Day 16: Red, red, blue! :)

So what were you doing at 5.00 pm on Thursday night?  Probably rushing home from work for a bit of exercise or catch up with the kids before dinner, or maybe preparing dinner.  Probably the house was a bit cold when you got in and you had to turn on the lights and heat, or start a fire to warm things up.  It was probably miserable outside (if you live in Victoria) so you would have had a coat to hang up along with your scarf and hat.  If you were Kirsty and Josh, you would have just been leaving work to get on the crowded train to come home, and if you were Cassie, you were lugging horse feed around the ajistment place, and tucking up Mitch (the horse) for the night. 

So what were the Eckard’s doing?  Well after another fairly long day of driving (my goodness that man is a slave driver when it comes to getting the kilometres done) through what seemed like endless miles of red dirt, scrubby trees, and landscape that, to be honest, was bleaker than the Nullarbor Plan, we had arrived in Coral Bay (30 degrees) – and at 5 pm on Thursday night …. (not to rub it in or anything) we were snorkelling on a beautiful coral reef, complete with all kinds of coloured fish and different sea life with a myriad of species of coral, all in a lovely warm and calm ocean!  Oh my goodness – finally we feel like we are truly on holiday!   I can honestly say … I wish you were here!!   You would love it! 

Coral Bay is a big surprise!  As I said, the surrounding countryside is stunningly bleak, dry and wrinkled – but isn’t this exactly what our ‘upside down God’ is all about?  Just when you think there is nothing nice to find in this place, you stumble into Coral Bay – a tiny little town with literally two streets, no surface water for 500 km, a resort, two caravan parks and a motel – oh yes, a small, hugely overpriced shopping area and ….. the beautiful deep blue sea and astonishing, remarkable fringe reef!  We literally could not wait to jump into our swim suits and get into that beckoning water – yes girls, I was actually in the water and lovin’ it!  I probably haven’t snorkelled for a good twenty years, and so it was a bit of a stretch to start with – I had to work on calming my breathing (which is SO loud when your head is under water) and not panic when my goggles took some water – but once all that was under control – I was in heaven!!  Rich is very tuned into the underwater world, and took great delight in pointing out to me a variety of different things:  a sand-shark, giant clams, a huge school of wrasse (a big kind of fish) that were the length of my arm and within arm’s reach, various kinds of coral, and heaps of brightly coloured fish – yellow and blue, zebra like, black and red, blue and red ….. what a delight! 

We love it so much we will be staying for three nights – a record so far in our travels – and what is happening in this paradise tomorrow for us?  Well, just for a change I will be studying (only two weeks until my exams) but I will so enjoy it, because I will be in this lovely balmy spot, where it feels like everyone is on holiday, so it won’t be a chore at all – and Rich is doing a whole day scuba dive experience – leaving at 8.30 am and returning at 4.30 pm – he will be doing a refresher scuba dive course in the morning, (since it is a full 18 months since he last did a scuba dive), then a reef dive in the afternoon as well as an opportunity to swim with whale sharks (perfectly harmless I believe!)  He is lashing out on this adventure because he was given a 50^th birthday present from his mum that involved a dive or fishing charter on our round Aussie trip!  I am so pleased for him, and imagine that he will be doing the blog tomorrow night to fill you in on all his adventures!

Some observations from Rich (he does speak occasionally, but in far less eloquent prose)

-          The drive from Perth north through Geraldton (wheat belt) then past Carnarvon (first sign of bananas) through to Exmouth, seems to drop in rainfall and become more arid as we went. Most of the drive today was through red sand and scrub desert. We crossed a few ‘rivers’ which were all dry sand beds that looked like they carry surface water once in perhaps every 10 years. For the past 2 days we have not seen any fresh water on the surface – no rivers, no lakes, no dams – just red dirt and shrubs.

-          Also significant was the road kill. A dead roo almost every 100 m in places, with thousands of feral goats and sheep grazing on the roadsides (even cattle in some places). I think I figured out why (something to do when you stare at the scenery for hours, listening to podcasts of the ABC Science Show) – someone in their great wisdom had decided to seed the roadsides with grass (perhaps to reduce soil loss for when they do get rain) – great idea from an engineer (which is how all ecological problems start) – BUT, this is then the only grass for 100’s of kilometres in all directions so guess what? All the roos, feral goats and sheep come to the road verges for a feed. The goats are street smart and we only saw one dead goat, but with the heavy road trains driving all night through this region, the roos just get slaughtered (thanks to the engineers’ great idea). Added to this are then the Wedge-Tailed Eagles that feed on the dead roos and also then are hit by trucks. It is only the wily old crows that get out of the way in time. @$#&* engineers (sorry Frank – my brother)!

-          All the water in Coral Bay is hot as it is pumped from a deep artesian bore where the rock temperatures are above 50 degrees. This water is slightly salty, but is used for all washing, irrigating lawns (the few that there are).  

To top off a rather lovely afternoon, we decided to treat ourselves to dinner and enjoyed a scrummy seafood platter for two at one of the restaurants in Coral Bay.  Ahhh!  God and life are good!

Follow our travels on Google Maps.We realised today that Coral Bay is the furthest point from Warragul. After this we only get closer!