From Perth to Coral Bay

On Monday July 7 I picked up a very tired Wendy Wolfe from the Perth Airport at 1;30. Lucky Wendy's flight had arrived 30 minutes early so she spent the time trying to find a coffee. Unfortunately, she had no Australian currency and they wouldn't process a credit card transaction for less than $10 so she had no coffee until we found each other.

The trip North to Geraldton took about 4.5 hours and was uneventful. The drive was very green due to the rain that we have received. Wendy was very impressed. She was exhausted by the time she reached my house after traveling for around 36 hours and hit the bed as soon as possible.

On Tuesday we walked and drove around Geraldton seeing the Museum, the "city center", my workplace, the Catholic cathedral, the ocean and the lighthouse. After that we bought some food for our adventures up North and Wendy headed to bed.

We left on Wednesday morning around 7:45am and drove north. The drive was much greener than I have ever seen it. We saw several water holes on the way. Unfortunately, the only kangaroos we saw were dead on the side of the road. We did see a big eagle and several other bird species. We arrived in Coral Bay at 3:30PM just in time for the fish feeding. It was as impressive as I remember it.  

We checked in and watched the sunset. Wendy had an early night and I bumped into a few friends from Geraldton. We had a beer together.

Wednesday morning started out quite cool. I was wearing flannel pj bottoms, a fleece and a hat. I was wondering if I would be able to hit the water. Fortunately, it warmed up very quickly and it turned into a calm beautiful day. Wendy and I each bought a rashie to reduce the chance of sunburn and we hit the water for a snorkel and it was incredible as usual. Wendy lucked out and saw a turtle. I saw lots of great coral and fish. I was so cold and shriveled when I got out that I couldn't contemplate another snorkel for a couple of hours. After a hummus sandwich or two I was ready to give it a go again. The second snorkel was not as magnificent due to the wind and tide coming in and reducing the visibility but it was still great. I happened upon a blue spotted ray.  

Later we went for a walk up the beach and saw another ray. Wendy stayed later and took a few sunset photos. I returned to the Ningaloo Club and downloaded my digital photos. For dinner we had a stir fry of chili tofu, zucchini, carrot, spinach (and for Wendy only red pepper) with cous cous. It seemed like the best thing that I have eaten in a long, long time.

Off to bed as we have an early morning tomorrow when we head up to Exmouth and Turquoise Bay.