Having a Whale of a time in Exmouth.....

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Its funny how your perception of something is forced to change when you have to accept the cruel fate bestowed upon you by the campervan Gods. Exmouth was like many a town we had passed through on the West Coast of Australia during our journey North from Perth without a second glance - but this time we could not pass through, well not quickly anyway. Our van had died a sorry death 110km south of Exmouth, and the place where it left the back of the RAC truck, Site 27 at the Ningaloo Caravan Park, was the place it would remain for the next 2 months and where we too would live.
We were now forced to like the place, because after all we didn't have a choice. Like it or kill yourself, 'cos you sure as hell ain't leaving any other way!

Exmouth is a small town, population around 2,500, formely it was used as town for members of the US Navy, and its situated in Western Australia 1200km North of Perth right on the tip of a small cape.
The problem with Exmouth is that there is nothing to do there. I am of course talking about the town and not the surrounding area, which is abundant with wildlife, surfing and adventure. We just couldn't get there. And the wildlife is what drew us hear to this isolated cape - we had come to see and swim with the whale shark.

Aside from the obvious fact that losing our van was a crushing blow, we were dealt a bigger blow when the RAC man informed us that Ningaloo Reef Dreaming, the whale shark tour operator we had chosen to go with thanks to Lonely Planet, weren't very good. This was not the news we wanted to hear, something cheerful and uplifting would have been a godsend, 'this tow is free' for instance. **For the record, the tow was $260. We worked out that our van, from Perth, had cost us so much that per kilometre it would have been cheaper to be towed around Australia by the RAC.
So for at least 2 reasons we weren't in the overly excited mood I expected to be in on a dreary morning in Exmouth.
We caught the bus outside their shop in town, somewhat fortunately as they expected us to be there the day before (we did actually postpone it a day after our radiator blew outside Geraldton which set us back, but the message wasn't passed on). After flying around the campsites and gathering up a mix of germans, asians and elderly folk we were on our way up and around the cape to Tantabiddi (that spelling could be and probably is wrong), where we would catch our boat.
Numerous other operators, usually with more people, were gathered there too and we stood on the beach and watched as they were picked up by big jet boats which took them to even bigger boats, and on they went. Unfortunately the week before 'Dreamings boat had broken so we had a 6-man tinny, which was slow, and our boat was the furthest away, so it was a slow start to say the least.
It was incredibly windy too and there was no sun, but there was the boat to shelter in at least.......or not. The sides were wind and splash breakers but didn't fit properly so inbetween the occasional spray were were treated to chilling gusts of wind. We were dreading getting in the water, but as it turned out that was a lifesaver, the water at Ningaloo being somewhat like a giant natural bath.
Before the planes were sent out to find the sharks, we had to prove we could swim and follow a leader, so we got in and found our leader who was German girl called Jo. We then paddled around for a while in a depth of around 15 metres, Laura saw a turtle and we all saw a manta ray who gracefully glided along the bottom of the ocean floor. Shoals of fish were swept around in swirling motions as the underwater currents pulled them to and fro. It was nice, but we wanted the big stuff - we wanted our shark!

The plane was sent up for the search as we got our briefing on whale shark etiquette. Stay 3 metres away from each side and 4 metres away from the tail. Don't get in its way. They aren't aggressive but they are big and must know it so they won't pay much attention to a blip (me) in the water!

A bit about whale sharks - they are the largest fish in the ocean. There are bigger creatures out there (namely whales) but a whale shark is a whale of a shark. It doesn't have a blowhole and does not need to swim just under the surface of the water - it just does, for which we should be incredibly grateful. They are an annoyingly elusive fish for reserachers to track as they can dive to great depths, depths far greater than any tracking device can go. Therefore we have no idea about their migrating patterns, we can guess but there are little facts other than that they pop up off the coast of the Phillipines, Thailand and even Dubai, but often they aren't the same sharks that are found off the coast here in Exmouth. They don't even know how whale sharks mate, as it has never been witnessed.
Whale Sharks do have a lot of dots and some stripes on their back and they are trying to compile a database of telltale spots, but as yet they haven't concluded anything from doing that.
The most obvious thing to note is that they are big - real big. One was caught and unfortunately killed in Thailand that was 18 metres long - though the longest seen this season has been 9 metres (on the last day of the season, around July 22nd, they saw a 12 metre shark). Either way, its a big fish, there's no doubting that.

