Well hello there; running behind again because I have been slack in getting this and several other posts done. It is embarrassing to say but we are now in Esperance and I am still doing this blog on the north coast of W.A, very lazy on my part but time doesn't matter too much although I would be good to catch up to a point a little bit closer than I am now.
CORAL BAY
This is a must see place and in my opinion should be on everyone's list of key places to visit; it is not cheap here for anything so if you plan to stay several days make sure you are stocked up, as an example 2lt of milk was $5.25 so if you are planning to buy some meat for a roast dinner locally you may want to consider putting it on lay-by.
There are 2 parks in Coral Bay and neither of them have drinking water available for connection to your van so make sure you go in with full tanks; don't get me wrong they have fresh water available but only in the amenities, laundry etc so you can fill up containers but no freshwater taps are at van sites. If you need to fill up your tanks on arrival because you forgot or did not know one of the parks has a fresh water hose but it is connected to a meter (like a petrol pump) and you pay 10c a litre.
The park we stayed at was the Peoples Park, the other is called the Bayview, i did include the Bayview link in case you want to have a look; the Baview park is a couple of dollars cheaper but the sites at Peoples are bigger and it is not so squeezy (or messy). The amenities at the Peoples park were also better than the Bayview, we did have friends stay at the Bayview so we managed to have a good look around.
Not much in town just the 2 parks, a general store, the Reef Resort & Pub and a few other small shops but I was told that everything (shops and parks etc) is owned by the one family, how true that is I'm not sure. T.V service was crap with one or 2 snowy channels but we were on the dish so okay, mobile and internet were fine on our Telstra service.
Prices here are the same all year round and are beachfront 1st row $52p/n, 2nd & 3rd row $48 any others are $42; a weekly rate is available whereby you stay for 7 nights but pay for (wait for it) 6.5 nights, yes they give you one of your 7 nights at half price, it's a wonder they don't go broke at them rates!!!
Our site; I am as you know not a great lover of sand and all these sites were sand on the awning side of your van; that's right folks I had a bloody beach at the door, ahhh the joy of it all, nearly broke into song “take me to the April sun in Cuba” (not quite).
From the front of the park the sites you see are the beachfront sites.
This was the fish feeding event in the waters of Coral Bay; about 4 pm they all come in to shin deep water looking for food, these are some really good eating fish that just swim around your legs. We liked the one in the lower left of the shot (preferably with a nice beer batter, chips and tartar sauce); remember though this is a sanctuary zone so you can't just grab one for dinner.
Some of the pristine water that you can snorkel; being the Indian Ocean and the location it is the water is crystal clear and the colours against the reef are very spectacular
CARNARVON
Carnarvon does have quite a few things to see but I would not regard this a a tourist town; more so a place to stay for a few days, stock up, see a few of the sights and move on. There are a lot of “farm gate” sellers where you can get some of the best fruit and veg direct from the growers, the tomatoes in this region were some of the best we have tasted.
We stayed at the Outback Oasis; it was known originally as the Marloo Retiree & Senior Tourist Park but is now owned by a young couple that are doing it up, nice place to stay and not expensive at $30 p/n in comparison to what we have been paying. The amenities have been refurbished and are quite good, the owners are going to build new ones but the current facilities are quite pleasant and have soap, paper towels etc, an arrangement of pot plants in the amenities is nice, also background music being piped into the building helps mask the normal symphony of farts and other morning noises.
Our site; thank you whoever for no sand and a concrete slab (no beach at the backdoor).
Drove past this huge statue of an egg. That's a house in the background and yes they sell fresh eggs
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When in Carnarvon make sure you visit one mile jetty as there is a train you can ride on for a cost of $8, you can also walk the jetty if you wish for $4. All the proceeds go to the upkeep of this historical site. The above photo is the tracks; a little wonky.
The above is the “Coffee Pot” train; if you want to fish it will drop you out and you can then catch it back later in the day.
DENHAM (Shark Bay & Monkey Mia)
You can stay out at Monkey Mia in the resort but there is no caravan parks out there so Denham is the place to stay; other than the dolphin feeding there is not much out at Monkey Mia in any case, the drive from Denham to Monkey Mia is 28km.
In the main there are 3 caravan parks and we stayed at Denham Seaside Tourist Village; there are 3 levels to the park, as you drive in, there are vans then you go up a hill to another flat area for more vans and then the top. We ended up the top which we thought was better as the sites were quite large also the amenities on this level were the most modern and they were all individual unisex ensuites so shower, loo and vanity were yours whilst you were in there, just pick an empty one and its yours for the duration.
Very nice park; no pool but not really required, no kids entertainment equipment so it kept them quiet and given all the sites are shell grit it keeps the skateboards and scooters away. Price in off peak was $36.50 or $219 per week so not bad, it does go up $2 per night in peak period. TV was not overly good so we used the dish, internet and phone service was fine.
Our site at Denham; plenty of room on the top level, the down side was no stairway down to the lower level so it was a fair walk following the park roadway (not too bad).
A family of emus that roams Denham township; they just wonder around and walk along the road whenever they feel like it.
This was one of the restaurants in Denham; it is difficult to see from this photo but all the bricks are compressed shells. Near Demham is Hamelin Pool and Shell Beach, the beach is approximately 5 meters deep of very small compressed shells, not now but some years ago this used to be like a quarry and the blocks were cut out of the beach for building material (photo in the next post).
The above is the dolphin feeding at Monkey Mia; they do about 3 feedings a day and there are several families of wild dolphins that venture in to the beach area. This photo was taken from about a meter away, we were standing in about 2ft of water.
One of the sunsets on the beachfront at Denham; a very nice part of the world.
Hope you enjoy this post; all the places up the north end of W.A are very spectacular and you can see why it is prime for southerners and overseas visitors in the winter months, very much like Queensland but no where as much rain.
Love and warm regards to all our family and friends; as always if you are travelling stay safe on the roads. Look forward to seeing some or all of you soon.
David & Linda – The DavLin Rig
