Whale Sharking

Wednesday 7^th May 2008

A bright and early start because Paul was taking Holly and me up to Tantabiddi boat ramp so we could meet the Kings Ningaloo Adventure people for our swim with the whale sharks. Katie was worried and had decided not to go and Paul had graciously agreed that I could accompany Holly who was keener than mustard while nervous at the same time.

Everyone else came down on the bus from Exmouth and we were ferried out to our boat which was large with comfy benches and shade and only 17 passengers. We were taken for a ‘practice’ snorkel so that everyone could show they were comfortable with the gear and saw loads of fish and some amazing coral that looked like someone had taken a pot of paint into the ocean. A couple of the guests reckoned that that one snorkel outshone by miles anything they had seen on the Great Barrier Reef.

I swapped my dodgy mask and snorkel for their fancy, much newer ones and got on much better. Hols was like a mermaid or little fish – diving up and down and round about and swimming circles around all the rest of us.

Swimming with the whale sharks is just incredible – one minute you are standing on the marlin board at the back of the boat, the next you are in the water trying to orientate yourself and move to right side of the spotter while at the same time gazing under water to try and catch a glimpse. And then there it is... looming out of the blue, white rimmed mouth heading towards you, beautiful spotted body gliding gracefully through the water, menacing fin and enormous shark tail gently swishing from side to side. They are SO big and move so imperceptibly and yet their speed was enough to have us paddling quite strenuously to keep up.

The first one we saw is quite distinctive since he has a growth on the side of his head and they call him Luke (short for leukaemia – very tasteful!). He moved fairly slowly so keeping up wasn’t too much of an issue but I was very aware of keeping an eye on Holly who had a tendency to wander too close. He had other small fishes keeping him company – using his slipstream, I guess, and sharing his food but wasn’t too bothered about our presence. There were three or four boats sharing him so we had five minutes or so of ‘contact’ time (we wouldn’t have been able to keep up for much longer, anyway) before our boat picked us up and we moved further in front of him to await our next turn.

We then lost Luke who dived down – probably fed up with being on display for so long – and headed south to where another whale had been spotted by the plane. It was a female but not yet identified and she was moving faster and going up and down a fair bit but she was bigger and still just as amazing.

Once our ‘contact’ time was up we headed back inside the reef for a fantastic lunch and some more snorkelling. Holly snorkelled with her new friend Dakota (12 years old but they don’t care as long as there is another young face around) so I was free to paddle around as I wanted. The visibility wasn’t perfect but it was pretty good and the best bit for me was seeing a couple of turtles – it just seems incredible that we can hang out where they hang out. I also saw an elegant catfish, a brown unicornfish (that was actually green) and a bunch of LongToms (very long and thin with very sharp teeth) amongst hundreds of other, equally beautiful, fish.

Back on dry land Paul drove up with the car rocking to the sound of Iggy Pop and Katie in the front seat looking very pleased with herself! They had spent the day at the Milyering Visitor Centre, Lakeside beach (where they bumped into Hannah and her family – her new friend from Kalbarri), the Oyster Stacks and Turquoise Bay.

We counted kangaroos beside the road as a diversion to stop the girls upsetting each other but even that almost came to blows when Katie was five up on her side and Holly was accusing Paul and I of helping Katie too much! In the 44km we counted 35 on each side (thank goodness it was a draw!) and then four more on the track to the camp! And they are pretty stupid about running in front of the vehicle so driving was slightly stressful for Paul.

Tonight we didn’t risk the bug invasion – we got inside before dark and more or less stayed there. We had a slap up dinner of fresh prawns (or, prunes, as Katie called them!) – courtesy of the boat who had some left over and none of the staff wanted them since they eat them every day. It’s a tough lark, this camping!

We finally got out the head torches to make toilet visits a whole lot easier but the girls thought using them to illuminate the long drop was hilarious – I can tell you it was not pleasant. Surprisingly, the organic stuff they use to keep the smell away is incredibly effective.

I worked on our itinerary – we needed to decide whether to move back into town (the call of a hot shower is strong, as is doing some laundry) but if we can get into another camp site up the road we will stay in the Cape Range National Park for another couple of nights.

I saw a shooting star! Whenever anyone else sees them I am looking in the wrong direction but tonight I really saw one!