Blogs from Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia, Australia, Oceania

I’m standing next to Paula and 8 others on the back board of a boat in the open sea. To the left is the Indian Ocean - nothing until you get to Madagascar. To the right I can just see the waves breaking over the Ningaloo Reef about a mile away, then after that the coast of Western Australia. We’re rolling and pitching with the waves, with a cold wind blasting the into us. I’m wearing two wetsuits and a snorkel and still shivering. The skipper is shouting down directions to our guide, and pointing out across the water. We are about to swim with a whaleshark - the largest of the sharks and in fact the largest fish on the planet. The guide shouts go, and one by one we take a large stride and ... read more

Hello! As we found yesterday so exciting we booked to swim with Manta Rays today. I’m getting really into this snorkelling business! Friday 4 June - Coral Bay - Swimming with Manta Rays We were welcomed back to Coral Bay Adventures; they already had our stuff ready from the day before, and went out on the boat. I’m still so impressed with them; when I accepted Natalya's offer of a cup of tea she said "milk and one sugar"; she’d remembered what I had from the day before! We were soon in the water having another snorkel and within 5 minutes Lya is shouting "Rachel, come here, there's a turtle". I swam over with my noodle, expecting to see a small or baby one but got a shock when I saw a huge turtle swimming ... read more

Hello all! I don’t think I can write it well enough to do it justice though. I was just the most incredible experience. Thursday 3 June - Coral Bay - Swimming with Whale Sharks We were up early filled with a mixture of excitement and nervousness for our day with the Whale Sharks; excitement because if we get to see them we were sure it'd be pretty amazing; nervousness because a) it’d be a bit scary and b) all we've been hearing for the last few days is how there are no Whale Sharks about in Coral Bay. When we got to Coral Bay Adventures, the company we were going with who are the best company ever, we asked and they had spotted one yesterday but hadn't got there in time with the boat. I so ... read more

As we moved further north from Cervantes, we said goodbye to the nice cool nights that we had grown accustomed to in the south and moved into “hot and sticky” territory once again. In the very dry country that surrounds Geraldton we had heard of this little oasis called Ellendale Pool with a nice campground and a permanent waterhole where you could swim and cool off. So after a few rather warm days we headed inland to seek out this idyllic waterhole in the hope that we would be able to spend a few days lazing around in the cool waters. When we reached Ellendale Pool, the campground was large, nicely shaded with good facilities and as promised, there in front of us was a large, deep waterhole with a spectacular backdrop of red sandstone….beautiful! Or ... read more

Today I touched the buffalobster and the goldfishark, the eagleopard, ocelotter, and the weaselark. Ken Nesbitt The underwater circus theme is continuing in this blog entry; last week I talked about acrobatic manta rays, this time I am looking at the tiny clowns of the sea; the spectacular nudibranchs! ‘Nudibranch’…the word sounds exotic and strange, but if you translate it into English, it actually means ‘naked gill’. This creature possesses thin tufts that stick up from its back. These tufts act as gills, free to waft around unprotected in the currents, allowing oxygen to be collected from the surrounding water so it can breathe. A nudibranch looks like a worm done up in brightly coloured clothing, covered in stripes and swirls of red, blue, yellow and green. But appearances can be deceptive; these creatures aren’t worms ... read more

We arrived in Exmouth, a small coastal town at the tip The Ningaloo Reef, the reef is WA’s answer to the Great Barrier Reef but the coral is right on the shoreline so we spent the next day, snorkeling up and down Turquoise Bay looking for “Nemo” and we even managed to chase a turtle or two. The coral was amazing too, very colourful. It was amazing to see it so close to the shore only 10m in places, so Samuel got to practice his snorkeling skills and see “Dory” and “Nemo” for real. Steve, Shay and Julie kept snorkelling after the other three had enough and it wasn’t long before we where swimming right next to a loggerhead turtle. We spent a while following him and touching his back before he left. ... read more