise, do it here instead of Exmouth as it's cheaper and you see the same things on the reef, but if it's whale sharks you're after, wait until you hit Exmouth as there are four times as many tour operators and the prices drop by around $60 per person.
-If you can't afford the $35 for a powered site, join the flocks of other Wicked vans and hire motorhomes on the beach foreshore carpark, all sleeping under the STRICTLY NO CAMPING signs.
Yours in the great outdoors,
Odette
No comments:
Post a Comment