Ningaloo

Steve and I had prepared for an early departure from Karijini. I was even up early!! However, it was not meant to be. The cruiser had a flat battery – the starter battery had collapsed and the alternate was low from running the freezer all night. Steve tried the solar but it was going to be too slow to get enough power to it.

Luckily I found someone with jumper leads to get us going not too much later.

The drive back to the coast was long (another 650km) with not much in between. Although the scenery was once again beautiful. The landscape kept changing from rocky ranges to grassy green plains full of wild flowers.

There were only two places to stop in between. We stopped at Parabudoo for coffee and petrol (we left the car running!😳) and the ….. Roadhouse for lunch. It was a long day!

Ningaloo is a World Heritage listed Marine park that has a fringing reef that comes right up to the shoreline. It is one of only two western coast reefs in the world. We spent a total of five days there at three different places starting at Coral Bay. It is also known for its whales sharks.

We arrived at Coral Bay Bayview Caravan Park and settled in. We remembered the first Bledisloe game was on so set up the iPad to watch it. We wished we hadn’t!!

The next day we had to sort out the battery. Luckily there was an all purpose supermarket across the road which had a battery!! Steve installed it and our baby was up and running again. 😊

We then went for a drive to have a look around. We found the bay. Wow!! It was beautiful! The water was an amazing colour calling us for a paddle or snorkel. We decided on a snorkel.

Unfortunately there wasn’t much to see as we were not far enough around. We only saw a stingray and some fish swimming above it. The water was also freezing and it was windy. The water wasn’t as warm as we were used to. 😳
It was blowing back at camp so to keep warm we decided to checkout Bills.

It was lovely and well decked out. It had a vertical garden full of succulents. It looked awesome! We thought it would also look awesome on our courtyard wall back home.

We weren’t planning on staying for dinner until the entertainment started. It was a guy singing and playing the guitar and he was fantastic. He had a huge list of songs he could play (over 400) and handed out a booklet so everyone could request songs. He called it his request show. He could play and sing every song the audience asked for. There was a woman who saw him the weekend before who decided she was going to challenge and choose the most difficult songs she could find on his list. He played all of them no problem. He was very talented. So it ended up being an awesome night.

The next morning we had to pack up in the wind. That was a challenge!! We managed with a bit of help from our neighbour. After that we were on our way to another amazing cape, Cape Range National Park. Steve had an excruciating tooth ache so we stopped in Exmouth to go to the chemist. It was blowing!!

We had booked two nights at the Tulki campground. It was right on the beach.

We were in for another battle to set up with the wind gusting about 50kms an hour!! Putting up the awning wasn’t easy!! We had to put it up between the gusts which were coming fast and furious. There was a bit of swearing but we stayed calm considering the conditions. Steve thought if anyone was watching they would have been cracking up! We added some walls down the end to keep out the wind. It was a very nice cosy corner and meant we’d be able to cook dinner. If you sat too close to the walls it felt like you were in a pillow fight. It was a great place to sit and watch the sun setting.

Anyway, with it finally up we went for a drive to checkout what was around.
We drove back out to the lighthouse to take in the view. It was amazing!

We even saw some whales spouting. They were too far away to see them breaching.

I’m determined to see a whale close up one day.

We’d heard from some people back at the campground about their cruise to swim with the whale sharks. We thought we’d missed the season so we decided we had to do it. We went to the visitors centre to try and book a cruise for the next day but they didn’t do the bookings. So we had to call the Exmouth visitors centre. There was no reception so luckily we have a satellite phone. Due to the wind the cruises were canceled for the next day so the only option was the following day. We were only able to get two nights in the national park because it was totally booked out. It turned out fine as we were able to book a third night at Yardie Homestead and book the cruise!!

We also stopped at the Jurabi Turtle Centre which turned out to be just Information about the turtles nesting in the area. It had lots of interesting information.

We went back to our tent and thankfully it was still standing. Steve’s double roping held. The wind was still going strong.

At 5pm it was happy hour! Everyone in the campground came together (there were only ten sites at Tulki) to watch the sunset. It was really nice to sit and chat with the whole campground. There’s probably a good chance we’ll run into some of them again.

The next day we did the Yardie Creek gorge walk. It was a very different gorge again. It had great views over the creek and along the gorge.

