Heading to Carnarvon, Western Australia

Leaving Bullara Station, after Peter got his coffee and Jonnie got his hot chocolate, we headed south on the Minilya-Exmouth Road towards Carnarvon. It is June, winter, and the weather is starting to get a little more comfortable. The road was long, straight and boring, with road works as we got closer to Coral Bay

Coral Bay seemed to be one big caravan park. There was little parking especially for a car and van. Finally finding a spot outside the information centre - which was closed - we went for a walk. The bay is absolutely beautiful, even in overcast weather.

The water was a little cool.

The earliest recorded European history in the area was in 1884 at Maud's Landing, 3 km north-west of the village, when the schooner Maud landed. A town site named Maud's Landing was gazetted in 1896 around an existing jetty and goods shed. The long jetty included a tramway which was used by local farmers to get goods and to ship wool. Today only some pylons remain.

The little bay where Coral Bay is, was part of Cardabia Station and was owned by Charles French and his wife Ruby. Ruby was known as Auntie Billie and the bay became known as Bill's Bay. It was, and is popular for fishing. The first building on the little bay was a fishing shack built in 1933 by Jack McKenna, a local station manager. In 1968 a hotel, caravan park and petrol station were built. The hotel was named the Coral Bay Hotel, and the name stuck. We had heard so much about Coral Bay we were excited to visit, and thought we may even stay there, even though it was only about 30 mins from Bullara. In reality, Coral Coast is a small fishing/snorkling village with little more than two large caravan parks, a few cafes, a small grocery store and a resort at the end of the road, and the most beautiful beaches. 

We looked at the caravan parks but at $50 a night for two plus $15 per night extra for Jonnie, non -powered, $65 total a night was way too much. So we decided to have lunch and keep going. We have been trying to find the best fish and chips in our travels. We had some good ones in Darwin and thought we would go to one of the cafes, Fins, located at a caravan park.

We ordered one serving of fish and chips as Jonny wasn't hungry - at $15.

 

It wasn't very busy and it was nice to sit after the walk along the beach.

The food was pretty good and with two big pieces of fish, was enough for three of us. It would have been good to stay somewhere around here as there was so much beach to explore, but with no free or low cost camps it was way out of our price range.

After leaving Coral Bay, and back on the Minilya-Exmouth Road, we came to another river running across the road. Peter is getting very good at river crossings now.

We had a choice of three possible camps for the night. The first one was on the other side of the river crossing, Lyndon River Rest Stop. We stopped for a while to watch the cars cross the river, but Peter felt it was a bit open, so we kept going. We stopped at the Tropic of Capricorn and took a photo. Back in March we did the same thing in Longreach , and now we are on the other side of the country.

The next potential free camp was at Minilya, and it was only a short distance from a petrol station. We could imagine all the noise from all the trucks slowing up outside the camp - too much noise, so fingers crossed the third camp would be fine. We pulled into Yalabia Rest Area which was good. We found a spot at the end of the rest area behind some trees and it was fairly quiet. We met some lovely people from Perth who gave us some tips on places to go and places not to go.  

We are only an hour away from Carnarvon now, so tomorrow will be a short drive.