Day 35 Coral Bay - 3/4/11

I got up early today (5:30am) and went for a walk along the beach to the end of the point.  It took me over two hours!  I went past the shark nursery, saw a crab, lots of shells and corals and the biggest surprise of all - a naked man!  As I was getting near the point, I saw someone come out from the opposite direction.  As they got closer, I thought to myself, I don't think he has any clothes on - and he didn't!  I didn't know what to do but decided to  keep going and when I got nearer I just said "good morning" and tried not to let my eyes wander.  He apologised and said he normally had the beach to himself at that time of the morning but didn't try to cover himself.  He walked on the way I had come and I continued to the point.  I turned around to come back and noticed that he was coming back as well so we had to meet again.  I said what a beautiful place and he offered me a lift back.  I thanked him but said I needed the exercise and got away as quickly as I could.  Peter thought it was very funny.

Looking back to Coral Bay on my walk before the sun came up 

Looking forward to the point that I was walking to 

I met this crab on the way 

A piece of coral washed up on the beach 

Some shells - you can't take anything away as it is a marine sanctuary

After breakfast we went for a drive around Coral Bay which isn't very big.  There is a wind farm with 3 windmills, an airstrip for small planes, the Ningaloo Resort, two caravan parks, a backpacker hostel and some shops.  There is a residential area as well but seems to be mainly for those that work there.  We did some off road driving and got to a beach where the turtles nest.  You can only see the hatchlings at night so we just enjoyed the glorious beach. 

The lovely clear waters 

A view of the lagoon at Coral Bay - the darker area is the reef 

You can see the waves breaking on the outer reef

I had another snorkel and got to see more of the coral, some of which is brilliant blue.  We also went to the fish feeding again and got to feed the fish as well.  It really draws the crowds and everyone is amazed at how big the fish are.

The black dot on the start of the darker water is me snorkelling

We had intially booked for two nights but have decided to stay another night and do a coral viewing and snorkelling trip tomorrow.

cheers
Pete and Roz