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Some cooler days at 26-27 degrees and fairly windy. One night got down to 8 degrees! On a couple of days we packed a picnic lunch and checked out conditions for snorkelling/kayaking on the west coast on the Exmouth peninsula (Cape Range National Park side). Unfortunately it was too windy but we did discover some good spots when the weather picks up. This kangaroo in the dunes was as curious about us as Coco was about it! There are a lot of emus around, some with babies and the photos were taken behind the visitor centre. The father emu takes care of the kids. We visited the Jurabi turtle centre which was quite interesting and indicates the start of the turtle rookeries. Visited the Mildura wreck which would be great to snorkel/kayak around on a nice day.
The highlight of these three days was our boat trip on Sunday to the Murion Islands, 16km off shore. Took about an hour and a half to get there. Along the way we saw two humpback whales, fantastic. Unfortunately, too far away to get some good shots. However on the way back we were able to get a closeup of a whale that was incredibly close to shore. Amazing to see them. The dive crew say they see many on these trips. In fact there is a 2 week period at the end of August when sometimes they see whalesharks, manta rays and humpacks in a single dive! Imagine that! The dive centre we dived with also cover the whaleshark season and this season (May-July) they had 530 whalesharks sightings! I'm sure the same one in some cases. But still an incredible amount. We were extremely lucky with the weather, there was hardly any wind (compared to the previous days) and the water was calm (didn't stop me from taking a Travelcalm tablet for sea sickness though). The dive masters were very good and knowledgeable and provided all gear although we have most our ours. I didn't dive just opted to snorkel, I hung up my diving fins a while ago and after watching the divers get geared up I am happy not to do it - too much like hard work lugging all that gear around - I think this might be John's last dive too. The water temperature is 23 degrees which believe it or not is still chilly, even with a 3/4 3mm wetsuit! We must be aclimatising as we are used to 18-20 degrees in Busso. I'll let John tell you about his diving experience but my snorkels were very very good. The first snorkel was at a site at the east side of south Murion Island, it was like looking into an aquarium, lots of fishlife and coral, large schools of a variety of fish including kingfish, angel/damsel fish, a moon wrasse and lots of other fish that I can't identify. Needless to say it was pretty speccy. My second snorkel was just as pretty and this time I saw a bat fish it was huge. The third dive was called the Coral Bowl and was predominantly coral, brain coral, plate coral, gorgonan fan corals, lots of different colours, blues yellows, purples, it is encouraging to see a lot of new growth. This was a very pretty dive and we were lucky the way the sun was shining over it showed it in its best light. The Murion Islands are within a sanctuary zone which means no fishing or spearfishing which is great. The water depth didn't exceed 12 metres with lots of bombies closer to the surface so good viewing. Overall it was a great day and we still agree Ningaloo Reef offers some of the best diving sites (compared to what we have seen at the Barrier Reef). Lets hope with all the development and oil mining that is happening around here and further north that it doesn't get spoilt. It was long day starting at 7.30am and getting back at 4.00pm and we were concerned living Coco for so long in the caravan. Our neighbour offered to check on her during the day and let her out into the shade or turn the a/c on but Coco wouldn't let her in (she probably would have done with some persistence) so we had lots of smiles form Coco when we got home (for those who don't know Coco she smiles when she greets us). I took her for a long walk to the beach as John had taken her in the morning at 6.00am (yes I did say John). So today Monday was a relax day and tomorrow we are planning on doing some more snorkelling and kayaking. It is going to only be 27 degrees tomorrow compared to the 30-35s we have had so should be a nice change.
Hi My turn but Karen has taken all the highlights! However I can add a few highlights of what I saw under the water while she was floating around on the surface looking like a tasty meal (no not for me but the sharks which abound up here!) Naturally the white tipped reef sharks are always around but on the second dive I came across a BIG Sythe shaped tail sticking out of this cave! so naturally I tried to get in closer, then this monster decided he felt cornered so he wanted OUT! Not ferocious but just wanted out so I moved aside, it was pretty thrilling and although you never know I felt very safe as there appeared to be no aggression at all. It was white all over which has made identification difficult but the closest I can get is a Tawny Nurse Shark (although they say they are brown! (maybe this was an Albino! :-) As Karen said it was like diving in a massive aquarium with more types of coral than I've ever seen beautiful swim throughs which often hid even bigger cod and grouper which would weigh hundreds of kilos! All this in around 10m so you got a good 60 minutes per dive. Anyway there was plenty other sights but I think you get the picture! Bye 4 now!
Hi, John here. I was "Told" that todays blog was "My JOB!" Photos still to follow so you'll have to check back every now and then. Also I've added a video on day 9 and 10 and may do more but uploading large files to youtube is painful at best!
Today I ticked another of those life boxes! I did two dives off the Navy pier here in Exmouth! The security to get there was amazing considering it’s just some pylons in the water in the middle of nowhere but hey 9/11 cost and continues to cost everyone. It’s remote location and high security presence plus a total fishing ban has, as you can imagine resulted in an area akin to what the WA coast was probably like before we all contributed to its current decimated state!
