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Published: April 11th 2008
Well we survived the Cyclone....well actually it never actually arrived! Just rained cats and dogs for 3 days!
So Coral bay being a bit of a wash out so to speak, we decided as soon as the road was reopened to head on up to Exmouth and the Ningaloo reef. We read about Exmouth before we were even in Australia as it is one of the few places in the world where Whale Sharks go past close to the coast and we had heard you could do a trip to swim with them.
Whale sharks are the world’s biggest "fish"; they are Sharks not whales and can grow up to 18 meters long! Well being the water baby that I am, and Tel fast becoming one we REALLY wanted to give it a go. When we arrived in Exmouth it was raining, despite the guide book claiming they 'never' had rain, they actually had 2 years worth in 4 days!! I think we could start to charge a fee to areas where there a droughts and we'll visit and bring the rain along to! Luckily the rain stopped on our second day in town. We decided to book on
G'day!
Scissortail Sergeant the Whale Shark tour for 5 days later to let the sky clear up a bit and make sure the rain was finished.
Anyway, The Ningaloo Marine Park coast is bordered by the Cape Range National Park so we decided to head out there and do some swimming on the reef. It is said to be the barrier reef without the barriers as it starts from about 10 meters off the beach. We swam off several beaches, probably the best of which was Turquoise Bay Drift, you walk to one end of the beach and swim 20 meters out to the reef and can just lay face down watching the coral and sea life as the tide pulls you about 300meters down the beach. Snorkeling for lazy people!! On one of our snorkels we came across a HUGE fish, it was about 2 meters and a big fat thing, we were told it was a Queensland Groper, although we aren’t in Queensland and it didn’t grope either of us!
At one of the campsites in the park we pulled into a camp spot right on the beach and managed to sink Tilly in the sand! Oops! Terry
says I have to tell you all that he was a bit of a hero as he managed to dig us out with his bare hands!! Actually we weren't in that far and it took him all of 10 seconds to sort out, but hey we'll give him his moment of glory!
So after a few days in the park the weather was great again and the visibility in the sea had improved so we headed back into town and decided to treat ourselves to a few days in a caravan park (get to use the aircon!!) while we waited for our big day to arrive.
Whilst in town we were amazed to hear someone calling our names and turned around to find Naomi and Chris who we met way back in Wellington Dam. Chris has just started work for a few months working on the prawn season and they were living in the caravan at the dock. I was lovely to see them again and we spent an evening over there having a Barbie. Travis and Jarrod have started at the local school and seem to be enjoying it although Frazer is a bit lost not having
them around. Naomi had said to us in town that someone had been taking shoes from outside caravans at the docks, about 15 pairs of shoes had gone missing in the last few days. When we went over for dinner, they told us the mystery was solved. Someone had kept watch out of their window after leaving a few pairs of shoes out as bait. Well they were amazed as the thief strolled up and made off with a pair. The “thief” was a fox! (hmmm a fox with a shoe fetish?!)
Well back at our caravan park we soon became acquainted with the people in the vans around us who turned out to be a bit of a crazy bunch (our kind of people!!) Steve and Jen are from Perth and were on holiday for a few weeks; John has been traveling Australia for years, and then Col, Renee and their little boy Kit who have been on the road 4 years. We had a few great nights with them all. Steve and John managed to figure out what was going on with our oven and got it working (Woohoo lasagne here we come!!)
So the big
day dawned and we were in town at the tour shop for 6.45am. The sky was cloudy which we thought was a good thing as we still have the bad memories (and scars!) of the snorkeling sunburn in Sipidan! Apparently the clouds were not a good thing though as it meant that the spotter plane would not be able to take off and, well spot! The trip was cancelled for that day and we were booked on for the following day. So 8am found us back at the caravan park in time for breakfast! The following morning the sun came up into a clear blue cloudless sky and the trip was on!
