At check in Nick asked his usual question "are there any secluded or shady private sites" to which the lady mockingly looked at him and replied "are you serious?" Although the sites were quite large, everyone was packed in side by side making private conversations impossible, and the sound of neighbours snoring and babies crying very audible.
Jo, Pete and girls were here, and we celebrated Summers birthday with a pool party, along with another great family we met, the Proudfoots, and the Backsons, who we hadn't seen since Margaret River.
Due to the lack of fresh water the pool, showers and laundry were all bore water which comes out of the ground at 80*c and has to be cooled. This made the pool feel almost like a giant spa most days (not that the kids cared) and when I walked through a garden sprinkler, got quite a fright when sprinkled with hot water.
Every day we headed to the beach, just a short stroll across the road and spent the time snorkelling, playing in the sand, kayaking, and watching a couple of beach weddings. Some highlights snorkelling were a formation called Ularu which was a huge piece of coral with a garden of coral on the top, another formation called the lavender patch, it literally looked just like a field of lavender. Seeing an array of fish, spotting the odd octopus and sting ray, the snapper feeding & going out on Mark Proudfoots boat to the edge of the reef where the water was crystal clear, the fish were so much more plentiful and Nick and Josh even saw a black tipped reef shark. Thanks Mark for your generosity and thoughtfulness.
Unfortunately our new waterproof camera broke down, so there wasn't a great deal of photos taken, but thankfully we did get a replacement sent so we can hopefully make good use of it at Exmouth.
The kids got through a fair bit of homework this week. Nick, or should I say Principal Linton, held a school assembly, then taught grade 3 maths and English (with Zach, Ned and on one day another boy, Max, joined in too). Josh and I sat for 5 hours straight getting through year 8 maths -fractions, square root, pi, diameter and area - I was brain dead by the end of it. Abbey had fun playing "schools" with Summer, Cleo, Deven and Winter., showing me all the words she had learnt to spell, and Matt put in some hard yards catching up on English and Maths.
A nightly game of spotlight with as many kids as they could find, entertained and tired the kids each night, while Sara & I enjoyed a few games of scrabble, Nick met every Victorian staying in the park, continuing to promote the whale shark tour in a bid to receive more referral fees off our tour tickets. A combined dinner with the four families, was although chaotic, a fun fun night. We farwelled Jo & Pete as they are on a tight schedule to Darwin, going to Bali before returning to Darwin just in time for Nicks 40th.
Time to head off to Cape Range National Park for a week to explore more of the beautiful Ningaloo Reef.
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