A few years ago, my sister bought me the Lonely Planet Bluelist; an interesting compilation of peoples’ must-do travel itineraries. It was in this book that we found out about the Ningaloo Reef, where one can dive with Whale Sharks and giant Manta Rays. Naturally, we both added this attraction to our own lists. At this time of year (January) we knew that there would be no Whale Sharks as they come and go between the months of March to May. Nonetheless, the diving here is suppossedly amongst the best in the world and so we spent three quite-gruelling days driving from Perth to Exmouth; the best entry point to the reef. As we’re out of season, Exmouth is a little bit shut-up-shop right now, not to mention hot. Happily the Exmouth Diving Centre is still arranging dives and so we went out for a couple of enjoyable underwater tours. Even without a hope of seeing the big attration–the Whale Sharks–we did swim with a couple of Reef Sharks (much smaller, don’t panic Mum), a Stingray and came in very close quarters with an Olive Sea Snake — one of the most venomous snakes in the world (Mum, now you can panic). The visibility on the second dive in particular was very good, and with all the amazing coral and colouful fish, it was like swimming in an aquarium. Despite the searing temperatures on land, Squiffy still donned her usual two wet suits and this time even added a hood, to keep warm underwater.

So was it worth driving three days through 45-50 degree heat and bat our hands repeatedly at the dastardly flies to dive here? Yes — but only just. We’ll be back and next time try to time our visit with the Whale Sharks, not to mention the cooler clime.

We turned Don, our car, around and pointed him back towards Fremantle, stopping along the way at Coral Bay for an hour’s snorkel at the other side of Ningaloo Reef allowing us to get a couple of silly underwater photos from our beach snorkel. If you’re not a diver, just know that you can’t really compare a snorkel with a scuba dive. The latter will likely provide you with a much richer experience and much more eye candy — it’s a shame that our camera won’t go more than a metre or two underwater, to demonstrate the difference. The scuba diving in Coral Bay is supposedly very good also, but we couldn’t stand the heat, flies and cost any more and just wanted to ride our bullet-car back to civilisation.

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