Sharks and Rays

Whale Shark

Our next stop on our journey north from Monkey Mia was an overnight stay at some blowholes. As the sea waves pound the cliffs, air and water are forced through holes in the side of the cliffs creating a huge roar, like the engine of a plane, and a huge spurt of water. Unfortunately the main blowhole had been bombed by the Allied forces during the second world war as the water jet could reach 20m high and they were worried the Japanese would use it as a landmark. However whilst they were not as big as they could have been, they were still pretty impressive.

Our final destination, Coral bay was HOT HOT HOT (averaging 35C every day), with a beautiful white beach and tons of amazing snorkelling. Holland was still unable to swim and resorted to pouring water over himself to cool down, it had to be salt water as drinking water is restricted here and carries a $50 fine if anyone is caught using it for anything other than drinking. All showering, washing up etc in Coral Bay is done with saline water from an 800mn deep artazine bore which comes up boiling hot and smelling of eggs. In Coral Bay it is hard to get hold of cold water and even the sprinklers have extra fine heads so they don't scorch the grass. Luckily for Becky she was able to go snorkelling from the beach to cool off and immediately saw turtles and small rays amongst the coral and tropical fish. We aso took an early morning stroll to a shark breeding ground and watched the ominous black shapes from the safety of the sand dunes.

The main reason for our visit to Coral Bay was to swim with the huge marine life and by the end of the week Hollands leg had healed enough for us to enjoy our first such encounter - 'interaction with manta rays'. We were able to snorkel above two huge rays (3-4 Metres wide) as they gracefully swam on the sea bed filter-feeding for plankton with their bucket mouths. We also saw a shovel head ray which looks exactly as its name would suggest.

Later on this same tour we took a 50 minute dive in a shark-cleaning station, we saw a couple of sharks, a huge white bull ray with its sting tail broken off and a black sail finned catfish native only to the Ningaloo Reef. Hollands air tank came off and he had to have it re-attached mid-dive which was a bit of excitement but he was fine and continued to enjoy the dive once his air tank was safe.

The next day we returned to the same cleaning station to have a snorkel and 12-15 grey reef sharks were circling below and around us - they had previously been frightened by the scuba bubbles but with the snorkels they didn't seem phazed so we got a really close up view. We got an adrenaline rush as we saw our first one (about 2 meters) "are we really swimming with sharks?" but by the end of the snorkel we were duck diving closer to take pictures.

Then came the highlight of the whole week, swimming with whale sharks. These awesome creatures are the biggest fish in the sea and can grow up to 18m. Although sharks, they, like the manta rays are filter feeders so we were in no danger (as long as we kept out of the way of its tail). A spotter plane flew up to find one for us and once located (only at end of the day) they radioed the boat captain and we were plonked down in front of it and watched as it swam towards us. Beautiful, graceful, massive, it serenely floated past and we swam back to the boat to be dropped in front of it again and snorkel along side it. The one we saw was about 7 meters and had a beautiful speckled pattening. Smaller fish continually swam in the whale sharks slip stream as if on a joy ride. One of the most amazing experiences of our lives.

We then took the two day drive back to Perth to sell the van, stopping briefly to take in a few costal views in Kalbarri.

Love Holland and Becky