Coral Bay is a rugged little settlement on the West Coast of Australia. It looks pretty rough at the first sight (especially in summer): burning sun, red, very dry soil, and violent winds. Fresh water is very scarce and even the water in the sink or in the shower has a salty taste to it. Two camping parks and a hotel (which make up pretty much the whole village) are trying to maintain a couple of green lawns, against all odds.
Once you get underwater, though, it’s a whole different world. It feels like being transported to a magic garden. Just 50 meters off shore corals cover all the bottom of the ocean, taking all possible forms and colors. Marc and I stayed underwater for almost 2 hours non-stop at a time. Why would we go out? The conditions were perfect: no strong currents, not big waves, it felt fresher and not so hot under water and the views was magnificent!!!!!
After Coral Bay we moved further to the north to Cape Range Park for some more snorkeling. As we were no longer staying in a campervan park, there was no green grass and no shade, really. What we were left with was pretty much: extreme heat, extreme (hot) winds, and… of course more great snorkeling!
Coral in Cape Range Park is a little less impressive than in Coral Bay but in exchange, we saw lots of different kinds of fish, some of them for the first time in our life. Although we were not lucky enough to spot a reef shark (not such a big loss, if you ask me :) ), we saw many other stunning creatures, among them beautiful spotted sting rays, and a huge turtle, which was patiently posing for pictures for us.
We suffered a good deal that day to snorkel in Cape Range: the temperature reached over 40 degrees, we had nothing cold to drink and no proper shaded area. During that night violent hot winds almost blew our tent away amidst a constant, humid, sticky 30 degrees temperature. It was all worth it.
However, we decided that even the most beautiful coral wasn’t worth another day and night spent in such hostile conditions. And just to clarify: the killer spider we encountered in Cape Range had absolutely nothing to do with this decision :)
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