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Published: April 1st 2013
Coral Bay is more like an overgrown petrol station than a town. It really isn't much more than a gorgeous beach surrounded by a few places to stay and enough tour operators to supply a small country of visitors. Regardless, we ended up spending four nights there. Yeah, the water really is that mesmerizing. We found Ningaloo Experience on the first day, and as they seemed to run the smallest tours, had the best prices, and the woman working there, Fran, was not only local but really knew what she was talking about, we decided to abandon our frugal ways and invest in the hopes of getting to swim with some wonderful underwater creatures.
We had to wait a day to hope some more people would sign up, and we spent the first half of it on the beach. The water was pristine, but what was even more incredible was that, just as we walked in, we were standing directly above a bottle-nose ray and its cleaning fish. The water was only up to our ankles, there were kids screeching and splashing just down the beach, and still, here was an incredible marine creature right by our feet, we didn't
Swim-a-long
Sadie got pretty close to some of the smaller ray's and their helpers at the beacheven have to use goggles to see it! There were trumpet fish, bigger snappers and estuary cods, and many more we simply do not know the names of. Having seen so much without even getting our bathing suits wet, we couldn't wait for what the next day would bring!
But first we spent the afternoon having a cold, hard dose of reality. We went through our plans, where we wanted to go and looking at how much it would cost, and realized, that, sadly, going deep into the Outback and going all the way down to Uluru and out again was out of the questions budget-wise. We would have to invest in even more gear, and the diesel costs alone were more than we could afford. We could still do the Kimberley, though, and just had to hope we could get far enough off the beaten track to be happy with our trip. Disappointed (but also slightly at peace now that we had more of an idea of what our situation was instead of guessing all the time), we got to bed and looked forward to the next day's adventures...
There were seven of us doing the tour
Jump in
We got pretty good at the drill after a few runs. Jump in, swim as a madman, look for the manta, see it - or just swim back to the boat (compared to 25 on most of the other companies, which means that even if you are lucky enough to spot something, you still have to take turns getting in the water and probably chasing it away before the next group can have a look), a couple from Melbourne who run a farm and were on their first vacation in 15 years, a young German couple traveling and working through Australia, and a French girl who was not very interested in making new friends.
The waters were very choppy and the currents were strong and we kept heading out further and further to find mantas, jumping in as soon as we spotted one, swimming for our lives to catch up with it, only to lose it after a few minutes. The conditions just weren't with us. But we tried several times, and the whole thing became a bit like a drill, everyone getting ready quickly, gliding into the rough waters, swimming hard, and jumping back on the boat when the skipper decided it was no use. We spotted about 6 of them (so, yes, by the end we were all pretty exhausted), but on the last jump out I saw
the manta and followed it, and was swimming just alongside it and right on top of it, popped my head up to make sure Øyvind was getting a good picture of it, only to realize the rest of the group were far away and had missed the manta completely. I felt really lucky, though, it was a very peaceful and elegant moment, though of course I wish I could have shared it.
After our heavy-duty training (and we must say, we were impressed that they kept at it so long and took us all the way to the outer reef areas to see if we could swim with the mantas, they ended up spending about an hour longer than they had to just to try and get us closer), we headed all the way back into the reef area off the shore, and went in for our second snorkel of the day. Immediately, we spotted two reef sharks (they hang out there to be cleaned by tiny fish), and as we swam along saw a huge sting ray burrowing itself into the sand, trumpet fish, clown fish, beautiful corals, two turtles (I got really close to one of them
and was swimming with it for a while, but spazzed out and did not get it properly with the camera), loads of estuary cod and nor'west snappers. We stayed in the water as long as we could. It really is a magical place down there.
Back on the boat, sun-struck and a bit wiped out, we were all just really happy we had gone on the tour. It really, really was worth it!
We decided to stay one more day in Coral Bay and do some more wading/fish-spotting, and were just as lucky again to catch a glimpse of awesome fish right at the shore. We relaxed, said goodbye to our tour companions, and had a nice, almost vacation-like, day by the shore...
- Top sightings: manta, green turtles and reef sharks!
- Perks of the day: we both look awesome in wet suits!
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mom
non-member comment
coral
øyvind, are all those sea life pics coral reefs, or coral? pink skies over coral bay is incredible and i love the roo in the sunset! SADE! YOU SWAM BY YOURSELF WITH THE MANTA! how exciting. you are a true fisherwoman!