Australia: Day 74 - WA - Welcome to Coral Bay

I felt 100% better when I woke up so it must have just been dinner for some reason that made me sick. Anywho we packed up camp and hit the road for Coral Bay taking a few pit stops for toilets and petrol. As we neared the coast the terrain flattened out and we started to see a surplus of termite mounds dotting the landscape. Upon actually arriving at Coral Bay and claiming our section of the Caravan park we headed to the grocery store to stock up lunch and dinner for the next 2 days. We quickly set up a tent to prevent our stuff from baking/blowing away before heading to the beach for some snorkeling instruction. The kayak man (man renting kayaks on the beach) convinced a bunch of people to rent and head out to the outer reef - but I was too cheap after dishing out all that cash for the Manta Ray tour. Anyway that brought our snorkeling numbers down. We split up into two groups - beginners and experienced. The beginners stuck around with Andy close to shore, while the 'experienced' (Trang(Vietnam), Victoria, and I) followed Jarrod offshore a bit. It was awesome. Words can't even describe how cool the fish were and because we were with Jarrod we were able to interact with some of the ocean life he knew was safe (ie we got to pet a sea slug) . He also taught us how to dive with the snorkel so we could go down and look at stuff on the bottom (it was about 3-4 m deep, aka 9-12ftish). After a while to we took a break to play cricket in the sand (until Jarrod hit the ball into the dunes and lost it) and frisbee. Andy, Victoria, and I headed in for one last snorkel before dusk and saw a turtle - a Green Sea Turtle that is - and I got to pet it!!! BEST thing EVER! We finally got dragged out of the water and went back to camp for a hot shower. We decided to be social and headed to the local pub where I split some food with Victoria for dinner. I called it an early night and headed home about 9:30. And now for the tale of our dumbness. So the sky was clear out when Victoria and Steph came back from the pub so we decided to sleep outside the tent (since we had slept out every night prior with no issues). Anyway as can be predicted it started raining - our solution? Put a tarp over us. Yep we made ourselves into a sandwich because we felt this was a good decision. Worst part? We put the rain fly on the tent to keep the stuff dry and neglected to actually get in it. Wake up soaking wet in a puddle of rain? Absolutely. Poor choices are made by 3 sleeping girls at 3 am. Did everyone make fun of us for the next 3 days? Yes.

Sunrise in the Outback

Found this guy while using the lovely outdoor toilets - anyone want a cow skin?? (there are free range cattle everywhere in the area - they round them up with helicopters!)