Coral Bay & Cape Range National Park, WA

Coral Bay is an unspoilt remote small tourist town on the Coral Coast of Western Australia. It reminds me of how some coastal towns on the NSW north coast were about 30 years ago- just a couple of shops and 2 caravan parks right on the beach. It’s really lovely and the best thing about it is that Ningaloo Reef is right off the beach so within 5-10 metres of the beach you are swimming amongst coral and beautiful colourful fish. We stayed at Bayview Coral Bay caravan park and after 4 nights of remote camping it was great to have hot water, flushing toilets, a swimming pool, playground and jumping pillow for the kids. Luxury! And we really needed to get some laundry done.

Wildflowers on the side of the road between Karijini and Coral Bay

The beautiful Coral Bay Beach

Sam paddling in the crystal clear water

After our mammoth 700km drive, we treated ourselves to pizza and chips for dinner after watching the sun go down on another day. We were only planning on a 2 night stay but we really loved it here so extended it to 3 nights. The bay is so sheltered and the water is an amazing colour. But nowhere is perfect and at night we discovered the only problem with Coral Bay- wind. Lots of wind. For the first time in over 6 weeks we had to dig the fleeces and warm clothes out because it does get cool at night. It’s been a while since we’ve felt cool. The camper trailer was blowing about, so also for the first time we had to put pegs and ropes to keep us from blowing away.

We went an a 2 hour glass bottom boat/ snorkelling trip that was a lot of fun. The boat doesn’t take you very far as you can see the edge of the reef from shore, a strong swimmer could probably swim to where to boat moored. However with the kids, it was the best option for us and they really enjoyed the glass bottom boat and seeing all the bright fish and coral. The coral isn’t colourful but it still is interesting and the fish make up for the lack of colour in the coral. Our skipper explained why the coral has little colour- the further away from the equator a coral reef is, the harder the algae on the coral has to work to photosynthesise . As Ningaloo is near the Tropic of Capricorn it is a temperate coral reef and the algae has to use all the colours on the spectrum to photosynthesise. When you mix all the colours together you get brown. So there you go- I learn something new every day!! Therefore the closer to the equator you go, the brighter the coral is likely to be.


The boat we went snorkelling from

 

From the glass bottom boat on our snorkelling trip

ignore the reflection of the people above!

 At 3pm every day they do fish feeding in the shallows at Coral Bay. They started doing it officially with proper fish food pellets as people were feeding them anyway with food that wasn't suitable so they turned it into a free attraction and use it to educate people about not feeding the fish other than at this set time. These fish are not shy!

They don't mind getting close to you at all

After a great 3 days at Coral Bay, we headed north to Cape Range National Park via Exmouth. It would have made sense to come here before Coral Bay but our desire  for showers and a laundry meant we had to back track a little bit. Cape Range is really popular for camping. There are lots of different camping spots in Cape Range. Some sites are first in first served but some sites you can book 48 hours in advance. We took this option and booked into Tulki campsite. Again it was really windy but it was also amazingly beautiful and remote. The best thing about this camp area is the other people who are staying there. As there is only 11 sites, it is like a small community. Some people come for up to a month at a time to fish, snorkel and relax. At 5pm everyday, all the ‘residents’ gather at a communal table  for happy hour to talk about their day and discuss where the fish were biting and where they recommend you stay at your next destination. All the best information can be gathered from your fellow travellers. We were the only ‘young ones’ there, the rest were retirees or close to retirees. They loved the girls and we had a great stay. However I was very jealous of their very fancy caravans when the wind started to blow at night!

The highlight of Cape Range for me was Turquoise Bay, where the water is (you guessed it) a brilliant turquoise colour and the coral is right off the beach. They have a bay area that is safe and flat and also a drift snorkel area where the current takes you along over the coral. Within a couple of metres of the shore are the most amazing fish and coral. I have been fortunate enough to do a bit of snorkelling at the Great Barrier Reef and overseas. Those areas were better for colourful coral however it wasn’t easily accessible and you had to do a tour to reach the good spots. Ningaloo is still great snorkelling and the best thing is it is right off the beach and easy to reach for everyone.

Turquoise Bay

Bit crowded!

You can see the waves breaking on the reef in the background.