June 23 ... Coral Bay

Our camp site at Coral Bay

Well, the locusts were really weird but they appear to have left us ... perhaps it is warm enough for them to move on. They were more interesting than bothersome. They moved in an airspace about 3 ms off the ground and did not land on the van or us hardly at all, but the trees were covered. They appeared in late morning and if you looked up, the sun on their wings and their movement made them look like a snowstorm. Obviously the birds have had enough of them because nothing was feeding on them, except the big fish if the locust somehow fell into the water. On the horizon they looked like a huge, moving thick brown smudge ... all quite interesting.

Coral Bay

 We have fallen into a very pleasant (and lazy) routine where we sleep in and wait for the day to warm up. Then a late breakfast and a couple of hours to do stuff ... emails, French, buy the paper etc. Around 11 we have morning tea / lunch then head for the beach from around 12 - 3pm, the warmest part of the day. The water is fresh but beautiful and swimming is enjoyable. We now walk around the point to Paradise Beach as it is a little bit nicer there. Until today there has been a sneaky breeze that is good to shelter from, but today is perfect, and I expect it will actually get hot. The locusts might be quite good weather forecasters!
After sunning ourselves for a few hours we walk "home" for afternoon tea, then showers, an early dinner, the crossword, a movie, reading and to sleep around 10.30. What a life! All of this is interspersed with some people watching, occasional excursion and interesting conversation. I couldn't do it indefinitely, but for a week or two it is a pretty relaxing lifestyle.

Linda in Paradise!

Paradise  Beach

People are coming and going here all the time. In the park most are oldies but there are a lot of backpackers on the beach, mainly international, but it is far from crowded. There are a few shops and it is pleasing to see the "silver man" is still here. It was not too much of a struggle to find some lovely earrings there. We had dinner out the other night at the local cafe and it was excellent. Garry enjoyed his "usual"- a massive bowl of mixed seafood poached in cream and garlic sauce. He never did get his lobster feed so we have put that on the list for next time.
From what we have overheard, it is a very quiet season this year. Visitor numbers are way down, which is possibly a good thing for us but not so good for the tourist industry. I guess it is a reflection of the global economic situation and our strong dollar.