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Published: November 6th 2006
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Since I last wrote about Merve, the enormous Queensland Grouper fish, we have had a number of other encounters with big wildlife here. The first was a few days ago in Coral Bay. We did the manta ray trip where they send a spotter plane up and lead the boat to the mantas, and then you get to jump in and snorkel with them.
The day we booked for the trip turned out to have a few minuses against it. First, there had been a coral spawning a couple of days before and the ocean's surface was a think gloopy red colour. It looked as if Jaws had had a field day! It was great for photos, until you tried to jump in to snorkel - visibility was reduced to about 2 feet!!!
Second, it was an unusually windy day in Coral Bay so the sea was quite choppy. We were a little nervous that the trip would be cancelled, but it went ahead anyway. Luckily, the wind had helped to disperse the coral spawn, but it also helped in another way. Because of the high chop, many people found it impossible the swim with the manta ray and
soon dropped off, but as Scott and I have spent the last 10 months almost exclusively in the ocean snorkelling and swimming, we were well practiced and could keep up, meaning we got an almost private viewing at times!
The manta rays were so graceful. There were several of them, all identifiable because of a certain trait - the first one we saw was the "normal" one, another had a completely black belly instead of the usual white colour (quite rare apparently, like an albino person in the opposite!), another was grey instead of black, and yet another had a broken wing! We swam with them for about 40 minutes, watching as they changed directions effortlessly, or dove down to the bottom. It was a great trip!
Now we are about 1 1/2 hours north of Coral Bay in a little town called Exmouth. It is a forlorn looking place, with nothing in town other than a rather bleak-looking cinder-block pub. The town is extremely characterless, like one of those strip-mall towns that are so common in America, but it has one big draw - the Navy Pier dive, reputedly one of the best in Australia.
We
did it yesterday. Again, we awoke to not the best conditions - think grey cloud (typically just about the only clouds we have seen the whole time here!) and windy. Again, we were worried the trip might be cancelled, but again it went ahead. It turned out to be excellent. After getting kitted out, our dive shop drove the seven of us to the pier, stopping at numerous checkpoints to fill out the necessary paperwork with the navy. The ocean looked grey, choppy and uninviting, and the pier was large and ugly. It seemed a far cry from the dives we did in Thailand in calm aqua-coloured oceans surrounded by pretty islands fringed with white sand beaches!
We got ourselves ready, standing at the edge of the pier, waiting to do a giant stride into the water. Already we could see some of the wildlife - a few batfish and ominously a shark, circling the water below us! We all jumped in in turn (I let Scott go first!), and eagerly put our heads in the water for our first glimpses. The shark had been scared away by then, so the first thing we saw were two huge Queensland Groupers, cousins of the famous Merve! As we descended, there were more and more fish, and groups of about 6 reef sharks at a time, resting on the bottom. We also saw numerous wobbegong sharks. They are extremely camouflaged and almost impossible to spot! One hour later, we ascended back to the surface, very happy people!
Tomorrow we are heading back to Perth on a two-day bus trip to meet my friend Meredith (who many of you will know from the wedding in Bali) as she is joining us for two weeks. From there, we are heading back home to Calfornia for Easter weekend and some serious job-hunting - eeek!
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