Day 22

Day 22 Coral Bay

Old units we stayed in 30 years ago

Lazy start to the day. We pottered around until just before lunch time and then went for a walk down to the beach. We took our snorkelling gear with us to see what the bay was like. Maureen helped me walk out to the drop off. For those who do not know Coral Bay, the beach is very flat for about 50m which is dry at load tide, then it drops off into deeper water. The coral grows quite close to the beach and in the old days when were there 30 odd years ago, the drop off was

Camp Play ground

Camp Map with our site

usually lined up with boats as this was the only launching area. Maureen thought the water was cold, one of the advantages of loosing your senses is that it did not seem cold to me. Maureen stayed in the shallows whilst I went for a snorkel. Last time we were here with the kids ( just over 15 years ago) the bay was obviously dying. We could smell the septics draining into the bay at low tide and the coral was being killed off by the algae growth and there were very few fish there. The only fish you really saw were the spangled emperor that they used to feed every day – they don’t do it now, not sure why.

Well it was a pleasant surprise. The coral had died and you could see the scars, but the reef is really growing back. There were clumps of new brain coral and small plate corals as well as baby stag horn about 3 or 4 cm long. It will obviously take some time but it is already started. Fish were also there in big numbers. There were a range of different butterfly fish as well as the pretty trigger fish as well as clown fish and to my surprise some reasonably sized giant clams, about 30 cm in size. In about 10 years’ time I expect it will be fully regrown.

Sunset

I got out with Maureen’s help and we sat on the beach and enjoyed the sun before heading back to camp. Lunch was then dispatched and we settled down for a rest until it was happy hour at the hotel. Like the bar flies that we are, we headed off to grab a drink and watch the sun go down. A nice end to a good day.