Today was a bit windy top side which also resulted in a reasonable sized swell (nowhere near Walpole’s though!) and the entry point was over 3m above the surface (due to a very low tide) but when the fins hit the water they took the sting off the high jump. Once in I realized how long it had been since my last dive I had to take a few seconds to calm the nerves but after a couple of quick cross checks and some positive reinforcement chat, I slipped back into it as if it were yesterday and not 2006 in Qld!
I had buddied up with two guys one a local, the other his uncle (despite the fact he was younger…. too much info) anyway these guys also had cameras so I will post some of their photo’s. On with the dive - the max depth we had was only 12.2m so not much deeper than the Busselton Jetty! The pier has a video camera so I’ll try and locate the URL. I borrowed one of my buddys’ cameras and took a picture of the underwater video camera that was taking us! … as you do!)
MAN you will never be able to appreciate the vision we had, let me rattle off that which I can remember. Masses of Big (3–8 kg) silver schooling fish, so many that when they encircled you, you could not see through up or down. Every now and then on the outer of these schools cruised some large Barracuda. Enormous Cod mostly I believe Potato with girths bigger than you’d be able to hug and you could go right up to them and everything else, they only moved if you were about to make contact. Next a largish (2 – 2.5m) Grey Nurse Shark (Ragged Tooth for you South African types) swam between me and a pylon within touching distance. I didn’t move as it felt like one of those moments that a sudden move would/could cause a bad result but the thought did cross my mind that all he (she) had to do was suddenly turn it’s head to the side and my right arm might be gone! But it just gracefully glided on by! man that was as good as stalking a Rhino on Fothergill Island back in Zim!
Later on we saw a large white tipped reef shark resting on the bottom. As I positioned myself to take a photo another one came in from out of my line of sight and settled down, kinda like it was a shopping centre carpark! While on sharks we saw a massive Carpet or Wobbegong which I actually swam right over before been alerted to it by Steve! Amazing camouflage. We also saw Lion fish, all sorts of puffer fish incl NW Blowie some simply incredibly coloured fish several large Moray eels one of which thought my finger was food but I removed it to a safe distance, Sailfin catfish (a black cat fish with a large central spine and flappy skin making it look sail like, always in pairs). All manner of really colourful soft corals including fire coral (white in colour) and many shapes and variations of Nudibranchs.
Our first dive lasted 50 min then we climbed back up the stairs to the Jetty platform for a break and some lollies and fruit. While there we saw several humped backed whales go by splashing around and on the second dive we could hear their calls underwater it was all over far too quickly. We hadn’t planned on diving while on this trip as we were over the hassle of all the gear the stress in preparing etc but boy I’m glad I did this one
On Sunday we decided both Karen and I will go to the Murion Islands where I’ll do another couple of dives from the boat and Karen will do a snorkeling tour so more still to come. BUT I cannot see how it could even come close to the dives today on the Navy Pier!
Update: check out blog entry Days 9-10 Denham for video on shark feeding.
152kms today. Along the way we stopped and took a photo of the termite mounds, they are huge and there are lots of them. We arrived in Exmouth by lunchtime. Very windy and very warm. Took all afternoon to get setup as we decided to not only put up the annexe but also the gazebo, so we aren't moving again for a while! Packing up and setting up in the same day is too much like hard work - starting to think we should have invested in the rollout awning. On the way into Exmouth we stopped at Kailis fisheries and bought up big on prawns (isn't this a must do)? The caravan park is not too busy (we are hoping we don't get inundated next week with school holiday makers) and we have little ensuite ablution blocks which are great. We went for a walk to the closest beach via a bush track. Very tidal and the tide was way out which left rock pools and exposed coral. John discovered a cone shell which we have never seen before. A beautiful night, warm and balmy, lovely!
Day of the turtles. I saw a turtle! Today was lovely and calm and we took advantage of the lack of wind and went kayaking (on the west side). It is an idyllic area, white sand and beautiful turquoise water with reef close to shore. We paddled around for a while and shortly after John and Coco went into shore I saw the turtle. It was close to the surface and at first I thought it was a seal (as if up here) and as I paddled closer I saw its head out of the water, it was amazing and it was big. I floated with it for quite a while - it was so close I could have touched it with my paddle before a wave pushed it closer to me and it slowly took off with me after it but I lost it. I have never seen a turtle so close and for so long it was great. I wish I could have photographed it. Shortly after that from the shore we saw two more turtles a little further out then one about 10 metres from shore. We were at one of the turtle rookeries and were wondering if they might be coming into to lay their eggs soon. We believe they lay from October to April. A little later I was snorkelling and saw another turtle but I must have spooked it and it took off too quickly. Not a lot of fish life, saw two big spotted boxfish, a large wrasse, stingray and bright blue fusilers (think that is what they are). Tomorrow also looks like a nice day so we will go into the national park and snorkel the oyster stacks - a well known site.
