Underwater beauty, whales & big birds - 3rd & 4th Sept. '07

Yesterday we made the trip from Karratha to Exmouth which was quite an interesting route with more hills, mountains etc than we had seen on the last leg of our journey. As we left we filled up with petrol and guess who was there filling up as well? The Gold Bus - Ballarat! We seem to be following a similar itinerary at the moment. The only thing about the trip is that there is not much between Karratha and Exmouth apart from cattle stations, two roadhouses and a few roadside stops; many with no toilets or the most disgusting toilets you have ever smelt or seen. We stopped to have a coffee at one place and low and behold, along came the Gold Bus from Ballarat again! Later on, when we were just leaving the roadhouse after lunch, they came into the car park there to join the other busloads. It’s incredible there is nowhere else to eat and get a break from travelling so we all have to stop there. They must rake the money in; particularly with what they charge for things too.
Today we took a cruise on a glass-bottomed boat to view the coral in the Ningaloo Reef which is part of the Ningaloo Marine Park which protects Australia’s largest and most accessible fringing reef system. It is home to a multitude of corals and more than 500 species of fish. As well, the park is home at various times of the year to whale sharks (the world’s largest fish), turtles, dugongs, dolphins, manta rays and humpback whales. The coral viewing cruise was at 11.30am and they picked us up from our caravan park. The boat was full and the reef is very interesting; there is a lot fairly close to shore but it is shallow and then there is the deeper reef which is even more fascinating with bigger fish slipping in and out of the shelter of the corals. The colours are not as bright through the glass bottom boat and the colours are mainly blues rather than reds like in the barrier reef. I took some photos which are affected by the lack of light, movement of the boat and reflections on the glass so they were not very good. It was great seeing the reef though and we even saw a whale ‘breeching’, as they call jumping out of the water, as well. There were little fish of all sorts including a cute little striped one with a scissor tail called a Scissor-tailed Sergeant.
While we were at the Bundegi Beach we booked the Whale watching sunset cruise for 3pm so we returned by car later to do that one which is a 2 ½ hour cruise. We got to look at the corals again briefly since we had the same boat and the sunlight penetrated the depths better so that I got some better pictures as well as being able to see the corals and fish better. We saw some flying fish flashing silver out of the water a few times and yes, we saw whales! We saw some turtles as well but they swim off very quickly – so cool! The whales mostly were a little way away and we couldn’t get too much closer; it is hoped that they will come closer to the boat which they did on a previous cruise and even swam under the boat but not for us. We were still very happy with the sightings even though the only breeching one was a long way off. Mostly we saw blowing, coming up with their backs out of the water and tail fins up then going under sometimes alone or in pairs and one time a mother and calf. Apparently they spend time here in the gulf and fatten up their calves before moving on to colder waters. On the way back they showed us an osprey’s nest on a post where they tie the ships up. It was a great cruise and good to actually see whales on this trip in contrast to the one at Hervey Bay. On the way to this cruise, near the beach, we had to stop the car to wait for an emu to get out of the way and another was in the scrub on the side of the road. Apparently, emus are very common in Exmouth and you have to get used to them being on the road and give way to them but this was the first time we had seen any since we got here.
Exmouth is a nice, laid back type of town with a lot to offer as far as its marine park and other nearby national parks also. There are bird hides, gorge tours and walks, snorkelling and diving and lovely beaches also. We are glad we made the effort to come up to that sticking out bit on the west coast of Western Australia to see what is here.