Day 70 Saturday 16th
ND-
Time to move on....so we left beautiful Coral Bay after a quick look around the boat ramp. It really is stunning. Surprising that the area hasn't been developed more, other than Bills hotel and caravan park and one other cv park there's not a lot else. It's as beautiful as the Maldives and would lend itself beautifully to overwater bungalows.
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Only a quick drive to the turn off to Warroora station where apparently the Routley family had spent quite a bit of time on their OZ trip. 14kms of sand/gravel corragations tested the old girl a bit but we finally found Lesley, the caretaker, at her on beach camp and booked in for the night. Site 12 had the most amazing views over the reef, beach and ocean. We set up our first free camp in a long time (well $20 but no facilities and very few other campers a welcome change from the tight squeeze of some camp grounds). The girls disappeared down to the beach. It was more reef than beach but Olivia and Grace spent a few hours collecting shells, hermit crabs and empty anemones. Twos company... Matilda tired of the trio and retired to the van to watch Mumma Mia. Again!
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JD took his rod down the beach for another fruitless fishing attempt.
We met our not so close neighbours who kindly returned Olivia's thongs which she'd accidentally left on the beach. Beth and Phil from outside Burnie let the girls pat their two enormous dogs and Beth showed us her shell collection, which inturn inspired another shell seeking walk along to the point.
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Lots of shells, great big crabs and several blue bottle stingers.
We returned back to the van when the wind got too much to bear.
Unfortunately our beautiful view site was also very exposed to the elements and everything was covered in dust/sand and the door was bound to get ripped off it's hinges. Despite trying to reposition the van we were still being whipped relentlessly by flying sand and the door was seriously at risk so we left the view for some shelter behind some dunes.
We still got a sunset view through the window so everyone was happy, well almost!
A surprisingly quiet night hidden behind the dunes.