Coral Bay (part 4)

Why do we all love Coral Bay so much? Because we feel like we are at home.

Nightly meals shared with the Farabegoli's, mostly at their place, but on this occasion at our van.

When planning this trip we chose to leave the TV at home and limit the children to skype and emails as their only computer usage. They were aware of this plan and, we must say, have embraced it really well, particularly Benji. They are waiting excitedly to return home and watch Foxtel and play the Playstation, oops, to see family and friends of course!!!

After the kids first afternoon at school they were invited to return the following week for more Global Warming indoctrination. Lucky Robbie didn't know about it!! On the left is Havee from Chile, and on the right is Miss Tori. The kids absolutely loved their time here and were bitterly disappointed that they could not continue. Timna even completed some homework that they were set at the 2nd class!!!!

They had to make something practical using recycled materials. This is made from a booklet we had collected from a Visitors Centre earlier on in our travels. 

Not a bad effort. She emailed pictures of her work to her teachers.

Afternoon activities were very varied....

Swimming at the Jetty. This particular afternoon we got to watch a pretty impressive sight. The fishing charter that Rob went out with, on their off days, go commercial fishing selling their catch to the local Co-op in Exmouth or Canarvon. This particular trip they had been out for 3 days and had caught 1,900kgs of fish. We watched them weighing, sorting and packing it all. What a sight. They sell it for $10/kg, not a bad earnings for 3 days work!!!!!!

Many hours were spent by this pool, kids swimming and playing endless games of marco polo and us playing scrabble, reading or chatting to fellow travellers.

The Beach at Coral Bay near sundown. It was such a shame we had to fight the crowds for a spot on the sand!!!!

Looking down on the beach from the lookout.

Another magnificent sunset.

 And equally incredible crescent moon rising over the caravan park.

We decide, that we includes only Rob and Linda, that it is time to move on. We have loved everything, but after 16 days, are ready to get back in the car and continuing exploring. So many things we want to remember about our stay...

• Going out for dinner just the adults, and having the company of some of the locals for the entire evening.
• Our South African neighbour who told us we must go to a place called Gnaraloo.
• Meeting up with Dave from Cape Range, Marg and Phil, Di and Sue and Nadine, Tony and Ruby.
• Locals night at the pub, with Rob helping out guitarist Jo who was struggling with the words to American Pie.
• Rob going out diving for crayfish with Matt and some of his mates.
• Robbie sleeping for the next 3 hours on returning from Crayfishing, absolutely shattered.
• The kids learning at school, that becoming a vegetarian would be one thing they could do to help reduce global warming. Why? Because if you don't eat meat, there will be no need to have the animals and then they won't be able to pass methane into the air???!!???(Cue sound of Robbie exploding!)
• Eating crocodile for the first time. Tastes like chicken! 
• Becoming very used to having collect fresh water from a tap daily, as if this was what we have always done.
• Remembering to keep your mouth closed when showering, as the Artesian Bore water is the saltiest bore water we have come across to date.
• Feeling pretty proud of Benj as he managed to write his speech about "why would he would want to become school leader for 2012" and reading it out to the class and the teachers here as if he was back in Melbourne.
• Seeing how grown up all 3 kids seem to have become in such a short amount of time.
• Nelson, the enormous monitor lizard who lived under one of the cabins. Someone had put a plaque next to his hole.
• The kids new obsessions with Glee and Harry Potter started here.
• Linda's obsession with snorkelling started here.

The list could go on and on and on......