The Great Blue North

Some 1200km north of Perth lies Exmouth, a hub for  fishing and diving tourism.  The big draw is the Ningaloo Reef which can be explored by simply wading into the water and swimming just metres offshore.  The beauty of this shore reef is that there are so few people living here the coral is almost untouched by pollution and it is so vast  even a busy beach seems spartan.  There are three sites we snorkelled :  Coral Bay, Turquoise Bay and the Oyster Stacks.

Turquoise Bay is just as it sounds , fantastic coloured water and it has a drift current flowing over part of the reef.  Imagine a lazy river over thousands of fish, some turtles and the occasional reef shark.  We spent two days there diving amongst the coral- Liam inspecting a spotted ray (not the Steve Irwin kind).  He also tried to check out an octopus which went deep crimson red when it thought we were after it.  Boats and Meaghan also had a snorkelling tour closer to the main reef . 

Their highlights included a loggerhead turtle, another reef shark and a Queensland grouper.

In Search of the Sun

During the West Australia "winter", we decided to drive North to the Coral Coast in search of some sun. 
While there are destinations along the drive there are vast distances of nothing but road, kangaroos and emus.

We started with a quick side trip to the sand dunes of Lancelin for sandboarding.  The dunes are so white it looks like snowboarding ( with bare feet).  It was the coldest day there in 30 years.

Next up was the spectacular coastal cliffs and river gorges of Kalbarri National Park.  We had a 27km ride on a dodgy dirt road appropriate for 4 wheeldrive vehicles, not for economy sized Hondas.  The end result was well worth it.  Nature's Window hike and the Murchenson Gorge were brilliant.

Now one way to top a National Park is to visit a World Heritage Site.  Shark Bay and Monkey Mia features morning Dolphin feeding where they come in and almost nibble your toes.  We took a catarmaran cruise to see some other sea creatures and were rewarded with an enormous loggerhead turtle sighting and one tiny shark.  Not Shark week material.

 

However, the Jewel of our trip, the Ningaloo Reef still lies even further North.