The day got underway with a Bacon and Egg and Baked Beans breakfast. Alexander spent a bit of time finishing some of his school work before we went to the beach.Coral Bay is a beautiful spot with turquoise water, sandy beaches and palm trees (see photo). It is located in the southern part of Ningaloo Reef marine park. Being a marine park means fishing is mostly prohibited and marine life is in abundance.
The main water supply is from a 540mt deep artisan bore and the water comes up hot. By the time the water arrives at the taps in the caravan park it's a nice and warm tub temperature. As it is quite saline and corrodes just about everything, it can't be connected to the caravan so we run on our tanks with water from Kalbarri.
The beach was great but the with a bit of a breeze around in the morning the water was too cold for my liking. The kids however don't feel the cold and had their first go at snorkeling. Alexander's efforts were rewarded with sightings of numerous fish species and Andrea was happy to tag along with her big brother.
After a couple of hours snorkeling things came to an abrupt halt when Alexander jumped up and sprinted out of the water yelling that he'd been bitten by something. Although I felt something touching my feet as it went past I couldn't identify creature. First we thought that he'd just got scared with something brushing against his feet, but when we saw the blood running down his heel and a reasonably deep wound it became clear that he wasn't imagining things.
Ilse took Alexander straight to the local Nursing Post (no Doctor or Hospital) which was closed (Sunday!) but a quick phone call to the number on the door got the local on-call Nurse out within a few minutes.
By the time the Nurse arrived Alexander was crying, shivering and in severe pain with the wound starting to swell up. The local Nurse, a fella by the name of Scott, took one look at the wound and informed us that a Stingray was most probably
the culprit - now we know why these creatures are called a STINGray!We have probably disturbed the animal while sitting in the sand, and as he departed he gave a flick with his tail and inflicted the wound on Alexander's heel - apparently they have a few cases every year.
The severe pain was caused by the toxin left behind by the stinger. Most toxins from marine animals are protein based and the treatment is hot water as it neutralizes the toxin. However, as soon as the water temperature drops the pain returns in full strength. After an hour of hot water treatment the pain level started to become bearable and the nurse flushed out the wound to remove any sand and put on antiseptic to prevent infection.
Due to the unforeseen delay we had a late lunch and spent the remainder of the afternoon back at the caravan recovering from the ordeal. Alexander is now very proud of himself, being the only one amongst his friends to have experienced a Stingray attack - he can't wait to get back to tell them all about it.
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