There were 20 people on the boat all dying to see an elusive Whale Shark. The DEC (Department of Environment and Conservation) set really strict guidelines about tours to the Whale sharks, only 10 people in the water, a maximum of 90 minutes with one fish, no closer than 3meters to it etc etc. We had spoken to a few people who had done the trip and actually spent just 2 minutes swimming with one so we were prepared not to be too disappointed. We started off
the trip by going through to the outer reef and spending some time snorkeling in the coral and with the millions of other fish that were around. At 10.30 the crew announced that the spotter plane had taken off and would radio us as soon as they found anything. We spent the next few hours in and out of the water and managed to find a big Sting Ray, apparently a Bull Ray which we spent ages swimming around. So after a buffet lunch we moved on to a new snorkel site for another swim. Still no word from the plane and after a couple more hours the trip was almost over, the plane had landed and NO WHALE SHARK!! AGHHHHH! Anyway not to panic, we knew that if there were none on your first trip you get to go again for free. We were not disappointed as we’d had a brilliant day snorkeling and we got to do it all again for free and might even get to see one the next time!
So the following morning was a bit like groundhog day, only the weather was even better and the sea like glass. The day panned out
much the same as the previous day, until about midday when our boat sounded its horn and the crew started yelling at us “we’ve got one, get back on the boat!” well mad scramble onto the boat and we set off. After 15 minutes we arrived in the area and cut the engine looking expectantly out to the water. Then we saw it, about 20 meters from the boat and one of the crew got in to check the sex and size of it (one of the DEC guidelines) and then bobbed up to call the first group in. “Our” Whale shark was about 3.5 meters long, a small one but not so small when you are next to it! And a female, which apparently is very unusual in these waters. Anyway we were in 2 groups of 10 and were taking it in turns to get in and out the water before she disappeared. We did this for the first 15 or 20 minutes doing 3 mins in 3 mins out. The crew then thought that the shark looked fairly relaxed and wasn’t rushing off anywhere and so we were able to be in the water for 10 min
turns.
One of the crew turned on a hose of the side of the boat as Whale Sharks like bubbles, to our amazement over she came and swam through the bubble and under the boat and spent the next 5 mins swimming around the boat! Suddenly she turned around, rolled over and disappeared into the deep water. The boat skipper had just been about to call it a day as we had been swimming with her for 90 minutes! (hmmmmm….a fish that can tell the time!) We couldn’t believe how excited we were, such a big fish but she was so gentle and graceful. Money defiantly well spent! So Exmouth for us was a big success, we swam with a Whale Shark, did some cool snorkeling and met some lovely people.
Exmouth was also a bit of a big point for us for a few other reasons…..When we arrived we realized the mileage had just gone over 10,000km since leaving. Exmouth is also the furthest point in Australia from Melbourne, so I guess you could say everything from here is going “home” (although with probably another 10-12,000km to do!)
So we left Exmouth and headed out on
the Great Northern Highway (the northern part of Route 1 which we have followed most of the way round) and have passed though Karratha, Dampier and Port Headland and are now in Broome. It is HOT HOT HOT up here, the thermometer yesterday said 52c! Its also very humid. We were looking forward to cooling off in the pool and the sea but no such luck.....the pool is the temperature of a warm bath and the sea is full of Jelly fish, not just normal old stingy things either, the sort that kill ya! We asked about swimming in the sea at the tourist info place and were told there is 5 weeks left of 'stinger season' the guy said it shouldn't be too bad, they would expect only about 5 more stings this season!! so we've settled for the warm pool!
The Great Northern Highway is proving to be a bit of a drag, there is nothing much to see, what there is to see you have to turn off the road onto sandy corrigated "roads" for 20km! Still we have a couple of National parks to investigate before Darwin. The weather, and also living 'on the raod'
means that we have begun to keep weird sleeping paterns (well some would say more natural) We tend to get up with the sun, or even occassionally before it, then we can get the driving underway before the heat gets too much. Then in the evening we are usually tucked up in bed by about 8.30!
So anyway, thats us for now....not sure when the next blog will be probably when we get to Darwin at the end of the month.
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lauren and chris
non-member comment
guys!!!
argh guys whale sharks??!!!! wow so jealous, was it incredible? so claire have you done your padi? lovely to get your email, ive been following your blog with jealousy ahaha! sorry its taken me so long to reply, been very busy, were moving to Bristol tommorow and ive got my 2nd interview for a charity community fundraising job that i reaaaallly want, ill keep you posted! so are all your adventures each better than the one before? was it october you say youll be in the UK? please let us know and well arrange a date!!! missing you both, lots of love lauren and chris XX