Denham - Coral Bay

We arrived in Coral Bay before dawn was even thinking of cracking - 3am! Luckily we'd booked a room ahead and had told them we would be arriving late - one poor unfortunate was stuck sleeping outside on a poolside lounge chair - and it's not warm here at night I can tell you... Despite all our good planning, they hadn't seen fit to grant us a blanket, so we had to fall back on the sleeping bags we picked up for the overland track. We're not supposed to be using them in here, but we figure that they can stop us using a sleeping bag by giving us a blanket when we check in. We found out the next morning that we can get one if we leave them a small deposit. Problem solved.

Today we had a quick look around Coral Bay and have found that it's a lovely little place. The whole town seems to consist of a few hotels, camp grounds and little shops huddled up against a beautiful shallow, coral filled bay (hence the name I guess...) with crystal clear water, teeming with little (and some quite big) fish. We managed to get ourselves onto a glass-bottomed boat tour of the bay with some snorkelling thrown in too. It was my first shot at snorkelling, but I figured I'd need some practice for when we get to Exmouth and those whale sharks. Anyway, snorkelling around the bay was wonderful. We got to see plenty of the bay's inhabitants up close - both the coral and the fish. The fish were amazing! There were scoals of tiny silvery fish shimmering through the coral all synchronised together as though they were all part of the same animal. We also encountered all manner of muti-coloured fish, blue, yellow, black & white striped - the variety is incredible. Tomorrow we hope to snorkel with manta rays - some of whom can reach 7 metres long and weigh up to 2 tonnes (so I'm told...).

There have been rumours flying around here that there aren't many whale sharks in the region and that we may not be able to see any... Depending on who you speak to there may/may not be humpback whales, should (or not) be dugongs and there is (or is not) the possibility of seeing "Old Greg" or even a kraken. I guess it's all about who you believe... but we've booked the whale shark tour anyway so we'll see.