We’ve just come back from another great 5 days out exploring the reef on Shore Thing with a family from Perth up for a Ningaloo Escape tour which heads all the way up to Norwegian Bay and host to a historic whaling station (half way between Coral Bay and Exmouth).
Leaving late in the afternoon gave us enough time to jump in for a snorkel and freshen up after the flight from Perth and make sure all our gear was working well in preparation for the next 5 days. A beautiful sunset sail through Batemans Bay before sitting down for a gorgeous meal of locally caught fish sealed our first evening on board as everyone tucked in for an early night in preparation for the days ahead.
As the sun rose on the new day Luke decided to see if he could track down any Manta Rays to swim with around the Point Maud area. Returning to the vessel with news of 6-10 Manta Rays feeding at the surface got everyone excited and before too long we were off to swim with a couple of the largest rays in the ocean. We managed to swim with 4 different manta rays, at times there were two at a time, and having identified one of the Mantas as a local resident named “Elle”, and another also in the Coral Bay Manta Ray catalogue but unnamed, it was decided to leave the Mantas and return to Shore Thing. It was an impressive effort considering Luke was the only one out of the 7 in the water that had seen a Manta before and everyone managed to keep up the whole time, even the littlest of the group Jolie at 8 years old!
The sails were hoisted and we headed north in search of more adventure and more snorkeling.Stopping in at the “North Reef Nursery” for lunch saw Juno see her first ever sharks and before the day was out everyone had seen a Turtle after a snorkel in the “Bungles”.
After such a bright start to the previous day the pressure was on to deliver more of the same again. Kayaks departed the main vessel at 730am and rendezvoused some 40mins later at “the fish bowl” for a pre breakfast snorkel. Once again there were no disappointments with 4 different species of shark sighted along with two turtles and more fish than you could poke a stick at. The girls were doing really well picking up the names of all the fish and had even sighted a couple of stichopus and grubfish!
The sails were hoisted and we were off towards Point Cloates and Norwegian Bay. Arriving in good time following great sailing conditions, we ventured onto the beach at Jane’s Bay to see if we could find any evidence of turtles nesting. Its very early in the season but to our delight we managed to locate a nest with positive signs of a successful laying of eggs. A couple of eagles rays were witnessed close to shore before a large Manta cruised by the beach as well. A glorious sight on a beautiful spring day.
Cruising on past Point Cloates with favorable tides we discovered a new snorkel site, “Turtle Ridge”. Unlike any other site we have come across on the reef this area almost completely devoid of coral life, but forms an amazing underwater landscape of smooth rounded stone covered in green algae and thousands of small molluscs. The turtles we tracked down there all seemed to really enjoy the green algae and positioned themselves with ease in the current.
Day 3 saw us really explore the best of Norwegian Bay and Point Cloates, with an early morning kayak and then some exploring on the sand dunes near the Point Cloates lighthouse, followed by our first landing on what remains of the only island in the Ningaloo Reef, Frazer Island.
We followed that up with a snorkel on the “Finn” shipwreck. Our day was rounded out exploring the remains of the historic Norwegian Bay whaling station, which in years gone by was the largest of its kind. Day 4 was highlighted by a snorkel at Point Cloates where Remi captured a great image of a resting Green turtle, and also a great snorkel at another new site called “The Minefield” as we headed back south towards Coral Bay.
On our final day we hopped in the water and tracked down no less than 10 different turtles at “The Turtle Pond”, Mira this time showing great talent with the camera capturing some great images of anemone fish at Oyster Bridge and then ticked off one final box as we watched a mother and calf humpback whale resting in Bateman Bay.
All in all yet another successful trip where we snorkeled no less than 10 different sites, saw Manta Rays, Turtles, Whales and 5 different species of sharks, and hoisted the sails for some great sails through the pristine waters of the Ningaloo Reef.
We are coming towards the end of our season on Ningaloo, but we’ll still be out and about in the next few weeks before the heading down towards Perth for some summer sailing around Rottnest Island and Fremantle.
If you can’t make it up to Coral Bay then stay in touch with this blog or catch us for a day tour or overnight sailing trip from Perth.
Check out our calendar and make a booking enquiry for 2011.
Places are limited so book early to avoid disappointment!
