Remember a few months ago I wrote that post about our disaster camping trip when we went to the station stay near Exmouth and Coral Bay? Bradley ended up in hospital with a funky infected toe, Kaitlyn had a swollen eye, Isla wouldn't eat anything and it was so hot we all nearly died?
Over the July school holidays we thought we had to try again. Coral Bay and the Ningaloo Reef are freaking world heritage listed places and we wanted to actually enjoy it.
This time we decided to camp again but we stayed right in town (close to the hospital) just in case.
We arrived on Saturday happy and excited to be having another mini holiday together, my mum had come along for the trip this time as well. It was her first time in Exmouth and we wanted to enjoy everything there was.
Saturday was a beautiful sunny day and we set our tents up and got everything else set up nicely.
The older kids had talked mum into sharing their tiny little tent so she slept there with Kaitlyn and Bradley. Phil, Isla and I had the big tent. Poor mum!
Not long after we went to bed I said to Phil "is that rain drops I can hear?"
He thought I was being crazy. But we went out and sure enough it
was raining. In July.
For those that don't know up in the Pilbara our seasons are a little back to front. Summertime is our wet season and winter is usually as dry as a bone. But here we were in peak tourist season on the coast and it was pouring with rain.
That first night the rain did not stop. By 4:30 am I was cold, damp and hadn't slept much, the rain was absolutely pelting down and it was so windy.
By 6:30am mum and the 2 older kids were in our tent as theirs was soaked.
By 8:00am our tents were literally pitched in a giant puddle. Everything was absolutely soaked. The kids tent was the worst, all of their bedding was absolutely drenched and mum had absolutely no dry clothes.
By 10:00 we were actually begging at the reception and then again at the tourist centre to find some dry accommodation. If you know the area you will know that trying to find accommodation in July is actually laughable. Everything is so fully booked.
By some miracle though there was one hotel that had a 2 bedroom apartment available. It would be squishy but at least it would be dry.
We left the tent where it was (in the hopes we would wake up to beautiful sunshine the next day) and packed up the rest of our stuff and took it to the hotel.
We had piles and piles of wet clothes and towels and sleeping bags. The lovely cleaners were so helpful. They delivered us a couple of clothes drying racks to help us out and we had the rest of our stuff on the back of chairs, hanging off the door knobs and strung up along the bathroom towel rails.
That night we decided we couldn't deal with cooking so we went into the bistro to eat. But before we even made it that far mum still needed to dry her clothes.
"Do you reckon I could put these pants in the microwave to dry" she asked me
That moment will forever be in my memory. There are no dryers around in most places as it doesn't usually get cold enough to need them up here.
"Umm sure mum give it a go" I replied laughing my head off.
And she did. She actually put her pants in the microwave for 2 minutes and they came out perfectly dry and warm for her.
Dinner was beautiful but by the next morning it was clear the rain, wind and cold weather weren't planning on stopping anytime soon.
We didn't want to cut our holiday short though, it took a lot of effort for Phil to get the time off work and get ourselves over there.
We weren't ready to admit defeat.
We did however go back and pack up our tent, after begging for 2 more nights in our apartment, because we decided that we at least needed to stay dry and sleeping in a tent that had a giant puddle underneath it was not the way to make that happen...
I have been blessed with 3 of the most amazing children. During all this madness and moving around and decision making Kaitlyn and Bradley found a little patch of grass out the back door of our apartment. There was nothing there at all, just a small patch of grass. But they spent their time out there in between the rain and just played so nicely together. Other than a few toy animals they had nothing else to play with, but they spent literally hours out there every day :-)
On the Monday we finally got to see the beach. It was cold, overcast and it started raining while the kids were in the water but hey, we saw the beach. We also went up to see the lighthouse near Exmouth and had a bit of a drive around. It was miserable weather but we were still determined to have some fun.
The next day, Tuesday, we were planning on going to Coral Bay for a day trip. When we woke up we could almost see the sun in Exmouth but 155km down the coast the weather was just starting to hit. And it was low tide. Most tour boats were either not going out or only taking a limited number of people. Because of the direction of the wind they wouldn't let canoes and kayaks be hired out for fear of you blowing over, it was way colder than Exmouth was.
Middle of the day, peak tourist season, all the caravan parks were fully booked out and the beach was absolutely deserted. Everyone was hiding out in their caravans or hotel rooms. I actually stopped, took a photo of the deserted beach and laughed at how crazy we were being.
But we were determined. Phil was the brave one. He hired a snorkel and wearing nothing but a pair of board shorts went straight into the freezing cold water and snorkelled over the Ningaloo Reef.
After lunch mum and I finally worked up the courage to get in there as well. It was so cold it was breathtaking, literally. My breathing was so shallow and my arms and legs were moving so fast to try and keep warm. But wow!! What an amazing thing to see. Fish
everywhere. Big fish, little fish, colourful fish, striped fish. Fish eating coral, fishing swimming so close you could almost touch them and then just as I was about to give in and get out I saw a manta ray. That. Was. Amazing.
Kaitlyn and Bradley also tried snorkelling. And that was probably one of my proudest mummy moments. That little moment made the entire trip worth all the stress, running around and extra $1,000 in accommodation.
When Kaitlyn was younger and her anxiety wasn't under control she had an enormous fear of the beach. Walking along a path one day going to a friends wedding which was in the surf club near the beach was enough to send her into a full blown panic attack. She screamed, cried, tried to run away, hid behind me and held my hand for dear life.
It was a relatively intense fear.
And here we are only 2.5 years later and she was not only standing on the sand at the beach she was swimming and SNORKELLING.
It almost brought me to tears. That little girl is such an amazing, strong little girl. I'm so proud of her.
As the rain started again we decided to give up and head back to Exmouth where we were booked into an Italian restaurant that came very highly recommended from quite a few people.
We were the 3rd group of people to arrive for the whole night. It was practically empty when we walked in, apart from 2 other small groups.
We ordered our pasta dishes about 10 minutes after arriving and sat down chatting and awaiting what we thought would be an amazing meal.
An hour later, the restaurant was packed. Everyone else had ordered and almost everyone else in the restaurant had their meal (and many had even finished their meals) and we were STILL waiting!
Having 3 small children I always try and book dinner reservations for fairly early in the evening so we can get them home and off to bed before the overtired grumpiness sets in.
Well it had set in. 7pm and no one had eaten, it was past Isla's bedtime and everyone was very restless watching everyone else eat their meals.
We asked the waitress who came back with the "its a busy night, wont be long" response.
15 minutes later we FINALLY had our meals.
The 2 older kids had ordered a pasta dish with mozzarella. What they got was a bowl of cooked, dry pasta. Not a single drop of cheese or sauce or anything. It was a bowl of dry pasta. They were so hungry they just chowed down though. Thankfully Phil and mum both enjoyed their meals but it was such a long wait I was over it. My tummy had gone beyond hungry and I couldn't eat much at all.
What a way to end a disastrous holiday.
Sometimes you have to stop and really look to find the magic in the world. In a place as special and amazing as Coral Bay you wouldn't think you would need to stop and take a deep breath and look for the magic-I always assumed the magic of that place would just jump down your throat.
But we did. We were so determined to have a good time, so determined to get the most out of this amazing place that we are so lucky to live close to. Some days there felt absolutely horrible, but when we stopped and looked around us at the kids playing so nicely, and the beaches and the fact that we were actually on a holiday we saw just how lucky we are.
Phil reckons if we go back a 3rd time and its a disaster he will never go again (poor guy, I don't blame him)...I reckon bring on round 3!!
