Exmouth to Coral Bay to Carnavon

The most boring travel stories are those that say, "The weather is great, the water is perfect and we are having a great time." Much more interesting are those stories that set out the disasters that people have encountered - a good cyclone or flood is excellent story fodder.  Alas, Exmouth continued to be fantastic - we visited the turtles 4 times and Turquoise Bay 3 times.  One visit to the turtles by Mum and Dad was at night - when we learned that they do exactly the same things at night as during the day (basically, getting jiggy) - and we also saw 50 kangaroos during the 30 minute car drive.  One kangaroo was just standing in the middle of the road, looking at us, wondering when we was going to become road kill (pretty soon I reckon). 

We told the kids not to worry about
that bin as the emu probably got the
good stuff out of that one

On the last night in Exmouth, we went to a very nice restaurant (Whalers). Anouk wanted to know why there was no number on the table.  Gives you an idea of the type of high class "restaurant" we have been going to.

Anouk made another comment as she saw (speedo clad) Pa walk down the beach - she could see where he was becuause he was the one "wearing his undies".  Unlike the bloke at Cable Beach I guess.

After Exmouth we headed to Coral Bay which is basically made up of two caravan parks and not much else.  After thinking that Turquoise Bay was the best beach in the world, we found that Coral Bay may have been even better!  (sorry, this is one of those boring travel stories).  Again, reefs to swim at, turquoise water, even whiter sand but no waves and some great shallow parts for the kids to play in - even Yvette crawling out in the water.  Pretty close to perfect - although it was a little bit cloudy on one of the five days that we were there.

We went out on a boat to look at the Ningaloo Reef and to do some snorkelling - and Anouk learned to snorkel.

It was during this period that we learned that the kids were having morning meetings to work out whose turn it was to be a complete pain.  Typically Isaac volunteered for the role but certainly not his sole domain.  For example, Mum and Dad had their seventh wedding anniversary in Coral Bay and it was Isaac's turn in the afternoon and Yvette's turn at night.  But we could not really complain about an anniversary in such a glorious location (even if our anniversary dinner was at a pizza place with three kids and two grandparents).

Talking of Yvette, she has now lost the fear she previously had of the water, sand and dirt (not that dirt ever really worried her). She now loves nothing better than crawling over dirt and sand and sitting in the middle of the road or into the water at the beach.  Keeps life interesting.

Isaac, as discussed, is being a complete pain in the arse.  Typically, a conversation with him goes along the following lines:

Dad (as Isaac hits either or both of Anouk and/or Yvette) - Stop hitting your sister
Isaac - I don't want to stop hitting her
- If you don't stop hitting her then I will smack your bottom
- I don't want you to smack my bottom
- Fine, then don't hit her sister
- But I want to (very whiny voice)
etc etc. Then often finishes with dad hitting Isaac as a means of teaching him not to hit people.  It works as well as anything else (which is to say it does not work).

We have about 5 of those conversations each day.  He is toilet training too.  That is great fun as any parent will tell you.

And why wouldn't Alex have fallen in love
with her?

Anouk fell in love in Coral Bay with a boy from Traralgon named Alex - which is same name of one of hest (female) friends in Melbourne.  Dad was a bit concerned that they were "playing" honeymoons.  He had to ask her to stop kissing him - initially seemed to have no problem but we suspect that Alex's 9 year old brother might have thought it far too good ammunition to let it go by.

As discussed, Anouk is otherwise doing very well.  She is making lots of friends wherever we go and has learned to snorkel.  She is not perfect by any means and still has the occasional melt down.  She has also developed a very serious case of the "go slows".  If you did not see it, it would be hard to beelived that it could take 10 minutes to get out of a car or an hour to eat some Rice Bubbles.

Mum and Nana have also loved the fact that this part of the world has allowed them to catch up on the important events of the world. The quality of crap magazines that get left behind at the laundries around here is much higher than on the east coast.  Even Dad know that Angelina is too skinny and Jen's new boyfriend is not happy wtih what Brad had to say about Jen.   We only deal wtih the important stuff when we travel.

Dad knows some bigger blow hards
than here.

But back to the travels.  We are now in Carnavon which is a bit of a stop off point.  Today, we travelled to the "blow holes" where the waves come in and shoot up water.  The sign at the entrance says - very unsubtly - "KING WAVES KILL".  It wsa quite impressive as was the beach we went to.  Guess what?    Reefs for snorkelling at, white sands etc etc . Its not actually Ningaloo Reef but the snorkelling was probably better than anything else we have seen.

Tomorrow we are on to Shark Bay and Monkey Mia. May get to see some dolphin feeding on Isaac's birthday on 27 October.  We are banking on Isaac's "terrible two's" ending on his third birthday.  Maybe we will suffer some massive problem that will make the blog more interesting.