In Australia, most people consider the Ningaloo Reef comparable to the Great Barrier Reef – I’d never heard of it. It is in the northwest corner of Australia- a 13 hour drive north of Perth. We heard about Ningaloo when we visited Perth last November- essentially snorkeling/diving OK in Perth but it is great at the Ningaloo Reef. So when I heard about the Easter School holidays in Western Australia – a 4 day weekend on my second to last weekend in Perth, Ningaloo Reef was my pick.
Exmouth
The northwest corner of Australia is sparsely populated- the entire peninsula has 3,000 people in a size double that of Maryland. Until tourism came along – it was a military listening post for the US and UK (and technically Australia too) and the peninsula was effectively a US territory – people drove on the right hand side of the road and you needed an American passport to enter. Our guides say most of the peninsula is still off limits and it is the Australia “Area 51”. In the 1990’s a conversion to tourism began but still very remote without a lot of facilities.
I started to book flights, hotel, car, and excursions about 4 weeks ahead of the trip. This 4 days weekend is one of the most popular times to visit – Flights are few and expensive and only seat was at a 5:55am departure, no rental cars with standard companies, and I booked the last slot of the weekend for a whale-shark swim. Then I when to search for accommodation and found one bed in a backpacker dorm (4-6 to a room). But it was 2 hours from the jetty when the whale-shark tour started. To secure a rental car, I called several places and paid a premium to have someone drive it there and drop it off. Offsetting this cost was the dorm at $30/night.
The airport is an active Air Force base. No real facilities – got my rental car and off to Exmouth. Desolate, red dirt, and a lot of military listening posts. Not a lot there – so continued to national park on other side of peninsula. Did 3 snorkels – because it was school holidays there were a lot of people so it was relatively safe – 2 of the snorkels were “drift” where you get in on one side of the lagoon and the current pushes you down the coast – once you get situated it is the way to go. Then drove 2 hours to Coral Bay where the dorm was located.
Coral Bay
Coral Bay was backed with families in RV parks and had a very low key vibe – My first set of roommates were all guys and one of them older than me – and no one said a word to each other. Up early the next day to catch a Manta Ray snorkel tour near my dorm in Coral Bay – we found a Manta Ray pretty quickly. This was the opposite of drift snorkeling – the boat (and siting planes) found the Manta Ray’s path and we jumped off the boat and then had to swim beside it/over it and the boat met you further down the bay. They don’t look fast but even with fins and a wetsuit, many people couldn’t keep up. You are only allowed to swim with them for 10 minutes – so after 10 minutes, even if you were caught up – you and to get our of the water and start again. We ended up doing this 3 times. We did regular snorkel as well and saw turtles and tropical fish….professional pictures were taken and some are attached.
Ningaloo Reef and Whale Shark Swim
The next day was the whale-shark swim – up at 4:30am to drive the 2 hours to get back to Exmouth and the National Park. The seas were very smooth – great conditions. The plane spotted the whale shark right as we exited the lagoon through a hole in the reef. It was very structured on getting out the boat, contending with other boats (there were 12 total), even faster swimming – but it was awesome – saw 3 different whale sharks and did 6 snorkels with them (60 minutes in the water with them is the limit) – the largest was estimated at 25 feet long. One of the rules was “No riding on the whale shark”. Professional pictures attached. I am kinda glad I didn’t have a camera – didn’t have to angst about pictures – just enjoyed the experience.
I’d have to say the actual beaches rate pretty low (compared to the others we have seen in Australia) – a lot of rocks and broken coral on the beach and the sand isn’t as white as other places (reddish tint from all the iron in the region), no dramatic coastline – it would be like western Oklahoma bordered an ocean. But to get good snorkeling on a reef swimmable from shore, probably going to have broken coral in the sand…just need the right footwear to get over.
As for the backpackers dorm, pretty surprisingly how low key it was. They have rules like “No outside alcohol” and stop selling at 9pm and no one allowed in the common areas after 10PM. More strict rules than colleges have. Lights were out by 10pm and most people were up and out for the day at 6am. The next morning when I wasn’t rushing out to a tour, I saw a lot more of the people staying – many more older people than you would think.
Leave a Reply