Coral Bay (part 2)

Coral Bay is proving to be one of our most loved destinations. Our morning routine of snorkelling, breakfast and journal writing also includes a visit to reception every other day to pay for  2 more days!!! This place is really starting to feel like home, with the added bonus of catching up with friends we spent some great times with in Broome and Exmouth. All of this is making writing the  the posts for Coral Bay a little tricky. We did so much, yet we did so little, we made great friends and experienced an almost strange familiarity and routine of being at home. We felt like locals, and were often treated like such. We all fitted in so well.  I guess the best way to describe this town is like a kibbutz.

 About 10 of the school age children who live in Coral Bay attend Exmouth Primary School ( 150km one way trip) the remaining kids, of which there are currently around 6, are home schooled with School of the Air. Jack, Adam and Leila have been attending the School for Air classroom once a week, and our kids were invited to join them one afternoon during a special incursion to learn about Global Warming....thank goodness Robbie was not there!!!! He was out fishing......

Leaving the jetty for a whole day of fishing with SeaForce fishing Charters.

Dane preparing all the bait.

Exiting through the south break in the reef.

An enormous Mahi Mahi, dolphin fish!!!!! Dinner was awesome!

A few days later we take a drive down to Mauds Landing to have a swim and try some land based fishing.

One of the kids favourite spots to chill out, now shared with new friends.

Mandy and Rob, who is on his tippy toes for this picture!

Just another beautiful sunset!!

John, Fab's boss, and his dog Lana joined us at dusk.

Cool dudes just hanging out.

 Off for a walk to the shark nursery, a sanctuary zone within the reef. For some reason, the rangers noticed that many baby sharks were coming into this little lagoon, possibly for protection from predators.  

A blue spotted ray swimming in the shallow waters as  we wander past on the way around.

Mimi spirits!

It was too windy and the water chopped up for us to see any sharks, but that did not matter. With hundreds of birds to chase we were otherwise preoccupied.

Almost back home!

The Farabegoli's home away from home. Their home is the burgundy striped van to the right of the shelter, but whilst they are staying here and working this is their abode. Many many hours were spent here dancing, talking , playing games, and eating dinner. We ate together almost every night which became a wonderful time for the young and old. We would pool together all the food, so it felt like we were sitting down to a feast. It certainly made preparing dinner a lot more fun.

 Some of the nightly activities .

With the kids spending so much time with each other, we were preparing ourselves for the moment that everything would turn sour. We kept waiting and waiting.....but it did not seem to happen. All 6 played together, but they would also pair off, and what we noticed was their grouping started to change, this was what was obviously helping to keep them all sane. It is about this time that the kids have decided that we should stay permanently in Coral Bay. They have a plan. We are told by the kids, that they are looking for a mature aged couple to manage the supermarket and they think we will be perfect. (Us mature???lol) We are also told that they will be happy to attend the School of the Air Classroom. So it is all sorted!!! We must honestly admit, that it was around this time that we did seriously consider this plan, well not exactly as the kids had planned out, and we spent many nights discussing this with Mandy ( They have been on the road since Jan 2010!!!). We had many reasons why we thought we could not do it and at one point  Mandy said "anything is possible if you really want to do it"......and that is when we both realised that as much as we do not want this dream to end, we actually do want to come home and be back with our family and friends. We felt a sense of relief when we came to this realisation but the kids, on the other hand, went into a state of panic!!!!