Day 102-104 Coronation Beach
Trip Start
Dec 01, 2008
1
37
91
Trip End
Nov 08, 2009
Where I stayed
Coronation Beach
Coronation Beach, Western Australia, Australia
Monday, March 30, 2009
On the way to Coronation Beach we stopped at the Jayco repair shop in Geraldton to pick up a new handle for the van. Greg will attempt to change it over himself at some stage when the broken one becomes un-manageable. Pulling the whole handle and lock system out and then replacing the new part within it, without losing any small parts along the way, will test Greg's handyman skills. Stay tuned for his progress....
It was only a short distance to Coronation Beach. We chose an elevated cosy site up the back of the campground, unhitched the van, had lunch then secured it before leaving for Geraldton to buy supplies etc. We have a long list of requirements.
The whole day would be required to complete all the necessary tasks. Firstly we investigated and bought an inverter 300W that easily attaches to the car battery to re-charge small appliances, mainly the computer and phone, thus allowing further flexibility to stay in non-powered sites for longer. As usual we visited the $2 shop, B.N and now the kid's favourite venue, Max found fake crocs for $6, DVD's for $2 and $5 so he was happy and Maegs bought a size 5 netball for $8!
In between shopping we had a break at the foreshore playground with a water park and then soldiered on to a camping store for a reel to replace Max's broken one and got Maegan an ignoring netting to go over her hat, pink was not an option and she wasn't impressed it was black! I finally bought a mattress topper, three stores later after investigating the best price and quality on B.N's instruction - hope to god it makes a difference to our backs...
We then took respite at the Freemasons Hotel for refreshments before even contemplating the food shopping - it was closer to 5pm by now and we were all exhausted.
Coles was near Target in a main shopping centre, so I managed to pick up a couple bargains on the throw out summer clothes rack for $14 and a bag of much needed gluten free juby lollies whilst I checked for mattress toppers! Then I joined Greg and the kids in the supermarket. It was a whirlwind of purchases and then we hi-tailed it back to Coronation Beach, B.N was noticeable quiet on the drive back...
I slept like a baby with the new mattress topper (thanks Wendy for convincing me).
The beach was covered in seaweed, the wind was howling also, Greg was the only one who ventured in for a swim. Apart from the un-inviting look of the beach it also had a fairly strong current that precluded the children swimming anyway.
The wind surfers and kite surfers were out in huge numbers, as were the flies at this campsite. As the wind picked up the flies disappeared, but not before Greg had several little hissy fits about them hanging around his ears. The kids wore their ignoring hats when outside the van, Maegan overlooked the colour of the netting, finding the effectiveness of keeping the flies off her face far outweighed her fashion needs.
I sat and marvelled at the windsurfers for a long time, several hours one afternoon. Many of these people were from overseas - I guessed competing at the highest level by the standard of their tricks, which were awesome. Some were doing somersaults over the surf and landing them 9 times out of ten. The ease to which they changed direction right before crashing into the shore was un-believable.
We staged our own championships out front of the van in our large site late one afternoon - a netball game, boy's v girl's (Australia v New Zealand). We set up two plastic chairs as goals and the aim was to throw the ball onto the chair to score. The kids competed in a ball up to decide initial possession, the main skills required were throwing, catching, dodging and keeping your feet still when holding the ball. Max participated enthusiastically but could not keep his feet still, running with the ball every time he got it, despite us stopping the game frequently to remind him and continuously penalising him. We were all in hysterics at his inability to do so, because he was so competitive and focussed on winning he just couldn't slow down enough. He even surpassed Greg's antics!! We had heaps of fun.
Others in the camp-site stopped to ask us who won the morning we were leaving. We obviously were so boisterous people were drawn to our game, none of us noticed. It was a draw...
We rested mostly whilst here, I caught up on reading and the kids completed some school work. Greg dared Maegan to stay in her pyjamas all day, she happily obliged. There weren't any showers and as we weren't able to swim, we filled the dish washing container and sponged ourselves on the last night, which was novel and very enjoyable.
Afterwards as we were doing the dishes we realised we had run out of fresh water, it made me feel vulnerable and a little panicked. I was happy to move on next morning, definitely to a powered site and one where we could get running water. We didn't realise we were so low on drinkable water when we left Dongara which our last opportunity to re-fill the van. It is difficult to gauge the levels and after a night at Ellendale Pool and these last two nights solely dependant on our own supplies, we will have to take more care as we move further up the West coast.
Comments
sleep and water
So good to see that you have had a good night's sleep. You will need to carry the big 10 litre cartons of water through WA. I also suggest buying the collapsible plastic water carriers available at any camping place. We had a 20 litre plastic gerry can on the van with a pump like the one in the van ON YOUR SINK attached to it(very handy). The pumps can be bought at any caravan place. Other travellers thought it was a great idea. I would also suggest that you get a water level put in your van so you know how much water is left in the tank. Great to hear that you are still enjoying yourself.