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DAY 128 Friday 27 ^th November

This morning we woke and agreed to move on. The wind has really taken its toll. It whips up the sand and makes it most uncomfortable to sunbake or to stand along the water's edge to fish. The Adcocks had quite a bit to pack up but we had very little, so after we were ready, we lay in the morning sun for an hour. I was beginning to think I might have a good tan - an amazing feat for skin of my type but even Dorothy, who is olive skinned, commented on my colour. We religiously cover up with block-out and hat at all times and slowly, but surely, both David and I have changed from a sickly white Sydney tan to a rich golden English-backpacker-in-Australia type tan.

Our plan was to drive to Coral Bay today and maybe to stop off along the track to check out the various beach camps we might find. We figured we'd only gone about 30kms the day we left our previous camp at T-Bone and that meant we'd have about 70kms to get to Coral Bay.

It took about an hour to leave Winderbandi Point because of the soft sand. Once we met the main track again, we had to stop to use the air compressor to pump up the tyres. David carries a spare air compressor so we loaned that to Rob whilst we used the heavy duty version that is permanently mounted behind the driver's seat. It takes quite a long time to get the tyres up from 15psi to 50psi. We are noticing that our new tyres we bought in Cairns have taken quite a beating, mostly from the Gibb River Road. There are huge chunks out of the tread pattern and the rear tyres do not look like they'll make it home.

Once on the main track again we moved quickly although at times the track became quite soft. We attempted many tracks to the right that we knew would take us to the beach but many turned out to be inappropriate for swimming with rocky and difficult entry points.

After looking at almost all the possible beach camp sites, we agreed that we probably had stayed at the best at Winderbandi Point. Probably because it was so inaccessible, it was so unspoiled and we enjoyed the days we had the entire coast to ourselves.

The track we were on took us through 2 properties and so there were many gates to be opened and closed. Neither of the properties had enough money to establish a way of collecting fees from campers or passers-by so that is why we were able to enjoy free camping. Obviously, we had to take out all our rubbish with us (something we are getting used to) and of course, there were no facilities like toilets or fresh water. I remember thinking before we left Sydney that I'd never had to go without a toilet long enough that I couldn't hold on. Things have certainly changed in that regard! In fact, it is often preferable to take one's spade into the bush than to hold one's nose in a smelly pit toilet!

We made it into Coral Bay around 4pm. We were all quite surprised to find the township was even smaller than expected with a population of only 120. We turned off the beach track and hit the bitumen at a T-intersection. About 5km later the road just ended at the 2 caravan parks and the beach carpark. Both the caravan parks operate supermarkets (NOT!) and dive shops. There is not much else to Coral Bay. I realised quickly that there was no Post Office and the mail I'd instructed my mother to send had probably not reached here. However, the water looked beautiful and the tourism must have been good enough to support two dive shops and two glass-bottomed coral viewing boats and a handful of fishing charters.

As we booked in and paid for our camping I glanced in a full length mirror hanging on the wall and saw my full reflection for the first times since Broome. I was brown! And a lot thinner thank god!

Once the tent was up, our first thought was a fresh water shower - with soap and shampoo. I had not shampooed my hair since the caravan park in Exmouth exactly a week ago and had not had a real shower since then either. I stood under the running water for about 20 minutes waiting for the taste of salt water to stop running into my mouth. Eventually, I couldn't understand that I could still taste salt water running off my hair and down my face and took a taste of what was coming out of the shower-head - it was salty! As it turned out, the water in Coral Bay is 15% salt and comes from an artesian bore so it wasn't much better than being out on the beach.

Whilst I was pampering myself, David and Rob drove 100 metres to the bottleshop at the only bar in town. They hadn't realised it was within the Coral Bay Resort and when they arrived found it was happy hour. They stayed for a few drinkies and returned well before dark. Unfortunately, due to the poor shopping facilities, I didn't have a very hearty dinner ready and waiting for his return. I did manage to scrape up a few vegies for an Indian vegetable curry that turned out to be very satisfying after a long day.

