The Crawshaws’ Road Trip To Darwin - Coral Bay

Tuesday 30 April - We were on the road again by 7am, getting the hang of packing the car as a team. Off to Coral Bay, yay! Last time I went there was in 1992, a long time between eyeballing the Snapper. It was our first really long drive, approximately 675 kms.
As we were tootling along, a land cruiser appeared to sit on our tail, no attempt made to pass, even though there were long stretches of clear road. We passed a few vehicles, and a couple of trucks and put a fair bit of distance between us and the land cruiser. It must have almost busted a gasket to make up ground, only to sit back each time. By now, my mind was working overtime. I imagined all sorts of macabre scenarios, each with us coming to a grizzly demise.
We reached the Billabong Roadhouse and stopped for food and drink. As did the land cruiser. The driver and I actually crossed paths on the way to the toilet. A short, chubby bloke with a swarthy complexion, sour expression and shifty eyes. I scuttled in to the Ladies and locked the door very smartly. I practically ran back out in to the shop, half expecting him to be lying in wait in the corridor. Of course, I really suspected he was after Michael for some sordid reason but who knew. Maybe I had crossed paths with him once before, and it was me who had caused him some deep seated harm and now he was taking his god given opportunity to exact revenge.
We took off before he had returned to the land cruiser but though we were well on our way, he drove up behind us once again. And stayed there. As I started to fabricate a whole new series of underbelly events, he suddenly swung out and roared past us. Just as another vehicle was coming towards him from the opposite direction. He made it in time and disappeared in the proverbial cloud of dust. Crazy.
Apart from this slightly unsettling occurrence, the rest of the journey was uneventful, except for regular cow sightings. I took a turn behind the wheel and drove us in to Coral Bay. A truly beautiful piece of coastline. We stayed at the People’s Park, in a chalet on a hill at the back of the park. It was very comfy and equipped with all the mod cons. We ran into friends of friends from Busselton in the car park, as you do when on holiday. They were staying for 35 nights, we stayed for 2.
After a bit of shopping for a bbq tea, MC had a few drinks at Bill’s Bar while I browsed in the boutique. After a few attempts, I gave up, clothing I liked either too small or too large. I went to the newsagent and bought a novel. The guy behind the counter informed me he was born in Albany after quizzing me on the story of our journey. The tentacles of home stretch far.
The next morning, we donned our snorkels and masks and horizontally meandered around the bay. The fish are very big and not that timid, obviously used to being ogled by humans. Visibility was reasonable but eventually it became a bit chilly in the water so we went ashore.
The rest of the day was spent fuelling up the car, taking a drive around to the boat ramp, generally lazing around and then a couple of drinks at Bill’s Bar. On the way back to the caravan park, we stopped to watch the people from the charter boats cleaning their catch. What a sight! Forty odd Rankin Cod and about 35 Red Emperor. As they cleaned and filleted, a couple of old salts sang a made up song about fish and Coral Bay. Very entertaining.
We had dinner at Fin’s Cafe, a fine feed of gold band snapper. A thoroughly enjoyable soujourn in Coral Bay.