Day 61: Exmouth to Coral Bay
Sunrise at Exmouth
It is only a few hours drive to Coral Bay, so we are in no hurry to leave, but are on our way a bit after 9am and first priority is to top up with fuel at the 24hr truck stop just out of town. The price of diesel had jumped to $2.32 per litre from $2.18 two days ago, but it was still a lot cheaper than in Exmouth.
There was a slight diversion about halfway through our drive, to visit Bullara Station, famous for it's Woolshed Cafe scones with jam and cream. There was quite a crowd there when we arrived at around 10.30 am, and just about everyone ordered scones with their tea of coffee.
The very large Woolshed Cafe
Some effort has been made on the decor, both inside and outside
As well as being an operating station, this is a large tourism investment. They have accommodation both in cabins and camping sites. A large cafe, walking trails etc, and it is very professionally run. There were no vacancies for camping sites or cabins, but plenty of cafe customers were happy to tow there vans over a few km of dirt just to enjoy their scones. The home made pies looked pretty good too. Caravan parking space was very full, but we managed to find a spot.
The 5 km diversion of the main road and few km of dirt to enter the station was well worth the effort. It is less than 100km to Coral Bay from here so we will arrive before noon. Coral Bay is a very small settlement with 2 caravan parks and pretty much everything you need within walking distance of those parks. We are staying at the Ningaloo Coral Bay Bayview Caravan Park.
It is another large park with almost 300 sites, and they are tight
Home away from home
We had to get our neighbour to move his car on the site opposite us to give us enough swing room to get into our site, as the roads are very narrow.
In and settled
It is nice not to be on red dirt that is like concrete to hammer tent pegs into, the sandy base here is a lot more acceptable. There were a few instructions from the reception which were were not expecting, the main one being do not drink the water, nor should you connect it to your van, as it will most likely damage the caravans plumbing. There are taps scattered through the park for drinking water, and a bay where you can fill your tanks on departure.
There was quite a bit of mucking around unhitching the van and getting it level, so by the time all was settled, we went across the road to the bakery and had a toasted focaccia for lunch.
A wander down to the bay now seems in order, and it is not far at all away. This really is a pretty location with the white sand and clear blue water exactly what we expected. There are plenty of people on the beach and in the water.
The seagulls like it here as well
A reef tour boat returning from their tour
The snorkelling further south from the bay is supposed to be very good, and there are reputedly a couple of good land based fishing spots which will be tested out over the next few days.
Across the road from the caravan park is a small shopping centre with a Foodworks store that sells everything from groceries, to fishing tackle, camping gear, snorkelling equipment etc. There are also a number of booking offices for reef tours etc. Some days ago I did try to book a deep sea fishing charter, but it was booked out for all of July as there is only one charter operator left here now.
Next door to the shopping centre is a pretty flash Tavern called Bill's Bar, which also has a bottle shop.
The restaurant at our park is also licensed and have Stone and Wood on tap !
Tonight we have decided to have fish for dinner, taking advantage of the free blue lined emperor kindly given to us by some young fishermen and women at the fish cleaning table at Exmouth marina. It was a great meal, with fish this fresh, even though we had the fillets in the freezer for a couple of days, how could you go wrong. Great inspiration to keep trying to get some fish up here.
Hopefully tomorrow we will get nice weather and can snorkel and fish.
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