The plane spotted one remarkebly quickly and the chase was on to locate it, which we did. Were were in group B and group A went in first but unfortunately the shark 'dived'. We waited for it to resurface which it did, and as Jo went out to find the shark we assembled ourselves on the launch pad or whatever you called the platform on the back of the boat, ready to go in. When it was time to go, everyone went mental, as in, the most frantic kicking of the arms and paddling you have ever seen. Ahead of me was just a blur of bubbles, but then it all stopped, and in front of us was a beautiful, graceful and peacefully moving whale shark. Time seemed to stand still and the waters went silent as we witnessed it moving around us before it dived again. As everyone surfaced we let out loud yells and hollered at the elation of seeing this magnificent beast.
The crew on board the boat estimated it was about 3.5 metres long......not the biggest but we'd seen one which on some days they don't, so we were happy.

The problem now was that we were cold. The wind was still blowing and the sun wasn't out, and if we found another one we'd have to go in again, so no point drying. So we froze.

We found another one pretty quickly which was a 3 metre one, which we were able to dive with a couple of times before it dived off. The first time I went in I swam the wrong way and swam right into its path - but it dived under me, just about touching my flippers. It was good, and it was truly great seeing them in their natural environment, but they weren't as big as we expected. It was a slight dissapointment, but we weren't to be dissapointed for long.......

Reports came from the plane that there was a big one ahead, which wasn't met with the excitement you'd expect. Some people had got changed already convinced it wasn't going to get any better. They were wrong.
The mad panic to get out once again ensued and then in front of us was what can only be described as a floating bus. It was huge - later given an 8-metre length - but was also much wider and had a much bigger girth than the other ones. Its mouth was at least a metre wide.
It had half a dorsal fin, maybe due to a shark attack, and many suckle fish clinged to its underside enjoying the free ride.
At first I swam on the right side of it but most people were there so I hung back and then moved around the other side where only 1 person was. Its tail moved effortlessly and silently, nearly clipping me as I moved round the back of it.
It looked nonchalent and unmoved by the great hysteria it was causing amongst us. We were literally swimming with a giant, a gentle giant, and it allowed us to swim with it for 45 minutes. I took 4 dives with it and every time was completely humbled by this massive and majestic animal.

Everyone enjoyed sharing their own account of their encounter whilst we had lunch and the crew on the boat went as far as to chase humpback whales on the way home. We got within 20 metres of 1 pod but unfortunately they always breached when we were looking at other on the horizon.

All our negative thoughts on the day were firmly out of our minds by the end, and as the sun went down on the day we admired red kanagaroos hopping towards the Cape Range, and as if we hadn't had enough of a wildlife fix we even found an Echidna on the way home.

On our return to Exmouth we were hit with the realisation that we were literally stuck here and needed work to get out. This turned out not to be too hard to find, as the first place we went to, The Tavern, needed workers and its sister company, The Potshot Hotel Resort, needed workers too. Two days later I started work at the bottleshop whilst Laura became a cleaner at the resort and a barmaid at The Tavern, and I also got a sdecond job at a pizza shop in town.

Instantly we enjoyed our lifestyle, as uneventful as it was. Go to work, come home, lay on the grass, read a little, sleep, wake up 10 minutes before work starts and head on. For the first time in Australia both of us had a tan, so we were naturally delighted!
This was our life for 2 weeks, until I met Fil at a party, a swede who was the pizza delivery guy for The Tavern. He had a car, I just needed the surfboard, and just like that our lives were going to be much better.
I found a board for $100 at a local shop so took that out to Dunes, the local popular surfbreak. On the first day we went it was the cleanest surf I'd ever seen, between 6-8ft, offshore winds, breaks to the left and the right and little barrels available if you crouched down. Unfortunately I had forgot that I wasn't very good so my first experiences out there were bordering on traumatic. I hadn't used my left arm for anything active for nearly 4 years (due to a skiing injury) so my strength wasn't there, I hadn't been on a board for 4 years so balance was a problem, wave reading was just non-existent and to top it off, Dunes is a reef break so getting out and back in is extremely painful on the feet!
The only saving grace was that the waves there don't have much power so unlike the ones I'd been used to in France that pounded you and held you under, these held you under for less than 5 seconds.

