Day 45 Coral Bay

What an idyllic location in which we find ourselves. We woke to a windless and sunny day in a spectacular location. A day that offered every opportunity to achieve something constructive, individual and special; so what did the Dinters do? We went and lay on the beach.
Zach and Jake headed over to the beach at 6:30 while Tom slept a little longer. They’d already built two sand castles by the time we called them back for breakfast. After breakfast and a quick tidy up around the van, we headed back onto the beach for a swim and a snorkel, on the edge of the reef. The tide was almost at its lowest and a few dozen large Parrot Fish had become stuck in a channel, only a meter from the sand. We had great fun putting on the snorkels and herding them into schools for a closer look. As the tide came back in, we made our way back around to the main part of the beach and just as we were leaving, a meter long White Tipped Reef Shark noticed the Parrot Fish in the channel. I stood only two or three meters from a shark while it chased down its lunch. Surprisingly, all but a few of the Parrot Fish managed to out manoeuvre the larger predator. Much to my annoyance, I slipped on a rock and put a 4cm slash in the sole of my left foot which put an end to any snorkelling for a while. Zach and I managed one more dive later in the morning where we had the opportunity to follow a couple of stingrays and a Puffer Fish through the reef.
After a sandwich, we rigged the rods and a couple of handlines and headed off in search of a good fishing spot but the increasing wind nailed that idea, so it was back to the van to collect Jacqui and Jacob and we headed up to the sunset-viewing platform. We managed to scare two couples away from their romantic evening before we took pity on the remaining couples and moved the 3 Stooges to a less romantic location – our van. The wind kept picking up and by the time we called it a night, was blowing a gale. We all drifted off to sleep with the van rocking in the wind and the doonas getting some use as it was finally cool enough to need them.
Cheers,
Jorg