4 Stray Katz: Coral Bay Bliss (but still the flies abound)

Wow, now this is a real holiday! We arrived in Coral Bay the last Sunday of the school holidays hoping that would be a good time to bag a spot in a place we were told is always very busy and popular. After our unlucky time in Red Bluff we must have deserved some good luck as they had a few spaces and let us drive around to choose one that suited us. Bagged a great spot opposite the pool, jumping pillow and playground. Kids were rapt. Flies were still around but with the amount of people here they have many to choose from (including a lot of international backpackers who must stink more than we do!) so they have been bearable. As soon as you go away from the town though they are frenzied.

Coral Bay is magnificent. Amazing snorkelling (huge coral rosettes and heaps of fish), beautiful beaches (safe bays for the kids to play in with snapper and spotted stingrays swimming close to the shore), perfect for paddle boarding and kayaking, incredible sunsets over the bay every night, 4wding through the sand dunes to secluded beaches, lovely restaurants and such friendly people (we've had some great times with a couple we met and their 4 year old daughter, Alexandra. Emilia is loving playing with her new friend and Jackson has his first crush ('Zandra, Zandra come' he says as he grabs her hand and tries to drag her away from Emilia!). We have been her for 9 days and plan on staying until the end of the week as we are loving it so much as there is so much to do. Daniel and I are swimming with the whale sharks on thus & fri and we are hiring and underwater GoPro cameras so hopefully we'll get some great shots.

We took the kids on the SubSea Explorer and they loved seeing the fish and coral, they do fish feeding in the afternoons and the kids got to feed some huge snapper. We also hired a boogie board with a viewing panel so the kids got to see some coral and fish through that too.

Anyway we are feeling thoroughly relaxed and satisfied at the end of each great day. We've snorkelled, swam, kayaked and paddle boarded everyday and are loving being beach bums.