Swimming with manta rays

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Day 49 – Friday 17^th August – Coral Bay

Our gravel pit campsite was just as scenic in the morning as it was when we arrived in the dark. We were surrounded by mounds of gravel, a few cows and some grazing land! Luckily the wind had died down and we were able to make a quick cup of tea before packing up and driving into Coral Bay for 9am. We got kitted out with wetsuits with the rest of the holiday makers who had booked on our trip, then had a short coach ride to the Coral Bay harbour, where our boat, the Kurni Ku, was waiting for us. The weather forecast was for pretty much no wind and 28 degrees, so we knew we would be in for a fantastic day.

After about 20 mins on the boat cruising out of Coral Bay, we arrived at the end of the boat channel and our first snorkelling point. We donned our wetsuits and hopped into the beautifully clear water. As it was pretty deep water it felt colder than when we had been snorkelling off the beach. We saw the usual suspects in the water – loads of butterfly fish, damsels, anemone fish, parrot fish, wrasse, trevally (know lots more fish species now!) and a pretty large stingray minding its own business on the sea bed. Once the boat crew knew that all our equipment was working OK and that we were all a competent bunch of snorkellers it was time to go and find the manta rays!

The boat cruised north along the coast to Batemans Bay, where the mantas are known to hang out. To ensure that we didn’t have too long to wait before we found our first manta ray, the tour companies employ spotter planes to look out for the rays. They are looking for large black diamond shapes in the clear water. Female manta rays can grow up to 4m from wingtip to wingtip so are a large enough target to be seen from the air. Lead swimmer Caitlin had given us a briefing on what to do and what not to do when we get in the water with the manta ray, and we had been split up into two groups because the trip was quite large. We were to stay behind the manta ray (not hard seeing as they swim pretty quickly propelled by their massive wings) and only dive down for a close up on the second swim if given the nod by Caitlin. Touching the ray is forbidden because it removes the protective mucus coating on their skin and can lead to disease. Also a bit scary trying to touch such a huge sea creature, however harmless they are (no sting in the tail or scary teeth).

When we had spotted our manta ray group one hopped in the water and followed it. Group 2 (us) slipped in about 10 minutes later for our go. The huge female manta ray was gracefully floating and swimming along the sea bed ahead of us and we were swimming like mad to keep up. Then the manta ray started swimming towards the surface, right where Mark was in the water…. Instead of going to the surface the ray started doing huge slow barrel rolls, with its mouth wide open filtering food from the water. It did roll after roll after roll and let us watch from a safe distance. There were two sucker fish attached to the underside of the ray, clinging on for dear life as the ray rolled over and over and over. It was an awesome display from an amazing creature. Caitlin was taking photos with her SLR camera in its underwater case and had a front seat view to the barrel rolling. I was pointing our little underwater Fujifilm camera at the ray and filming, hoping to capture some of the action.

After about 10 minutes it was time for group 1 to have their second swim with the ray so we hopped back on the boat and watched the action in the water. Soon we were in the water again. The manta ray had got a bit of speed up and was swimming away from us quite fast. We put our arms and fins in super-fast mode and tried to keep up with it. It was hard work and soon half the group had dropped off. The ray was in deep water now and no one had the energy to dive down for a photo, so we let Caitlin take the pictures for us on her proper camera , before the manta ray put on an extra spurt and floated off into the distance. Swimming with the manta ray had been a brilliant experience.

Back on the boat the crew had prepared our lunch of cold meats, salad and rolls and a fruit platter. Tea, coffee and milo warmed us up after being in the cool water. Jovial skipper Matt then gently steered the boat out towards the outer reef and the sea grass meadows of the dugong and turtle sanctuary. This time we would be viewing the marine life from the boat and not from the water. We spotted several turtles and after much searching, a few dugongs. The dugongs were grazing on the sea grass and would then pop up for air for several seconds. This was the first time we have seen dugongs and it was pretty special.

There was one more treat in store for us on the trip – snorkelling in a place called ‘The Maze’, not too far from the Coral Bay boat harbour. It is the crew’s favourite snorkelling part of the reef around Coral Bay and it was absolutely sensational. Caitlin took us to a large “bommie” coral where there are usually white-tipped reef sharks. Sure enough, when we dived down we could see two of them sleeping under the coral ledge. There were patches of beautiful soft coral and bursts of colour with blue staghorn, green, yellow and purple corals. Add the millions of amazing fish and it was truly stunning. We could have stayed there for hours hopping in and out of the water soaking up the marine life, but as the tide was going out the water was getting too low over the coral and we had to head back to the harbour at 3pm. It had been a truly spectacular trip.

Less than half an hour after we were back on shore the tour company had sorted through the photos that Caitlin had taken that day and had made a selection of the best shots. Caitlin had taken shots of everyone on the trip as well as the manta ray and underwater life, and they were being shown on the big screen in the tour office. All the photos were available to buy on a USB stick for the bargain price of $35 dollars. So all the best underwater shots on today’s blog are from Caitlin’s camera!

Next on the plan was to steal a shower in the Bayview campsite, as there is no key or keypad security on the amenity blocks. It was excellent to be able to untangle our hair and scrub some of the dirt off our skin, even if the water in the showers was salt water and not fresh water. Squeaky clean again (but wearing unclean clothes) we decided to see if Brian, Sandy and Lynne were at their caravan so we could say good bye before we leave Coral Bay. They were there and we enjoyed the last of the afternoon sun drinking nice cold champagne, beer with nibbles with our new friends. We stayed chatting until it got dark (Luke was happily watching the AFL game between the Cats and the Saints on their TV), planning on getting a hundred or so kilometers under our belt before pulling over for the night. For dinner we treated ourselves to a pizza from the pizzeria at Coral Bay, which we ate while travelling. It was an excellent pizza and was even more tasty as there was no washing up involved!

After about an hour’s driving we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn again, heading south. When we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn travelling north we were on our night drive out of Alice Springs towards Tenant Creek. That was a long time and many many kilometers ago! How many amazing things have we seen and done since then? Our overnight stop was at the Lake McCloud rest area where we found ourselves a nice little spot in the dark.

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