From one extreme to the other. Quiet
remote Ningaloo Station to Coral Bay, a tiny place that is crowded with holiday
makers. It consists of 2 caravan parks, 2
supermarkets with exorbitant prices, a few shops, a bar and lots of tour
companies. All within a 5 minute walk
from each other. A regular population of
only 150, except at this time of the year.
It also has the most amazing crystal clear waters, teeming with
life. So we will put up with the crowded
Caravan Park!
After
catching up with some very overdue washing - our clothes, towels, bedding and
ourselves. Even the hot salty bore
water showers are welcome after 11 days without.
There is
just so much to do here, especially if you have a 4WD to get to some of the
more remote places. The snorkelling is
unbelievable and we know why they call it Coral Bay. The reefs start only metres from shore, the
water is so clear and the coral looks like huge flowers with masses of
colourful fish and the sun didn’t stop shining the whole time we were here,
with an average temperature of 30 degrees.
We had planned to only stay a couple of days but just kept extending our
time.
We had some
amazing experiences here, like flying through the water behind sea scooters (a
handheld motorised propulsion device that travels at 4.5km/hr) on a tour that
took us through 4km of exquisite coral canyons, including a coral (named Ayers
Rock for obvious reasons) estimated to be around 3000 years old.
We drove the
incredibly sandy tracks to The Sand Spit and Oyster Bridge, which at low tide
becomes an aquarium filled with sea life and a New Zealand Fur Seal who has
lost its way. The water here was
definitely the clearest we have seen yet and just the perfect place to spend an
afternoon.
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| Coral Bay |
 | ||
The Sandspit
|
Another day
we took a different set of sandy tracks out to Five Fingers Reef, a beach lined
with reef and supposedly good for fishing.
Ash caught a beautiful green wrasse (too cute to eat) and a rock cod and Coen caught the
cutest little flounder. None big enough
for eating though. We saw the fish while
snorkelling but they remained elusive when fishing.
 |
| The dark patch is a bait ball - lots of little fish |
Another
favourite experience of our holiday so far was the day we spent on a tour boat,
snorkelling closer to the outer reef with turtles, a reef shark (1.5m), so many
fish and what must be one of the most graceful creatures of the deep, the manta
ray. We have just been so lucky with our
wildlife encounters, as the company we were with said they had not had such
great water clarity or seen so many manta rays together for at least 4
months. All up we swam with 7 of these
amazing creatures. We watched a mating chain of 2 males following a huge female
(4 metres from wing tip to wing tip), the boys follow the girl in a line along
the sea bed and then entwine themselves as they turn and repeat the process. Each manta ray has a specific pattern of
spots on their underbelly to identify them.
After 8 days
of breathtaking beaches, daily snorkelling and sun, sun, sun we decided we
really should move south.
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