Betten On Bike: DAY 52 - 31ST MAY 2013 - NANUTARRA ROADHOUSE TO CORAL BAY

Day 52 – 31^stMay 2013 - Nanutarra Roadhouse – Coral Bay

We all woke refreshed after our early night to bed. Walter had to wait before he could leave because as it was heavily overcast it took a lot longer for first light.

Andrea & I enjoyed a relaxing morning – we had some time today so we decided to stop after driving over the large river crossing over the Nanutarra Bridge and we could walk over the old bridge – in the wet season you could see how incredibly wide this river became. The bridge was high above the water and the early morning view up the river to the mountains was quite beautiful.

On the road today we saw 2 dingoes slinking away in the distance parallel to the road. We also saw a huge flock of white correllas. The early morning was heavily overcast, cold and very windy but as the day proceeded the skies slowly began to clear and to the south we could see clear blue sky so we were optimistic that Coral Bay would present itself as per the beautiful photos we had been looking at. I was absolutely gobsmacked when suddenly I spotted a huge emu running along in front of us but to the left of the road – I tried to tell Andrea but I couldn’t speak for a few seconds - he must have got an enormous fright because he ran erratically first beside us for a while and then he crossed the road quite close to us and soon disappeared into the grasslands. Wow – but too quick to photograph I’m afraid.

Cycling Stats: 238kms

Cycling Average: 29kms per hour

If Walter’s ride yesterday had been tough today was unfortunately, even tougher. The exposed ridge line of the road meant there was absolutely no protection from the strong gusty cross winds and as we had made the decision not to go to Exmouth as there wouldn’t be enough time, Walter’s ride today was longer than originally noted in his itinerary. The extreme gusty cross winds meant that in the final stretch before the turn-off to Coral Bay he couldn’t get more than 20km per hour average speed and so it was that as Walter was spent so he got into the van for the last 20kms to the Coral Bay turnoff and then cycled the last 12 kms to Coral Bay from there. His total cycling kms for the day was still 60 kms more than the planned itinerary.

On arriving in Coral Bay we were struck by the pristine white sandy bay and the amazing aqua blue of the water. Our ocean facing apartment gave us a wonderful view over the bay and on our balcony we were protected from the strong winds and enjoyed our evening meal there looking out over the green lawns and palm trees of the Ningaloo Bay Resort and the beautiful Coral Bay.