The Ningaloo Reef Marine Park is world heritage listed, and stretches 260 kms along the coastline from Coral Bay to Exmouth. Apart form the majestic coastline, the reason we are here is to swim with the Whale sharks, which are in the area each year from April to July.
Our swim with whale sharks, was an amazing experience. We managed 5 swims in one day on the boat tour departing from Coral Bay. It's quite hectic as the dive boat drops you in the water in front of the 6m whale shark, then you have to wait till it swims past, then speed after it with fins, mask and snorkel and try to keep up.... once you loose the shark it's back to the boat to try and catch up with it again!
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| snorkeling day with the whale sharks |
The water is crystal clear, a pleasant 24C, and we had a chance to snorkel the reef before heading out into the deep water. I'm sure the crew do this to work out the various swimming abilities of everyone on board before the whale shark swim.... no point loosing a tourist.
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| whale shark |
Each tour boat uses a spotter plane to locate the whale sharks, and luckily we found our whale shark before 11am. We felt very small in the water beside such a large fish, and whilst they only feed on coral spawn, krill and plankton, it's a little unnerving having a fish that big swim towards you.
Having left Coral Bay we booked into a few different camp sites in the Cape Range National National Park out of Exmouth. There's limited camping here, and the travel season is starting to get going, so we were lucky to get in. Although each of the camp sites is small (holding between 5 - 17 sites only) they are all lagoon/beach-side and provide fantastic snorkeling and fishing.
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| snorkeling lagoon |
These few weeks have been about wearing our swimmers most of the time, and spending time in and by the water. We've seen turtles, beautifully coloured fish, coral, rays and even a few sand sharks.
Thank goodness the camper-trailer has a fresh water shower as the ocean seems to be extra salty??
There are several gorge walks in the park, which have small populations of the endangered black footed rock wallaby. We were lucky enough to stumble across a group on one of our afternoon walks. They are tiny little creatures.
The country side is arid to semi desert, with very little running fresh water. We've hardy seen a tree with gnarled acacia and spinifex being about all that grows. Yardie Creek is the only permanent fresh water in the National Park, so it's a popular spot for the wild life. There are dingo's in the park but I haven't seen any yet, just tracks in the sand.......
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| black footed rock wallaby |
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| Yardie Creek |
We've had a couple of trips into town to restock supplies,... and search out a latte and flat white. Kevin's also met some new golf buddies, and played golf in the Saturday Exmouth Comp.
When we've had enough of the beach life, we'll be heading to Karatha to check out some of the mining boom, then turn inland to Tom Price.
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