After that we drove back along Yardie Creek road and called into have a look at all the other campgrounds and beaches. Sandy Bay was exceptional.

All the campgrounds were very different in size. Osprey campground had just been refurbished but was very big. We thought ours was better because we could pretty much meet everyone.

We were keen to do a snorkel so we stopped at a very popular snorkel spot called the Oyster Stacks. To snorkel at the Oyster Stacks you could only do it during a high tide. So we had a window of 12 – 2. Thankfully it was fairly protected so it wasn’t too choppy because the wind was still blowing. It was the best snorkeling spot we’d been to for a while. There was so much coral and all different colors and the number and variety of fish was amazing!! Once you were in you could drift with the current to the other end of the beach and get out and go back and do it again. It was awesome.

After our snorkel we went to Turquoise Bay for a swim. So beautiful. The water was pretty cold so it was more of a paddle and a sunbake.

After another happy hour and dinner we packed up as much as we could so we could leave early for our cruise in the morning.

We were up early the next morning ready to battle the wind again. It had dropped slightly but putting the awning away was again challenging!! It was flapping around like a sail!

We then drove to the jetty for our cruise to swim with the whale sharks. Both of us didn’t have any expectations and thought if we don’t see a whale shark we’d see some whales because they were everywhere.

There are many companies to choose from but we chose Ningaloo Whale Shark and Dive and they had a lovely big boat called Aliika. Turned out to be a great choice.

First up we were all given a tea or coffee while the crew were introduced. They were young and enthusiastic and made sure everyone was psyched up and ready for an amazing day. They had a marine biologist on board and an underwater photographer.

Next they handed out snorkels, flippers and wetsuits and we were ready for our first snorkel out on the renowned Ningaloo Reef. Once again it was awesome!! We saw so many different fish. Some of them were very big. One of the crew, Jess, was out taking photos. He took a great one of Steve.

We then came in for some morning tea and were given a briefing on how we were going to swim with a whale shark. We were going out in two groups. We were group one. We were told it would all happen really fast. We had to be ready to go once the plane spotted a whale shark. We were to all jump in together and form a line as directed by the guide. Jess was also in the water to take photos and point out when the shark was approaching.

Suddenly it was time. It was all a bit surreal because we weren’t really sure what to expect. In we went. The water was really rough due to the wind. We were in a line waiting for the instruction to put our face in the water. Just as we did this the shark changed direction and we were told swim and follow the guide. Steve I had our faces down in the water and there it was swimming straight at us!!! I thought it was going to run into us. We kept swimming back but it just kept coming! I thought I was going to kiss a whale shark!! Apparently he was a bubble chaser and when he realised our bubbles weren’t food he moved on. With our heads still in the water we saw the biggest fish in the world swim away from us so gracefully.

It was absolutely the most amazing experience ever!!! We were buzzing! I was hyperventilating a little I think due to the fact that a whale shark just swam at me and I really wasn’t expecting that!! 😳

Both groups jumped back into the boat and we were told to wait for the signal to go again. We hadn’t sat down long and we were in again. This time the whale shark came at us again but we got out of the way quicker. After it swam past Steve swam around the back to its other side and had another close look at it.

Back into the boat again to wait for our third and final swim. It wasn’t long before the plane spotted another one or maybe the same one. Off we went again! With our heads in the water we saw it swim past again right near us. Steve and I both followed it this time. We had a fantastic view of this beautiful monster. Steve swam faster and managed to snap some amazing photos with the GoPro.

He was also lucky enough to be close enough for Jess to take a photo of him with the shark!! And it was a beauty!!

There is a code of conduct to follow when swimming with whale sharks. One of the rules is you must be 3 metres away!! We tried but this whale shark liked our group. 😊😊

We’d worked up a bit of an appetite so lunch was next which was a fantastic spread. We spent some time lounging around in the sun getting warm when we stopped for the final snorkel of the day. Steve and I thought we might have had enough. But then they bought out the toys!! They were Sea Scooters! Steve now wished he didn’t get changed. I decided I’d go in because I thought it would be a while before I’d have the chance to snorkel in such a beautiful place again.

I wasn’t planning to have a go of the Sea Scooter but Brooke, one of the guides, talked me into it. It was great fun!!!! I was so glad I had a go.