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Published: June 24th 2008
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Birdseye view
Our first whale shark sighting... 4m... you beautie! We picked up our new hire car (now officially named Charlene) and left Perth in a downpour of rain hoping that as we drove north the sun would come out. We drove for roughly 7 hours that day without stopping and had so much scenery to see on the way, there was a bush and another bush and many many more...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Eventually we arrived in Kalbarri where we were going to spend a couple of nights to explore the local national park. That evening was an early meal followed by an early night. The next morning I woke up early to try and catch the pelicans being fed, we managed to see the pelicans but the feeding was over, nevermind! We drove into the NP and went for a walk around the main gorge; it was very impressive lots of red stone and looked like something out of Indiana Jones. The only problem was the flies - I now understand why Paul Hogan wore that hat in Crocodile Dundee! We saw our first kanagaroos on the walk too, I had the video camera out and I thought I had captured it all on film only to discover I had left it
on pause, what a loser!! Later in the afternoon we went to see Mushroom rock but I didnt really think it looked much like it's name, still it was a nice walk.
Next stop was Shark Bay and Monkey Mia, again we had a long drive with lots of bushes but the weather was getting better. Later in the day we went on a cultural tour lead by an aboriginal; Steve was in his element as it was like an episode of Ray Mears where we were taught about the uses of the plants and trekking techniques. We tried some tasty bush bananas (that tasted like cucumber) and some salty leaves for helping with hydration. The next morning we drove to Monkey Mia where we stood just inches away from the local dolphins that come in to be fed each day, unforyunately neither of us were chosen to feed them but I took lots of photos. The afternoon was spent sitting on the beach drinking wine and watching the sunset over the ocean.
Leaving the dolphins behind us we drove to Coral Bay via Carnarvon where we tracked down Barry Evans after his departure from the East end
(see photo). The very next day Steve and I embarked on a day of swimming with the Whale Sharks (I am not sure how I get myself in these messes), the Whale Shark is the biggest fish in the sea and can grow up to 18m. At first Steve told me they were whales but on arriving on the boat I found out they were in fact sharks!!! I am sure he is trying to bump me off some way or another!! Anyway.....the boat began the journey across the ocean and what was the first thing we saw...a 3m Tiger shark, these can eat people and I was about to swim not far from our sighting - I must be truly mad. We stopped to snorkel on the Ningaloo reef where we saw lots of tropical fish, sting ray and more reef sharks, then we were back on the boat as the spotter plane had found our first Whale shark. En route we saw a humpback whale, it came right up to the boat as if to say hello, it was so cool, massive but still looked cute. Back to the whale shark, we were put into 2 groups as
only 10 people can be in the water with the shark at once. So the first group went in and saw it in a flash but then it dived down as it got scared, meaning we had to wait for it to reappear, if indeed it would. Whilst waiting another one was spotted so Steve and I lined up with our gear on at the back of the boat both with our hearts in our mouths as we were told they might come towards us, mistaking us for food!!!! Sure enough as soon as we jumped in the 4m shark started coming for us, I couldn't swim fast enough but luckily it turned before it got too close. It's at this point I should explain that Whale Shark's are filter feeders they only feed on the algae and plancton in the water, they are harmless to humans..well unless they hit you and I certainly didnt want to get in the way. After that a third one was spotted which was bigger than the other two about 6m in length and we managed to swim with that one about 4 or 5 times, it seemed to be very chilled out and
let us swim around him for ages but they can move fast you have to keep up. On the way back we got to lay in the sun saw more humpback's and turtles, all in all a splendid day (maybe not for Steve as I survived!).
Moving on we went up to Exmouth and did some snorkelling at Turquoise Bay on the Ningaloo reef again. Here the current was so strong that you could get in at one end of the beach and then float down to the other end admiring the coral on the way without having to swim a stroke. We went for a walk around Mandu Mandu gorge and had lunch at Yardie Creek before ending the day with a cuppa cha and a beautiful sunset watched on the sand dunes.
From Exmouth we went on another monster drive across to Karijini National Park, where we camped for 3 nights. The two days we had exploring were spent walking in, along and around the many gorges which were very pretty and we managed to take many, many pictures. The days were lovely and sunny but at night it got very cold that we had the
thermals back on again.
Now we are back in Freemantle after spending 2 and half days solidly driving, completing our 4,500km loop of some of the West coast. There was not a lot to be seen on those last two days apart from dead cows, kanagroos and bushes...fun, fun, fun!!
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