Coral Bay

Happy 4th Birthday Matthew! Matt celebrated his birthday (8th June) in style at the cruisy & very popular holiday village of Coral Bay, which is still part of the Ningaloo Reef. Matt received some great presents in the morning but was adamant that he does not turn 4 until he has his birthday cake (put together with mud cake slices).

We wanted to take Matt on a quad bike ride for his birthday; however he has to be 5, so at least a free ride on the quad bike around the front of the park satisfied his curiosity. We also went for a walk around the bay, enjoyed morning tea at the bakery, had a kayak, and went snorkelling. To top it off we had a pub dinner with some friends we had met from Exmouth. Not a bad way to spend your birthday hey Matt!

I wonder what it is?

Matt's makeshift birthday cake (could not buy a real cake) - now I am 4!

I am under this big, heavy red helmut

The beautiful Coral Bay - over the road from our caravan park

Darren & Hayley were first up for their 2 hour ride on the quad bikes. We travelled up and down some steep, soft & corrugated sand tracks and along the beach to reach the Five Fingers Reef and Turtle Cliffs (great spot to see turtles and sting rays). I would have to say it has been one of our real highlights of our trip. I want one of these bikes!

A view of the reef from our quad bike

Cool bikers!

I will show you how it's done!

Hayley at the Turtle Cliffs

A lot steeper than it looks - heaps of fun

Michelle & Amy did the 2.5 hour sunset trip on the quad bikes, which included a bit of snorkelling. They travelled north to the Lagoon and Oyster Bridge. Michelle thinks she is better than me on the bikes, but I think she is dreaming. They both came back from their ride all pumped up & excited.

Amy loved it (as a passenger of course) - she looks so small on the bike

Watch how fast I can go - must be faster than Darren!

The Lagoon

Another spectacular sunset from the quad bike

The next day we decided to return to the places we went on our quad bikes in the Prado. With low tyre pressures and low range we covered most of the same tracks, but it was not the same feel as flying around on a quad bike. The kids had an opportunity to explore the beach and run down some steep tracks, which they enjoyed. The day was quite over cast and windy, but still warm.

With the wind, we can fly

I wish all roads had this view

Hang on!

Flying down the steep hills with Amy about to headplant

Fish feeding back at the Bay

On our return back to the caravan park we were advised by the Park Manager to secure everything and pull down your awnings, as they were expecting gale force winds well over 100km/hr. It was a real site at the park watching all the preparation for the approaching storm. As it turns out the winds weren’t too bad, but the intense rain turned the caravan park streets into rivers and some had their annexes flooded out. We were fine. We had only seen 2 days of rain in about 3 months - very lucky.


Just arrived at Carnarvon. We finally have phone and internet reception again after almost 2 weeks without it.