Wildlife Extravaganza in Western Australia (8/14 )

DAY 9 ~ Monday

WHALE SHARK DAY!!!

We awake to a beautiful sunrise over the hills, and two Corellas (white parrots) perched on the roof of the ‘dunny’, who were later joined by a bunch of Galahs (pink and grey parrots) that the camp hosts were feeding. We headed off to meet the boat.

Once boarded, the first thing we did was leave the reef and took some people to dive, about 8 people went. While they were diving we snorkelled, but it was so far down to the coral (about 8 metres) we couldn’t see much, a few tiny fish! The best thing was the miniature jellyfish, translucent and with neon/electrical impulses along them – cool. On the way back to the boat we were swimming through a whole ’school’ of them.

Then the divers came back and the spotter plane went out, but we actually found a whale shark almost immediately. It was amazing, but it’s hard to describe the experience. We had to stand almost on guard, ready to scramble with our snorkel masks and flippers on, and at the command of “Go, go, go!” jump into the water, in about 3 seconds. It was like being in the army on a drill, or jumping from a plane with a parachute on! Then, in the water, you’d be shouted at for which direction to swim in, then you’d be shouted at to group up and get back in the boat, “Go, go, go!” – it was all a bit frantic and exhausting! BUT INCREDIBLE!

You didn’t always know where the whale shark was and you’d sort of swim vaguely, (usually unable to hear whatever it was that the leaders were shouting) then this shape would loom out of the murky sea coming toward

you, and you would desperately try to get out of it’s way, for its sake and yours! But sometimes it would follow you! The first one was a juvenile and I think this was my best swim, longer and closer than the others.

At times the fish would be swimming too fast, once I could barely keep up. A couple other times the shark would dive down, and you’d lose sight of it. Once Ian and another guy kept following the shadow and eventually it came up again. They had a long, long swim with it, with no other peoples flippers in their face! I think we had about eight goes in all, you would take turns as only about ten people were allowed in the water at a time, and sometimes people would be tired and miss a turn.

The sharks were splendid, a lovely grey with big white spots, so serene and placid, just swimming along! The biggest one we saw was roughly nine metres long (about 30 feet)…gigantic! We did this for about 2 hours and then we went to investigate a manta ray sighting, but it turned out to be another whale shark – not another whale shark! We saw another sea snake, and Humpback Whales breaching in the distance.

Eventually, the spotter plane left and we headed back inside the reef for lunch and a wonderful snorkel at Mangrove Bay. It was the best we’ve had I think. We were so close to the coral and the fish were so colourful. We saw Anemone, Clownfish and what I think was a Batfish, extraordinary looking. I could’ve stayed there all day but we only had

about half an hour. The whole thing was fantastic, a real chance of a lifetime and again we felt honoured to have had this contact with such remarkable creatures!

But the day was not to end there. We rushed back to have a look at the visitor centre (made of rammed earth) and discovered that they had OSPREYS nesting on top of the antennae there. For me, this was another life ambition fulfilled – to see Ospreys, though I’d always sort of expected to see them in Scotland!

We saw them in the nest and soaring in the sky. We also got bitten by some rather vicious ants and said ‘hello’ to a very tame kangaroo, who was trying to hitch a ride with a group of Dutch travellers, in their combi-van! Then we headed back to Tulki beach for the last rays of the sun, sat and read our books and enjoyed another sunset – without a

splash. What an unbelievably phenomenal day!

(If you wish to know more about our whale shark adventure, see my other article about the Whale Sharks of Ningaloo)

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