Day 45 – Coral Bay to Carnarvon

Well the day started off normally, but ended in a way we certainly didn’t want or expect.

We had booked ourselves on a 2 hour glass bottomed boat tour out in Coral Bay this morning, so at 9.00am we turned up at the tour desk, and three of used the wetsuits offered. We brought our own snorkel gear, even though it was included in the package today, its always good to use the equipment you are familiar with. We met down the beach, waded out through the shallow water onto the boat. As we were boarding the boat two playful dolphins were swimming around the boat.

 

 

Then away we went, looking through the glass panels in the bottom of the boat, watching the coral and plentiful fish glide under the boat. After a short while we stopped for our first snorkel, jumping off the back of the boat into the sea. Unfortunately today their was a bit of wind, so the sea was quite choppy.

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Brendan and Sam had a wonderful time, seemingly not even noticing the wavy sea, as they snorkelled around seeing many colourful reef fish, and even a turtle. That really made Sam’s day. I got in for a short snorkel, but found the sea a bit rough, so after a swim around, Lily and I got back on the boat to watch the fish and coral through the bottom of the boat.

 

We stopped again at another part of the reef, called ‘the aquarium’, and we all got in the water again. This was exactly like a living huge aquarium – we swam right through huge schools of vibrant coloured fish, and looked at the Lavender coral – which is only found on the Ningaloo Reef.

The boys once again had a terrific snorkel around and really enjoyed the experience. Then it was back into shore. We were all pretty cold by the time we got back into shore, as the wind was starting to really get up now.

So after warming up with a hot pie at the bakery, we set off again in the car, aiming for Carnarvon – only a couple of hours down the road, or so we thought……

Half an hour down the road, about 20km south of the turn off to Coral Bay on the main highway, we noticed a caravan coming towards us, with another one trying to overtake it. Never good when it is coming straight at you. But then, the overtaking van suddenly started swaying out of control, and before our very eyes flipped over and over three times, taking the car with it, and finally landing right across the road blocking both lanes. Thankfully we were able to brake in time to miss it all.

The wreckage was unbelievable – the van just completely disintegrated, spewing its contents everywhere. Brendan’s first instinct was to run to the car and get the occupants out, which he did, while I stayed in the car for a few minutes with the kids, because to be honest, we weren’t sure exactly what he would find…

Anyway, he got the lady passenger out, and laid her down on a mattress he pulled from the van wreckage. The male passenger was OK (thank God), and got out himself. They were both in shock, and the only injury they had was from the glass from the windscreen. After I had told the kids to stay in the car, I went and helped the lady, who was shaking (not surprisingly), and helped pick out the glass from her face and shoulder, and making sure she was OK, I then ran back to my van, and made her a cup of strong tea (thankfully I could use the gas in our van to boil the kettle I hadn’t yet used!)  

She was better after a sit down for a while and a cup of tea, so then Brendan and I and the kids helped salvage what we could out of the van for them. It took us 1 ½ hours to drag what we could off the road, and flag down any other vehicles coming in either direction, so they wouldn’t run into the car and van blocking the entire road. A couple of other travellers stopped to help.  The poor couple were from Perth, and just on their way around Australia, and now they had lost everything – the car was a write off, and the van completely and utterly destroyed. It was a vivid reminder to us how easily something like this could happen – they were caught in a crosswind as they tried to overtake the other caravan.

After we had done everything we could (thankfully I was able to find her tablets and jewellery in the shattered mess), and also able to salvage a few clothes for them, then we waited until the tow truck came, and after exchanging phone numbers, we left them to wait for further help. Unfortunately we were 200km from any help (Exmouth or Carnarvon), and we all had no phone service. Thankfully a truckie that came by had a satellite phone, so eventually we were able to call for help. When we arrived in Carnarvon later that night, we contacted their family members for them to explain the situation.

A very frightening incident, and one that left us all quite shaken for some time.

Tonight we arrived at the Coral Coast Caravan Park, tired, shocked and very weary, not sure what we were going to do for dinner. As we were parking our van, a very kind lady came over to us out of the blue, and offered us two cooked chickens and rolls that she had overbought while shopping for her and a few family members. She recognised us from having lunch in Coral Bay yesterday near her, so decided to offer it to us. Talk about a blessing and good timing! More than that I think…..