Break 1 - Day 7 Ningaloo Snorkelling at Turquoise Bay

Side note – we have visited several places with photography exhibits and postcards, and Kyle always is drawn to the clown fish in the anemone. Our room has just such a photo in it by chance. Now off to see if we can find some on the reef!

We had breakie in our room and then headed out for our first snorkel on the Ningaloo Reef. The brochures (and Cindy) recommended Turquoise Bay for starters, so off we went. Of course photographing under water is a different 'kettle of fish' (sorry). Mike has done his best with the 'regular' digital in it's 'baggie', but the quality of these photos is naturally not the same as his Nikon, and it is much more awkward to use. Regardless, I was quite pleased to see that he was able to capture as much as he did.

We headed straight into the waters and as we have come to expect, we were not to be disappointed. The corals were very diverse – lots of different types. And there were LOTs of different fishes - many familiar from the Great Barrier Reef, but some new ones too. Compared to Great Barrier Reef, both Mike and I agree that there seems to be more volume and variety of fish, but the colours are not as dramatic. The GBR consists mostly of soft corals where the Ningaloo reef is mostly hard corals - which results in a subtly different environment. The best difference, is that Ningaloo is accessible from the shoreline - so you just walk into the water and are in the reef!

Right away Mike spotted a Manta Ray in the shallow waters. Kyle and I were just getting in and missed it, although we saw from above the water at a distance. Later both Mike and Kyle spotted other rays in the sandy bottom, but I was not so lucky (or possibly observant). I did spot an octopus though which was interesting to hover over and observe as he (or she) sat blinking and observing us.

There were lots of sea slugs, butterfly fish, angel fish, parrot fish and several other species I could not name. Kyle did get a small sting from a jelly fish – but not enough to scare him out of the water (luckily several folks at Rottnest had experienced them also, so it was less ‘unknown’).

It was fun to swim amongst schools of darts as they perused the reef. One woman on shore spoke of how they even nibbled on her to see if she were edible. The darts along with many smaller minnow-ish fish went into very shallow waters and were easy to play along side of.

After a rather long first snorkel, I was feeling very queasy – not sure if it was the salt water getting up my mask into my sinus’ or what. Anyway, we broke for lunch but were anxious to get back at it. After lunch we snorkelled over to the right and the coral diversity was even greater. I was again nauseous, so headed back early. By the time Mike came in, he felt the same. We passed out on the beach for a bit as Kyle played with the small schools near shore. Then we headed back to our room for a rest to try to regain our mobility, which we did. Kyle was not nauseous right off, but did feel it later. In hindsight, we think it may have been the snorkelling gear which came from China coated in an oily film. Susbequent snorkelling has been fine - we think the oil was the problem.

We had a bit of a relax back at the room where Mike did some work and I did some documenting (it takes time to write all this stuff down - there is just too much to remember till we return!) We had a nice Chinese dinner in between writing sessions.

Alas, no clown fish or anemone today - that will be the quest for the next snorkelling day. Tomorrow we plan on visiting Yardie Creek and its gorge (the only one with water right now).