Tue 29th Jun '21 - Day 18

Coral Bay

 

It’s a WA mid-winter blue sky 26-degree day though the cooler early morning lends itself to jobs-to-be-done or a walk before the warmth kicks in. After the former we head out for the latter, crossing the road to the beach, then scrambling up the 20m high sand dune to the north of the bay and “exploring” along the ridge. It offers expansive views over the bay and until we run down to the rocky end of the beach before reaching the shark nursery area and wend our way back through the shops to the inflatable pillow and back to the van by 11:00.

Too early for lunch we quickly don our beach gear and have a swim (me), splash (Seb), sunbath (sienna and Kate). At high tide there is a patch of sand 50m from edge to edge covered in water that doesn’t get more than 2 feet deep. This is ideal for Seb to lark around, at one point pretending to be a crab grabbing our feet, and then also being Kiya the dolphin leaping for fish from the volunteers’ bucket.

After lunch at the van its back to the beach to build a sandcastle with double moat which then engrosses the kids enough that I can wade around the headland to the next beach and drift snorkel at a fair clipto where we’re based. Sienna and Kate then take a turn a little closer to the main beach. Seb continues to throw himself around in the shallows with only occasional pauses where he considers how much water he’s swallowed.

Back at the campsite by 16:30 and time for a shower then walking along the street to the Happy Hour at Bill’s Bar again, Sienna happily building giant Jenga with the other kids, Seb happy having borrowed a kids Monster Truck wo play with, and Kate and I happy with our beer and wine.

Its dinner out tonight at Reef Café which is attached to our previous campsite and after ordering the kids run off to the jumping pillow. An oversized schnitzel, parmigiana and then pizza and chicken nuggets for the kids later and it’s time for Uno and bed.

My alarm though is set for 23:45 to wake up and watch England v Germany in Euro 2020 (in 2021) at Wembley, with England prevailing 2-0 in the round of 16 knockout thanks to Sterling and Kane after the introduction of Grealish. Its been 25 years since Euro ’96 and Southgate’s penalty miss in the shootout – I can still remember the TV room at Abingdon school I watched that game in, even the seat I was sitting in. In another 25 years will I look back at Euro ’20 (’21) and say I remember watching that in a campervan on the West coast of Australia? England are now favourites to win the tournament.