We’re on the road again….. in the rain.  Apparently the rain is going east, so we’re going to head way north to get out of its way.

The plan was to stay at a couple of stations and then head inland into Paraburdoo and Tom Price, but the rain has put an end to that plan.

This was our view for most of the day…

We crossed many a river, but even with all this water – they all looked like this…

This section of road ahead of us here – the North West Coastal Highway – Manilya to Barradale was closed due to flooding.  They’ve been widening the roads, so there’s a lot of extra sand on the side of the road.  This section of road floods quite often, so nobody seemed surprised that the road was closed.  We were planning to head to Coral Bay anyway, so whatevs.

As you drive up the WA coast, the landscape continuously changes.  One minute it’s flat on both sides of the road for as far as the eye can see; the next there’s short shrubbery and spinifex; the next, there are these mountainous termite hills….. how do the termites know that they are in the right place?  How did they know to go to this section?

Then….. we arrived at lovely Coral Bay.  There was a bit of chatter in the van whether we would bother as it’s a 24km round trip from the main road and it was grey and raining, therefore Coral Bay was not going be at its best…. but as we approached the turn off, it stopped raining enough for us all to say, “Oh, gwarn then” Translation: “Oh, go on then.”

And I’m pretty glad we did.

Coral Bay is a little fishing town just north of the Tropic of Capricorn.  It’s a super popular place as it is known as the gateway to the Nigaloo Marine Park and home to the whale shark.

We didn’t see any of these special little creatures, but we did see the beach.

These photos don’t do it justice at all.  The water is crystal clear and the sand a lovely squeaky white.

Although, the forbidding cloudage is lovely for photos, just imagine how lovely this place would be with but skies.

And….. the boardwalk also leads down to this shelter, so that people in wheelchairs or other devices that make it difficult of them to get down to the beach.  Now, that’s fun for the whole family!