traveldiary.stracke.us

For years we had read about this wonderful spot on earth, where whale sharks, manta rays, humpback whales, dolphins, and the occasional human come to play in the sea. It is located on the northwestern part of Western Australia.
It is a beautiful part of the country with deserted sand beaches, a reef fringing not far from the shore and sand dunes finishing the picture perfect postcard.
Then came the sticker shock of partaking in these animal encounters. $240 for a whale shark snorkel, with no guarantee of seeing one.:eek:,( we met people that went twice without ever seeing one) $130 for a manta ray snorkel, that was cut short the last two days, due to a nasty tiger shark, who seemed to frequent the area. Then there was a dolphin encounter, riding on a boat and following the dolphins.:roll: Frugal as we are, we evaluated the various options and decided on your normal two-tank dive.

We rose at 6:30 for an 8:00 dive. Lothar never wants to be late, so we are always early! The sun was not shining, it was overcast. I was disgruntled.
Diving without sun, is like driving in a tunnel, all gray. But then as we were being shuttled to the boat, that beautiful yellow star showed itself and was out for both our dives. The dive masters said this was the first calmer day in a while, so we were able to do the first dive on the outside of the reef, in hope of seeing larger animals. I am really not that keen on larger animals, especially, if their name includes the word shark. Only a few days ago, about 400 km south of here, a snorkeler was eaten by a great white. They told us that that was very unusual for around here. That reassured me.:roll: I always tell myself that a diver is safer because of being down in the water and the chances of being attacked are so slim. Kind of the same theory as flying! Just as we were putting our equipment on, a pair of dolphins came by and gave us a little show. Then it was time to plunge in. At about 50 feet depth, we started traveling down the reef. The surge was quite strong, so that you had to be careful not to be too close to the reef, which I tend to do, cause I want to see every little nudibranch or mollusk.
We saw lots of reef fish of every size and color. The vis wasn’t super about 30 ft. but the amount of fish compensated. We were a bit disappointed in the coral life. Due to bleaching, which is due to higher temps of the water, which is due to global warming, the corals are losing some of their vibrant colors. Sad! We saw quite a few catfish, a species indigenous only to the Ningaloo Reef. A loggerhead turtle took a detour our way. At one point I was encircled by a swarm of herring fish. The temp, being only 24 degrees C, left us a bit chilly after 50 min. and it was time to hit the surface.
After an hour interval and a short boat ride to the inner reef, we were once again in the water. This time a little shallower, about 30 ft.depth. Since the area had quite a bit of sand, as well as corals, we saw many stingrays lounging in the sand. They were a beautiful variety with translucent blue dots on their backs.
Here were also a few lion fish, a poisonous sting fish, if approached too closely. But so beautiful!. Aren’t the beautiful creatures (fish, as well as people) always dangerous!?
So a two tank dive was definitely a good choice!

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 26th, 2005 at 5:37 am and is filed under Australia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.