Coral Bay to Tom Price

We stayed four nights in Coral Bay and had our first glimpse of the Ningaloo Reef.  Coral Bay is a small town with two big caravan parks and we wouldn't recommend staying during school holidays as it was very busy and loud. Flynn did however join in the caravan park school holiday bike ride and thought it was great with all the big kids!  (oops- all the photos looks like he is going the wrong way?)  The beach is really nice, its a big lagoon surrounded by reef, so is very protected and great for kids.  There are large spangled emperor fish that are fed each day off the beach, and you stand in the water to watch them.  They swim around your feet and go into a bit of a frenzy when the food arrives- brushing against your legs; not the most pleasant experience!  We took the boys in a glass bottom boat and saw heaps of fish and coral and had a glimpse of a very fast moving turtle.  The boys were really interested in fish and coral for ages.  We found a quieter beach outside of coral bay and went fishing in the afternoons.  Nick didn't have much luck here catching fish, but he did catch the most enormous mussel attached to seaweed and coral.  It was so big that it could have fed us all, but we weren't sure what we would do with it, so threw it back.

Next stop was Cape Range National Park, near Exmouth.  We booked for 5 nights and decided to stay an extra three as it was so great.  Cape Range is also part of the Ningaloo Reef, and the wildlife here was amazing.  We snorkeled each day at Turquoise Bay where we saw many different tropical looking fish, coral, starfish, stingrays, sea cucumbers, and lots of other things that we didn't know what they were!  We both also saw reef sharks, which was not at all what I wanted to see and sent me swimming back to shore pretty quick.

Yardie Creek Gorge, Cape Range NP

Kyle, Dylan and Greg

Turquoise Bay

Sturt Desert Peas

Flynn has his own rod!

Bath time for the boys

We met another couple, Greg and Ruth with two boys Dylan and Kyle who are in primary school.  Dylan and Flynn hit it off and played non stop for about 2 days until they had to leave.  Poor Flynn was very upset.  Nick went fishing for a day with the boys and took Flynn so Aidan and I had a lovely time relaxing and reading on the beach (he ate sand).
We saw some great things off the beach here- jumping fish, a turtle popped its little head up to watch us while we were swimming one day, blue swimmer crabs on the rocks and a pointed nose shark in the shallows (not sure if that is the technical name).  The fish swim in the shallows here too, they seem inquisitive, and Aidan loved seeing the fish.
The boys seem to have come along in the last few weeks, with Flynn talking in sentences and singing his favourite song, and Aidan trying to stand.  Flynns favourite song is one that his Dad made up, which goes 'I like singing in the morning, I like singing in the day, I like singing in the morning, sing sing away'.  Flynn sings it very loud and as he got a good response from a lovely couple, Graham and Edith that we were camped with, I'm afraid that we are stuck with it for a while!
Reluctantly it was time to leave Cape Range, with no food left, little water and in need of a hot shower, we hit the road to Tom Price.  Its been a long two days of travel.  The scenery has changed a lot and we are seeing gorgeous reds in the rocky landscape, and the wildflowers and flowering grasses are spectacular.  There are patches that look like a blanket of purple amongst the red, and a white grass that also contrasts the red beautifully.  We stayed over night at a camp ground and met Michael and June again, who saved us a spot.  The boys discovered the red dirt and before we knew it, it was everywhere!

Aidan sleeping in the car....aaahhhhh!

Playing in the dirt

We arrived in Tom Price today and it was a rush to shower all of us, wash heaps of clothes, mop up the spilt honey and clean out the red dirt.  We treated ourselves to dinner out at a sort of cafeteria that feeds the Rio Tinto miners, but is also open to the public; pretty good food and busy with lots of miners and their families having dinner.
Tomorrow we are off to Karijini for a week and looking forward to seeing some gorges and swimming in their pools.