Today we went on a manta ray snorkeling tour. We saw lots of animals including turtles, fish, coral and manta rays. They provided wetsuits which is good because I get cold in the ocean easily. We met some other kids from... Germany! and did lots of snorkeling. Afterwards we got hot chips.
Today we did a manta ray tour where we first had to get wetsuits before we left. After that we took a bus to the boat. Then we took the boat to our snorkelling test area. We had to do a snorkelling test before we could swim with manta rays to make sure our gear worked, we were able to swim, and to pull ourself back onto the boat while it was moving.
After that we got back in the boat and left to go find the manta rays. When we found one we had to learn how to respectfully get into the water to see the manta ray. We had to get into groups of ten because then the mantra ray would not feel overwhelmed by too many people. When in the water we had to stay 3 metres from the tail and 2 metres from the sides of the matra ray. But since the manta ray stayed at the bottom we could get a little closer. When we got in the water we saw the manta ray - it was BIG (4m wide)! We got in a few times to see the same manta ray because there were different snorkelling groups.
Later while waiting for lunch to be ready we saw a logger head turtle! Much later we went snorkelling again. We saw two turtles - one was a green sea turtle they other I do not know. We saw a white tip reef shark under some coral that had one of the turtles higher up on the coral. When we got back to our campsite we had hot chips.
I got up early to watch my first and last sunrise from Cape Range. While walking along the beach I saw lots of birds and bluespotted fantail rays in the water. I was about to turn back when I saw a shadow in the water. I climbed up the sand dune in order to get a better look through the water. It was a 1m shark of some sort. Later looking through the ID book at the Exmouth visitors centre I think it was a type of dogfish(?). No matter what its called it was very cool to see it swimming along the shoreline.
After all that excitement I headed back to camp to help pack up and get ready to move further south along the Ningaloo coast. First we stopped in Exmouth again to grab supplies before heading to Coral Bay.
We rolled into Coral Bay after lunch and stayed at the People Park Coral Bay caravan park, which was just across the road from the beach. As soon as we had our site set up the kids and I went for a swim/snorkel but visibility was low so did not stay in for long. Instead we messed around jumping into the water from the sand bank into a deep drop-off.
Then everyone had showers to get the last several days of salt water out of our hair!
This morning Olivia and I headed into the national park visitors centre for a look around while the boys hung around camp. When we were done we drove back to camp to pick up the boys to have one last snorkel on the reef - this time at Turquoise Bay. The Turquoise Bay snorkel site is unique in that it as a strong south to north current along the coast. This means that we walked down to the southern part of the beach, got into the water and drifted with the current back north along the beach. The visibility was pretty good here despite the partly cloudy day. We again saw lots and lots of fish - including for the first time a yellow trumpetfish and a very large school of convict surgeonfish. Sadly this was the first day that we did not see any turtles, but we did see a couple of very large cowtail stingrays.
After three long days of snorkelling we were all pretty tired. We had a quiet evening around camp, found a few more bluespotted fantail rays along our local beach, and watched the sunset on our last night here in the Cape Range National Park.
Today there was a lot less wind so we drove down the coast to Osprey Bay to go snorkelling again. This location had fewer reef structures and more sea grass areas but we still saw lots of fish. There were large schools of some type of trevally (bigeye?) that we followed around for a while looking for turtles as Osprey Bay is known for having a resident population.
John saw a few green sea turtles just before he came in for lunch but the rest of us didn't have any luck. After a break for lunch we went back into the water to see if we could find those elusive turtles. It took Theo and I a little while but eventually we found one (John saw another two before us - he must be the turtle whisper of our family). Olivia also got to see her first turtle as she missed the one we saw yesterday.
Once we were all worn out we piled back into the car and drove further south to Yardie Creek to have a look around. When we pulled up we noticed a large osprey nest on the bank of the river. We jumped out of the car to watch the two parents and a chick on the nest for a while. We also spent some time watching a few wrasse (fish) from a small dock on the river. On the way home Theo spotted two (a mum and joey) black-footed rock wallabies along the side of the road.
Back at camp we had a quiet afternoon before watching the sunset on another day.
Today we woke up to a rather windy day so decided to drive back into Exmouth to have a look around and do a bit of grocery shopping. While in town, we checked out the Big Prawn and the Big Whaleshark. We then dropped in for a look through the visitors center in Exmouth - the kids were impressed with the stuffed animal display. On the way back to camp we stopped in at Vlamingh Head Lighthouse to learn about the history of the lighthouse, Exmouth (which was only founded in the 1960s), and the radar that was installed on the hill during World War II.
Once back at camp we found that the wind had dropped so we changed into swimmers and drove north to Lakeside to do our first snorkel on Ningaloo Reef. This was a great introduction to the reef. There were lots of fish everywhere we looked. Some of our favourite sightings were of a cowtail stingray (Theo), the humuhumunukunukuapua'a (Hawaiian) triggerfish (Olivia), schools of blue-green puller fish (Shavawn).
After almost two hours in the water Theo and I were getting out when John saw a green sea turtle. Theo and I jumped back in to swim back out to where he was, but in our rush to get out there we forgot to put on our flippers so it was a slow swim out. Once we got there we watched the turtle swim around near the coral until he came up to the surface for air before swimming away. Swimming with a turtle was the one experience that Theo really wanted to have on this trip. I'm so glad that we found one on our first day here!
Today we drove south and west into the Cape Range National Park. We stopped on the way at Exmouth to fill up with drinking water and fuel. Once topped up we made our way to our campsite at Tulki Beach in the national park via the Milyering Visitors Centre.
After we were greeted by our campground host, Janet, and had our camp set up, Olivia and I went for a walk along the beach. We were surprised to see lots bluespotted fantail rays hanging out in the shallow water next to the beach. Theo came down a bit later to see the rays and we also spotted a shark fin moving across the surface of the water - but we're not sure what kind of shark it was. Olivia was the first one in the family to have a swim at Ningaloo Reef while the rest of us opted to wait until the next day.
