Ningaloo Reef: Full of awe!

Exmouth, Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range National Park are all about lazing on the beach and going fishing (which I don't do) and watching wildlife.

The beach above is 20 minute drive from the town. The town beach is more exposed, a bit ordinary, and next to a new marina development of large houses each with its own private jetty. The town itself is small with a beach-surfing vibe and it is full of tourists and the military. I arrived with nothing booked. The lovely lady at the info centre told me to be back there at 2pm to book into the overflow area as all the caravan parks are full. She also booked me onto a snorkelling and whaleshark tour. More about that later. My first day in Exmouth was spent at the laundromat, shops, cafes, and lining up for my campsite for 2 nights. Exmouth, it turns out is quite a new town, established as a US base in the early sixties. They created a mini-America with diners, a bowling alley, baseball diamond, US cars and currency. Not much of that is visible now apart from the street layout and these radio towers which are still used to communicate with submarines. There is now an RAAF base at the airport.

I spent my first full day exploring Cape Range National Park. On my way there, I drove up to a lighthouse built after the SS Mildura cattle-carrying steam ship ran aground on the reef in 1907. I could see humpback whales spouting and cruising out in the water.

The Cape, where Exmouth is also located, is almost treeless, with hills containing gorges and hundreds of caves. It is possible to walk into only 4 of the gorges, not as deep or dramatic as Karajini. The best thing about Mandu Mandu were the iridescent green and blue parrots on the cliffs.

Yardie Creek Gorge was also a short walk made interesting by the wildlife. I saw fruit bats and rock wallabies. I spent a long time sitting on the cliff top watching corellas, a sea eagle and a nesting osprey on the cliffs opposite.

On my way back to town, I checked out several of the beaches, all pretty white or golden sand, acqua blue water, sheltered by the reef, quite a lot of people.

My awesome second day - perfect weather conditions for an awesome all-day boat trip out through the reef with 3 Islands Whale Shark Dive tour. They picked up 20 people in their bus, drove us out to a jetty and boat ramp, ferried us in a small rigid rubber-ducky type boat to the larger tour boat. I was a little nervous about snorkelling, wearing a wetsuit, swimming in deep ocean water, all of which I have never done, but the all girl crew were fabulous, gave very clear instructions and there were pool noodles to take into the water. These are great flotation devices. First we pulled on wetsuits, learned how to fit our masks and breathe through the snorkel and then it was into the water for our first swim over the shallow inner reef. All of the photos below were taken by one of the guides.

They we had coffee and cake while they took the boat through a gap in the reef which fringes the coast for 260 kms. We saw a large hammerhead shark swimming near the surface and a humpback whale with her calf. There were 2 small planes looking for whale sharks. We were split into 2 groups of 10, and when it was our turn we had to stay in a line and follow the guide. We had to stay above and behind the shark. These are the world's largest fish, beautiful graceful creatures that filter-feed on krill and other tiny creatures. This is the view I had for about 10 minutes or so - twice!

This is me next to the guide.

This whale shark was about 6m in length. They can grow up to 15m. And the water was 40m deep!

We were privileged to have 2 swims with the whale shark. Then we had one last swim to look at the outer edge of the reef where it drops off into the deep water.

We were given a very nice lunch of salads and cold meats while the boat made its way back to the jetty. We saw more humpback whales, one in particular was splashing around and then decided to swim a full circle around our boat and breech right in front of us!

This really was a very special experience. Did I say it was an awesome day!. It will undoubtedly be one of the highlights of this wander through WA.