Coral Bay Whale Watching - not!!

August 27^th - 28^th 

So we didn’t really go very far once we left Cape Range National Park. One day during our stay there we visited the lighthouse and from way up on the top of the point we could see about five whales doing their thing. They looked great from up there so we got all inspired to do a whale watching boat trip in order to get up close and personal. We booked into one at Coral Bay, about 220km south of Exmouth, so on leaving Ned’s Camp we popped into Exmouth to buy some fresh prawns for lunch and then made our way south to Coral Bay.

We had been to Coral Bay a while back when we flew to Ningaloo to swim with the whale sharks and really loved our time there so were pleased to be back. Unlike Exmouth, nothing much has changed here – it is just a small village with a few caravan parks, a pub, a tavern, some restaurants and the beautiful bay itself – crystal clear blue water and white sand. You can just wade into the bay and be snorkelling and seeing fabulous fish and coral just metres from the shore.

 Drone shots of Coral Bay

We joined up with our whale watching tour and set off in anticipation past the reef into the open water with stories of all the whales they have been seeing over the last week and how yesterday there was a mother swimming with her calves quite close to shore.  It was quite windy and once past the reef, the water was quiet choppy but we were all eager for a wonderful afternoon of seeing these magnificent creatures up in the wild. So much for that!! Four hours later we arrived back at Coral Bay very dispirited and a bit queasy and windblown from the swell, having seen not a single whale for our trouble. Oh well – that is nature I guess but we were disappointed.  The fact that the operators were very apologetic and said we were the first group this season not to sight any whales was little consolation!! We did see a huge lace monitor on our return to the land which was pretty cool.

We stayed in Coral Bay that evening in a cabin at one of the caravan parks (bit expensive) and enjoyed some beach walks, snorkelling and fish feeding on the beach the next day along with some necessary housekeeping such as doing the washing after five days under canvas. 

 Another drone shot

It was really windy and quite cold while we were there - good for drying washing but not so pleasant for a beach stay so we hit the road again bound for the most westerly point of the Australian mainland.