Day 29 - Home! Saturday 27th July

Day 28 - Friday 26th July 2013

27 days of beautiful weather and on our last day the heavens opened!  Made packing up this morning not so much fun.  Everyone and everything soaked! :((

Got away fairly early in spite of the rain.  There had been quite a lot so there were a couple of water crossings where the road had flooded.

Couple of fuel stops but pretty uneventful day - until my turn to drive of course. 

 A litte bit later than we wanted to be so stopped at Northampton for the night.  Kids have been desperate to show Cam what a Tim Tam Slam is so thought we had better do it seeing as it is our last night.  :((

 

Back to the beach today for one last snorkel and one last attempt at fishing. 

Look what Amanda caught!!

Fred caught one too.  No-one else had any luck with the fishing.

Kids had a great time swimming and jumping waves.

Went out for a snorkel and got to swim with another turtle - they are so cool!

  Ash and Ian saw a reef shark.  Love how we are out in the middle of the ocean, Ian yells shark and we all start swimming TOWARDS him!  What is wrong with us?? LOL!


Also saw a stingray and lots of fish!

A bit of 4 wheel driving and some photos on the sand dunes.

Then back down to the beach to watch the fish feeding.  Huge snapper - just rubbing it in really that we haven't caught one. 

Long trek home starts tomorrow. :(

Day 26 - Wednesday 23rd July

Very lazy day today. Was a little bit overcast & we had our first little bit of rain so slept in & had a very quiet morning. Lots of jumping pillow and UNO for the kids. Lots of reading for me. Nearly finished the 3rd hunger games. Can't believe I've read 4 whole books in 4 weeks- I forgot how much I love it!

After lunch went for a walk down to the beach. Saw a stingray & then all the big snapper came in for the fish feeding. So amazing!! They came in so close & swam between our feet- the kids had a great time! Don't know that I can look at snapper the same! They were kind of cute!!

 Went out for dinner at the pub. Yummy food. Nice to get a bit dressed up & feel a bit girly after 3& 1/2 weeks of red dirt & sand.

Can't believe it's nearly over. :(

Day 25 - Coral Bay - Tuesday 23rd July 2013

Sleep in this morning for those in our van after a late night chick flick!  Well, would have slept in if the people in the caravan behind weren't having a screaming match at 7am!!  Yummy pancake breaky and then off to catch the boat for our two hour glass bottom boat and snorkel cruise.

The kids were all so excited - you could see so clearly.  The coral was amazing - we got to see the Ayers Rock of the underwater world. There was a huge school of spangled emperor who swam along beside us for ages! Just teasing us really!

We hopped off and had a bit of a snorkel.  It is amazing how close the fish come to you - I could have touched them easily.  Well, I did a couple of times because they swam INTO ME!  One of them almost  kissed me!  
Snorkelled around for a little bit before back on the boat and then back to the park for lunch.

Lazy afternoon!  We had discussed all sorts of plans but the kids (ok and us) were exhausted so we stayed at the park and had a swim in the pool and a snooze!

Late afternoon walk down the beach to watch the sunset!  Took some amazing photos  of the sunset and then got to watch someone cleaning their 'humungous' fish!!  Just not fair really!

Day 24 - Coral Bay - Monday 22nd July

Fred and Cam arrived this morning so there was much excitement.  Kaleb has been counting the days so that he is not the youngest anymore!

Went for a walk up to the shops (not straight away as couldn't find Amanda and Cam- caravan door was locked....).  :)))

Back for lunch and a little birthday party for Fred who turned 4 yesterday.  Had some cake and opened his presents and had lolly bags - awesome party!

Went down to the beach to have a play and a snorkel.

 

Aww, so cute!

 

 

 

Plan was to spend the afternoon at the beach but it was really windy down there so came back and the kids played in the pool for the rest of the afternoon. 


Yummy bbq dinner - we have got the roast vegies on the bbq down to a fine art.  There was definitely BBQ envy going on in the camp kitchen!!

 

Went for a walk down to the beach after dinner.  Beautiful down there - saw some fish in the water and then a big fish jumping out of the water over and over again. We think something even bigger must have been chasing it!  Ian managed to spot a stingray in the water - very cool!. :)

Early night for the little boys in Amanda's caravan.  Movie night for me and the big kids in our van.  Was a bit hard to hear over Ian's snoring though. :)

Day 23 - Coral Bay - Sunday 21st July

Another beautiful day up here - it is going to be very hard to come home.  Lazy morning - don't see the kids as they are on the jumping pillow.  Head off for a day of snorkelling and fishing.  Ian found this amazing spot - the snorkelling was awesome.  Beautiful blue, clear waters where we saw a stingray and umpteen different varieties of fish.  The colours are so bright and the coral is beautiful - it is like a completely different world under there.  The fishing was not so successful - the fish were there - we could see them!  They just didn't want to jump on the hook!

It did get a little cold after the snorkel (okay a lot!  Amanda and I were huddled in the car listening to the footy).  Did a bit of 4 wheel driving on the way back - went down one that had me a little worried!

Back to the caravan park - kids had a swim and then a nice easy dinner while we had chips and dips and enjoyed doing nothing!