Day 84 - 86, Coral Bay ( Fri 18th Sept - Sun 20th Sept )

Coral Bay

We did not intend visiting Coral Bay but so many people raved about it we thought we better have a look, we have been caught out before believing what others have said about places so we decided to just pop in and have a look for ourselves.

The Caravan Park

Coral Bay Camp

We booked into the Bayview caravan park which looked nice and seemed to tick all the boxes for us, un-powered site for 3 nights $148.00, pool, jumping pillow, play ground, walk to beach, shops and pub.

The grass was green, amenities were great, and the staff were nice, a pretty got place all round.

The other good thing about Coral Bay was that we caught up with other families we had met along the way who had young kids and the boys loved playing with them.

Coral Bay is more a small resort than a town, it consists of a couple of pubs, two caravan parks, a few cabins and units, a resort, and a tiny shopping centre.
The beach there is amazing, great swimming for kids, snorkeling only meters off shore, and only a short walk from the caravan park.

Snorkeling

Snorkeling Selfie

Snorkeling at Coral bay is fantastic, and caters to all levels of skill, at low tide you can step off the sand into water a couple of meters deep and snorkel over the coral and fish, the coral close in is not particularly colorful, you have to go out much further for that but there is enough to attract many varieties of fish.

Coral Bay Shallow Water Coral

Underwater photos of the coral don't do it justice so I have only added one, but you get the idea.
With the ultra wide angle lens of the GoPro it was difficult to get to close to the fish so I didn't get many fish photos.

Glass Bottom Boat

We did a Glass bottom boat tour which heads out across the shallow reefs of Coral Bay, it was great fun and you really got to see the coral and fish clearly and pretty close up, they also stopped and did some fish feeding which the kids liked.

The tour lasted an our or more and only cost us $100.00 for the family which we thought was pretty good value.

I think its nice to do something like this so the tour guide can explain the history of the reef and the varieties of coral and sea life.

Coral Bay Glass Bottom Boat

Cabbage Coral

Fish Waiting For A Feed

We had a great time at Coral Bay and would recommend as a place to relax, swim and snorkel, there are some tours available from the information centre so there is plenty to do if you want.