From here on everything snowballed. Because I could relate to a certain degree with the surfing locals now I could talk to them better, it turned out the guy I worked with at the pizza shop, Heiner, was a keen surfer too. Then one day a guy, Jodey, came into the bottle-o and we chatted about the surf, turns out he stayed on the same campsite, had a car and a lot of time off, so soon I was surfing most days.

The routine was often the same. Get food, listen to Muse live at Wembley on the way, watch the surf from the viewpoint at Dunes, get in. Jodey knew a couple called Nick and Hayley who also stayed on site and also surfed, so I often went out with them.
Every day we seemed to meet more people and soon we had our Exmouth family. For the next month we surfed together, went to the beach when we could together, snorkelled together and most importantly, smashed in thePotshot on a friday night together.

Potshot. On a friday night. The highlight of the social calendar in Exmouth, something that had been so talked about I was half expecting there to be cheap drinks, world-class dj's and go-go dancers. In an attempt to save money me and Laura had avoided going for the first 3 weeks, so the 'excitement' had built up to an unbearable level. And what a bloody letdown it was!
Don't get me wrong, I had an amzing night that night and a few good nights there after, but the drinks were expensive, the music was on a system that even played the corresponding videos on a small screen on the dancefloor, and there was no dancers!
But, everyone in town was there, so it was an incredibly social event that couldn't be missed, and wasn't missed, for the next few weeks.

It is worth pointing out that Exmouth is a town firmly in the grips of alcoholism. They have 3 bottleshops all of which are incredibly expensive yet all do very well. There are parties pretty much every night, and they have many sports clubs that don't have many players but do have a lot of social events.
The disturbing thing for me was seeing first hand how much everyone there drank. Some people came in to the shop every day, and there was one woman who every 2 days bought 2 cases of Carlton Dry and a large bottle of Jack Daniels. I have no idea where they put it all!

The other thing that is instantly noticable about Exmouth is how relaxed everyone is. Houses aren't locked, cars are left with keys in them (as a colleague pointed out when I asked him if his keys were always in the car'yeah, well where they gonna go? ain't a town for 300k, they'll catch them there' - good logic!) and above all everyone was friendly.
During our time there we borrowed 4 different cars which I felt was an incredible amount of trust for someone they barely knew. You wouldn't get that in England, thats for sure.

We had a great day with the 'family' where we all went to the Cape Range National Park and had a day of snorkelling at Turquoise Bay where we saw and chased sharks, turtles, stingrays and all varieties of fish. We then watched the sun set with a case of beer under the Vlamingh lighthouse whilst humpbacks breached in the ocean. Life was pretty sweet right then, it was certainly the life that I could have got used to.

Before we left Exmouth we managed to get down to Yardie Creek which is a spectacular gorge that winds down to the ocean. At Mandu-Mandu gorge, which is completely dry, we spotted black-footed rock wallabies playing on the steep sides, and then we went snorkelling again. This area was just an amazing paradise of natural beauty and interspersed with the most fascinating of creatures that were abundant and easily accesible. Emu's reguarly walk the streets in the town and are beleived to have more rights than some of the locals, one of them even set off the alarm at the bottle shop that indicates when a customer is waiting!

Unfortunately it couldn't last for ever. The family split up, most people heading north but staying in other places for different periods of time, but knowing that our time in Exmouth was something that we shared and loved together. I miss everyone from there greatly, and also the area, and it is somewhere that I will definitely return to. I reccommend you go!

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Photos

The Whale Shark
The one that swam right beneath me

Fil ripping it up
A messy but good day at Dunes

Shark!
Just a reef one

Mandu-Mandu gorge
Bone dry

Emu!
They're all over town - this one taking advantage of the rights Emu's have on the road