Celebrating an ‘Aussie Chrissie’ in Coral Bay.
A day before the day before Christmas and an alarm sounds, cutting short any notion of a lie-in. 5am and apparently I have to get on with the day, many miles to cover. Heading across the 26th parallel and into the Tropic of Capricorn to spend an entirely surreal Christmas Day attempting to roast a small chicken on a smaller BBQ in 40 degrees.
Coral Bay was a brief stop last year on the way back to Perth, and I for one was happy to revisit. Despite the odd hiccup, our car deciding to relieve itself of its hand brake cable a third of the way up, funnily enough it broke this time last year, evidence of a conspiracy, getting more business for the local mechanic.
Getting in a full 11 hours of driving on the first day, ending up in Carnarvon, a place notorious for ‘collaborator’ locals aiding and abetting backpackers sleep rough and not getting caught by the rangers! Not an awful lot to do in the town and only a quick turnaround stop for us anyway, we moved on.
If Paul McCartney wrote ‘The Long and Winding Road’ in Australia, I doubt he would worry how many bends are on route, just the long, the long straight road north.
A little chicken, pre stuffed, was slowly defrosting in the cool box, and keeping the beer cool in the bargain. Christmas now a day away.
Reaching Coral Bay, in a Western Australia heat-wave, easily 40+ degrees yet the red & white bobble hats are out in force. Australians half in, half out of the sea, beer in one hand, some sort of cricket paraphernalia in the other, if not then on an inflatable ‘floaty’ or wholly submerged, face down with snorkel tube pointed to the sky!
The bay is one of the best beaches I have seen in WA, sand dropping into crystal clear shallow’s continuing out dropping sharply onto an aquarium of reef, numerous wildlife patrolling its fringes and within, perfect snorkelling.
Roasting a chicken over coals is actually easier than you think, making it fit is the biggest challenge (or you could get a bigger BBQ), maybe some of the veggies might have got a little scorched, an over all success washed down with port. Next year I might make the trip back to the old and cold UK, contemplating that as we face down the 1500km’s back to Perth. Australia trumps again.
View more from Australia:
Exmouth and the Kangaroo | Australian galleries | Australia Blog post’s | Creative Block
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