Advertisement
Published: June 14th 2011
Edit Blog Post
A myriad of colourful fish
Convict Surgeon Fish (photo by Alek) Thursday 9th – When we first arrived in Exmouth we picked up a leaflet giving details of an hour long coral viewing tour. We knew we would enjoy it and late yesterday we managed to get on this morning’s trip. We were both up and about before the alarm went off and ready to go by 8.30. The boat left from the Tantabiddi Boat Ramp we had passed yesterday so we knew where we had to go and made sure we were there well before 9:10 to register. The tour guide, Alek, who also owned the business, was an interesting character - he was of Polish origin but had lived all over the world, including quite a long time in Wales which possibly explained his rather strange accent. But his passion was diving and photography and he had worked on the boat for the previous owner for a number of years. When the business was put up for sale eight years ago he couldn’t resist buying it and feels he has finally found a place he wants to settle in. Later he would be conducting diving and snorkelling trips but this one hour trip of ours was just to view coral
and fish. Alek proved to be a first class guide - his knowledge of the many fish we saw was second to none and his ability to take us to special viewing spots was excellent. We drifted over some spectacular corals of all shapes and sizes including some huge ‘bommies, which are huge rock-like corals where hundreds of small and not so small tropical fish live in, under or around. One of the first things we saw was a green turtle mooching about below us. Alek certainly knew his stuff and gave a very informative and funny commentary about the biology of corals and fish. After a while we sped off to another area where we saw plenty of bigger fish. All too soon the one hour had passed but we were so impressed with Alek that we bought one of his CDs containing photos and videos that he had taken himself in Ningaloo. We were able to watch it on the computer later and it was brilliant.
From there we drove on into the National Park towards Turquoise Bay – our favourite snorkelling spot. On the way we made another call into the visitor centre - I resisted
the temptation to buy anything today although I was wearing the manta ray motif tee-shirt I had bought yesterday. The visit was fairly brief and soon we were at Turquoise Bay, drinking our cup of tea looking out over the beach. At the risk of repeating ourselves, it is just one of the most stunning places we have seen and the sea is actually a beautiful turquoise colour. We wandered down on to the beach but, worryingly, there was a strong breeze and the sea looked slightly choppy. Probably for that reason, there were only a few people there. We were a bit disappointed as we really wanted to snorkel on our last day in this wonderful spot. Out of frustration we strolled on along the beach around a bit of a headland to the part of the bay where the famous ‘drift loop’ snorkel circuit is – the risky one. Surprisingly there was no wind at all!! This was where most of the people were and the water seemed remarkably calm. Risky or not, we decided that this was the spot we would be snorkelling today. Graham raced off to collect PIE from the other car park and drove
around to a much closer parking spot. I strolled up to meet him and we were soon in our wetsuits and back on the beach. The current here can be very dangerous and there are lots of warning signs stressing the need to be wary about getting too close to the point where a “rip” is. To get the very best snorkelling here you have to walk a couple of hundred metres along the beach, go about 50 meters into the water and snorkel back, parallel to the beach, using the natural current to “drift” along. But you have to make sure you get back in to the beach before reaching the spit where the rip could carry you out to sea. Today though, we were content to snorkel in an area not too far from the shore and in truth we felt there was no need to go too far out as the coral was beautiful and there were so many fish all around us. We were out there transfixed for some time and I took the rest of the photos with the disposable underwater camera. It may be a while before we get them developed but hopefully there
amazing variety
reflections from the boat were difficult to avoid will be one or two decent photos.
We were thrilled that we had been able to fulfill our main aim today and felt that anything else would be a bonus. Earlier we had spotted a sign for Mangrove Bay where a bird hide was advertised. We didn’t know what to expect but we were pleased to see yet another delightful beach area, and nobody else was there. Another sign led us slightly away from the beach to the bird hide which provided a brilliant outlook into a tidal lake area which was absolutely stacked with herons and egrets. The water was fairly shallow and the many jumping fish attracted the herons which scampered around seemingly confused and mesmerized by all the activity. It was most entertaining but we decided we needed to get back to the caravan to dry our wet things in the warm sunshine ready for our journey tomorrow. After a quick cuppa we took the phone and computer back up to the lighthouse hill to make a call or two and to try to progress a couple of blogs. They had been prepared for a while but because of the lack of a good signal in
the area we hadn’t been able to do anything with them. I had just commented how great it would be if we saw a whale when Graham spotted one!! It was a fair way off shore but through the binoculars it was easy to see the “blow” and to watch it emerge and roll a couple of times - how wonderful and what a fabulous way to end our stay in this truly remarkable part of WA. We didn’t see any more but we stayed on the hill long enough to see the beautiful sunset before we meandered back to the caravan to get ready for tomorrow’s trek.
We would have a pretty long journey of just over 300 kilometers and I needed to do a bit of shopping in Exmouth on the way. But our destination would have to be an interim one at a roadhouse as it was too far to reach our desired destination, Tom Price, in one go.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.102s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0795s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb