Fri 27/06/14 Left Monkey Mia bright and early for 581km drive to Coral Bay. Stopped in at Carnarvon to see the Space Museum at the old OTC Earth Satellite Dish.....interesting visit....VERY windy. Saw crops of banana trees and other fruits that are part of the Gasgoyne Food Trail. Had to be on alert this drive, due to wandering feral goats and stray cows/steers. We passed easily 50+ of each eating along the roadside, completely unphased by passing vehicles. Kids also found the "rivers" we crossed novel as not one of them had any water, however The Minilya River did have some cows strolling down the middle! Arrived at Coral Bay People's Park around 4.30pm to be told our booking was split 2 nights on one site, then 3 on another...at first bit annoyed, but 2nd site beach views so all good! Setup quickly then popped next door to al fresco dining at Ningaloo Reef Resort for a seafood dinner and to watch Bombers vs Cats on large outdoor flat screen...sadly the bombers crashed and burned; too bad Mikey!

Sat 28/06/14 Slow start this morning, then looked around the cvan/park and walked the small main street. Nice, small, easy going beachside town....love it. Lazed around on the beach for the afternoon. Met the Pook family - David & Liza, daughter Sydney and son Alex, (David works at Boeing with Michael; small world!), - and chatted for a while. Eventually back home for showers, then Brodie cooked "sausages in bread" for dinner.

Sun 29/06/14 Conducted our move to 2nd site bright and early....perfect position really. Treated myself to a turquoise & coral ring from Coral Bay Shells, then supplies shopping, lunch, beeeaaaach, showers & back to Ningaloo Resort for Sunday night roast and footy....Magpies vs Blues....tough day!

Mon 30/06/14 "Sub-Sea" Glass Bottom Sub-Boat Reef Tour today. One hour of cruising over the inner reef and then one hour anchored for snorkelling. Weren't sure how the cherubs would go, but they got over their nerves once in the water and then were off. Had K&M working hard to keep eyes on everyone, especially Lukas once he began free diving down. Skipper threw some feed pellets in the drink & a school of mackeral swarmed around the boat and us in a feeding frenzy. Lots of fish and amazing structural corals to see, though no turtles as was hoped by LB&A. Guide, Deanna, explained a lot of the colours have gone from the inner reef at present due to the coral spawning which put an oily film on the water surface and suffocated a lot of the corals....apparently cycle goes that algaes then grow, which brings in more fish, turtles etc and corals regenerate over time....something like that anyway. Home for snacks, then back to beach for 3.30pm waters edge fish feeding, more swimming, snorkelling and played with Sydney & Alex for a while. Afterwards enjoyed a lovely dinner with the Pooks at the Reef Cafe, then back to our van for DVDs / ipods for kids and drinks / chatting for grown-ups....a late night 11pm! Amazed we managed to stay awake that long....9pm's become a stretch these days!

Tues 01/07/14 Rest day today before moving on tomorrow. Kids made good friends with our neighbours - Isabella & Harrison from Busselton and Mitch & Amber from Perth - they spent most of the day playing footy, cops & robbers, uno, elastics and various other games. Hit the beach in the afternoon with our goggles and did some more swimming over corals near waters edge. Cheeky mackeral hanging around waiting for more pellets! Mitch and Amber came to the beach with us, then joined us after dinner for a few rounds of Uno before bed. Very relaxed day.