DAY 129 Saturday 28 ^th November

No one had warned us that the track was incredibly sandy and after getting bogged, we had to let down our tyres. Thankfully, we didn't take the trailer or it would have been impossible. We passed a 4WD parked off the track and saw its owners down at The Lagoon. The Lagoon is a sheltered bay but the dive site was a 300m swim out to a ledge. We made it out there and had a fantastic dive. Lots of coral, tons of big snapper, moray eels, humbugs, wrasse, egg cowries, nudibranchs, clams, a large manta ray and other good stuff! We had a 62 minute dive. Later, we lay on the beach and talked with the couple who had left their vehicle behind in the dunes.

At the end of the day we gave our new friends, Tracy and Cameron, a lift back over the dunes and then met them at their accommodation at the Coral Bay Resort for a few drinks at the bar. Cameron has a large boat and has invited us to Rottnest Island diving, fishing, craying and prawning when we get to Perth for New Years Eve. But we think Neville and Katrina are also expecting us to go out on their boat to Rotto - oh to so have so many friends in WA!

Tonight's dinner was just penne pasta with a tin of chilli tuna. It was good though after a tiring day in the sun.

DAY 130 Sunday 29 ^th November

Rotten noisy kids waked us this morning at 6.30am. It wasn't Jackson or David but the kids in the tent behind us. I had complained to management yesterday when we came back and found two new tents had set up around us and one was literally 2 foot from our tent! The manager made them move but unfortunately, they weren't the ones with the noisy kids.

We set off this morning bound for The Lagoon again and after we'd told Dorothy and Rob about our find, they decided to spend the day with us. Yesterday, Dorothy had taken little David out on a coral viewing boat and they did a little snorkelling. From their reports, the coral was not very colourful, the operator was a dickhead, and the water was too cold to stay in for longer than 10 minutes at a time.

We had to let down our tyres again to negotiate the sand dunes to access The Lagoon but Rob's 100 series Landcruiser made it in one go. We were a little disappointed to find 3 other vehicles were also there but then the male occupants of 2 of the cars all got into a tinnie and went fishing, leaving the females and children. The two girls took turns fishing whilst the other kept an eye on the children.

Dorothy and I worked on our tans for a few hours while the boys tried fishing. They caught lots of little snapper and a few big garfish from the rocks that we had dived around the previous day. Meanwhile, one of the girls was catching huge squid from the beach. We all had a look at her catch and David got the low down on what tackle and technique to use. He then went for a snorkel to determine whether the windy conditions were unfavourable for diving. He soon surfaced with a lure that someone had lost by snagging it on some coral. The lure was a squid jig - the same as what the girl was using to catch the squid.

Our next bit of excitement was looking on irritably as a silly Queenslander in a Troopy bogged himself in the sand at the shoreline for hours. He refused to let down his tyres (probably didn't have a compressor) and insisted on driving up the beach instead of taking our advice and pointing his vehicle down towards the water. The result was that he spent hours getting nowhere. He even made a sand anchor with a rock and used his electric winch to no avail. Finally, he listened as David gave advice through his driver's window and miraculously drove himself out of trouble! He left the beach churned up with deep wheel ruts in the sand, which made it difficult to walk up the beach. They were so deep little David could stand up to his waist in them. I think the driver was too embarrassed to get out of the car and cover in the holes. His wife certainly wasn't looking too happy!

The local guys returned in their tinnie with a large bag full of crayfish. The girl who caught the huge squids didn't even seem excited at her catch and then didn't bother to ask how many crays were in the bag. We had to assume that they caught a lot of seafood regularly and just took it for granted. We however, still hadn't caught anything worth eating for our dinner and I had told David that it would be just another pasta dish for us tonight unless our luck changed.

David continued to fish from the rocks but after a while the temptation to try the squid jig got the better of him. Maybe we'd have better luck catching squid for dinner than fish! Within a few minutes of casting he was reeling in an enormous squid about 1kg in weight with all its tentacles. We squealed with glee as it squirted its ink sack as it was hauled from the water. I rushed back to the car to get a bucket and then set about cleaning and gutting the squid. Before I'd finished cleaning the first catch David had another - this one a little larger. Jackson and little David ran up the beach and wanted to stroke the back of the squid. As they did so it changed colour from white to a dark spotted brown and then finally returned to white. I had the messy job of cleaning another squid and was amazed at how much black ink they squirted! Within an hour, David had caught 3 enormous squid. The last squid was more than twice the size of the first and we retired happily knowing that we had enough food to feed both the Adcocks and ourselves.