Exmouth-Ningaloo Reef-Coral Bay

We decided to skip Onslow & travel straight down to Exmouth, where we checked in to a great park for a couple of days, which we subsequently extended for a further 3 days so were there for just short of a week.  Although we'd had some negative reports about Exmouth, we found it to be a great little town, with great facilities for tourists, and a huge number of wonderful tours & expeditions on offer.  Plus, we found the coffee shop wasn't too foul either, serving normal looking & tasting coffees, much to my delight.

Our 2nd day was Sunday, and we found the Exmouth Christian Fellowship to be a great little church, where we thoroughly enjoyed the message, the worship & the fellowship.  Even bumping in to a couple we had met at church in Kununurra, so it was great to catch up with where they had been since we met them all those weeks ago.

Monday Trevor left before 7am to go on a day trip out on the reef to do snorkelling, and hopefully to swim with the whale sharks.  The season was meant to have finished in mid August, but amazingly for some reason the whale sharks are still around (obviously still plankton about for them to eat) and therefore an opportunity of a lifetime had to be taken up.  I, being a relative non-swimmer, opted not to attempt this challenge - I was convinced that if I saw a whale shark (all 6+metres long of it) I would die of fright, let alone trying to cope with swimming & breathing through a snorkel etc, so I was happy to wave TR off for the day.

My visitor at the van while Trevor was off diving  :-(  - (Not my favourite beast)

He returned at 6.30pm exhausted but elated with the whole experience being beyond anything he had imagined doing this trip.  The reef snorkelling to begin the day, seeing a miriad of brilliantly coloured fish and coral was great in itself, but when the spotter plane sighted a whale shark feeding & the boat soon caught up with it, and dropped the swimmers (including Trevor) to swim alongside it, the experience soon exceeded all expectations.  To witness the enormous, gentle creature with its huge mouth open, cruising the waters, feeding on the minute plankton was a spectacle beyond belief, especially when it is so unperturbed by the numbers of be-flippered swimmers clustered above and around it.  The operation is very well organized, and although there are 3 companies offering the same dive, when a whale is sighted they all converge and take it in turns to drop swimmers, allowing no more than 10 at a time in the water.  Trevor was very impressed with the way it was conducted.

They took it in turns over a period of time & each group had 4 seperate opportunities to dive in. All operators are only allowed to swim with a whale shark for no more than 1 hour.  Obviously the whale shark was very placid & accommodating in remaining accessible for them all to get a really good look at him, and enjoy the moment, as they all absolutely did.  Trevor took some brilliant underwater stills & video and nearly got swiped by the tail at one stage he was so close.

They also spotted a pod of over 200 spinner dophins, (very rare sighting apparently), a venomous sea snake (who is apparently more venomous than most snakes on land, but entirely docile and not aggressive unless provoked), as well as many hammerhead sharks, other fish, and even a Morton Bay bug, who would seem to have been way off course but swimming happily on the surface.

So it was an amazing day and we are so pleased that Trevor had the opportunity to do it.  It wasn't on his bucket list, but one could say it was a bonus prize !!  The next day was a total rest day, as he realised how exhausting it had been keeping up with the whale shark, let alone the intensity of the day itself, with 4 mtr swells and all that he experienced.  I was exhausted just hearing about it.

Raring to go !!

Yesterday we decided to drive around the cape to Turquoise Bay, which is the favourite, and a simply magnificent bay and place for tourists to have a go at snorkelling.  Not to be outdone, I decided that at my tender young age, perhaps I should bite the bullet, put my fears aside and don mask & flippers and see what all the fuss was about.  Not being a water baby by any stretch of the imagination, this was no mean task, but I was determined to give it a go so we hired me some gear and off we went.

The bay is aptly named, as the water is a brilliant turquoise colour and crystal clear.  Quite the most beautiful sight with pristine golden sand bordering the amazing blue water.  Donning wetsuit (a remnant of our past water skiing days, which impressively now fits me again) and the goggles, mask & flippers I took to the water.  After some simple and very encouraging tuition from my lovely husband, I ventured into the blue & took the plunge.  To my utter amazement I soon mastered the breathing through the snorkel, and in fact thoroughly enjoyed floating around amidst the coral & its brightly coloured fishy inhabitants.  We didn't have to go far (only 20 mtrs off the beach) to see such an amazing variety of shapes, sizes & colours of fish and I was able to enjoy, in the flesh, some of the sea life I have only seen on film before.  Exquisite and amazing is the only way to describe the experience.

See, you can teach old dogs new trick !!

Today we have moved on to Coral Bay, not too far down the coast and still a part of the Ningaloo Reef system.  We will be here a week, and no doubt we will venture into the water yet again, as this bay offers the same brilliant blue water, soft golden sand, and easy and close access to the coral & its fish.

Whereas some beaches nurture a strong surfing culture, the Reef in contrast has a diving culture all of its own, and its great to see the passion the local tour operators have for the region and all it has to offer those who feel inclined to explore and take advantage of it all.  We feel blessed & privileged to be able to experience such an awesome part of God's creation !!