Exmouth & Whale Sharks (By Simon)

After loving every minute of Cape Range National Park we sadly packed up camp and headed back into civilization. Our plan was to have a few quiet days in Exmouth getting ready for the next leg of our trip and go on our highly anticipated swim with the whale sharks (Nath had been counting down the days and researching the tour from long before we left home!).

Our first day in Exmouth consisted of food shopping, clothes washing, oil & filter change on the cruiser, etc. By late afternoon we were ready for something else so we headed out to Bengai Pier for a spot of fishing. It wasn't long before we had a couple of rods in the water and catching fish. We caught so many fish of different kinds that we lost count. And all put up a good fight with our rods almost doubled over, the kids were delighted! Unfortunately, it was Dad who had to retrieve hooks and set the bait!

Unfortunately Western Australia's fishing is so good that their size limits are huge... even the 40cm Cod that Nath caught was undersize. Regardless, we all had a great time.

We also explored the canyons on the east side of Cape Range National Park.

Ningaloo Blue Whale Shark Tour:
Our tour day had finally arrived and we were picked up at our caravan park at 7:15am for the short trip to the boat harbour where we boarded Ningaloo Blue's Venture III.

After a short trip to the outer reef we all jumped in for a snorkel around the reef which was very different to the inner reefs we had been exploring up to this point. The water was a lot deeper but so clear and the marine life amazing (thousands of fish, sting rays, turtles and even a small reef shark).

Only a minute or so after we had climbed back on board we were told to get ready to jump back in as our first whale shark had been spotted and was only 50m away. You could feel the excitement (and nerves) on the boat jump up a notch! In no time we were back in the water and peering into the depths looking for the approaching giant. It was an eerie feeling, not quite knowing what to expect and just then a whale shark the size of a bus gracefully glides into view. The word "awesome" is used willy-nilly these days but it is the best word to describe the experience... it was truly awe-inspiring!

 

I was a little concerned that the kids, one, may have been too scared to snorkel with a whale shark and two, not be able to swim fast enough to keep up. But I needn't have worried on either count. They all did great! The shark slowly swims along, not the least worried about 10 excited humans frantically flapping along side. Nath, Sarah and Emma were all able to get within 3m of the shark and swim along side for some time (see picture of Nath below).

This was an amazing day and we are apparently now included in the 0.1% of the world's population that has swum with a whale shark (truly blessed). We could not have asked for a more perfect day. As Nath wrote in his journal that night "you should definitely try this if you get the chance"!