Coral Bay

After Monkey Mia, we continued our journey up the coast to Coral Bay, another resort area situated on Ningaloo Reef, one of the world's largest coral reefs. The wildlife there was breathtaking. We had options of going on different excursions during the day provided by the resort. The one that I chose was an all day boat trip in which we got three snorkel trips down into the reef itself. The coolest part was that Ningaloo Reef is home to one of the world's only permanent populations of Manta Rays. So for one of our snorkels, they sent up a bi-plane to find where the mantas were and then we boated over to them to snorkel with them. On our first snorkel, we simply learned the basics of snorkeling and learning to swim just above the reef, looking down onto all of the coral and marine wildlife below us. We saw some black-tip reef sharks and hundreds of different species of fish darting in and out among the coral. On our second snorkel (after lunch, the resulting sea-sickness of two of our group, a 15 foot long tiger shark swimming underneath our boat, and searching for a mama humpback whale and her calf that had apparently wandered into the bay to no avail) we went to find the Mantas. Once we found them, we had to slip into the water slowly as to not scare them away (they don't have stingers so their only defense is swimming away in a rather swift fashion. gentle giants) and snorkel over the top of them. They feed on small plankton by doing back flips with their mouths open in the water. I cannot put into words how amazing these creatures were. Almost 15 feet wide at the wingtips, it seemed almost dreamlike and artistic the way they swam and almost unreal that they were arms length away. It almost made me forget about the prospect of meeting the 15 foot long Tiger Shark that had swam under our boat while we had lunch. Almost. Our third snorkel was much like our first, we found a good spot to go into the reef and swim around looking at all the fish and coral. I wish I could find a way to make it sound less mundane, but I could have snorkeled for hours. It's amazing to finally realize that the song Sebastian sings in the Little Mermaid, "Under the Sea" is actually true. When you're in a marine environment it's insane just to see what kinds of variance nature is capable of and walking the thin line between enjoying the moment and savoring it in all of its beautiful immediacy and the grandeur of knowing that I will probably never in my life, or at least not for a very long time, experience this again. It was definitely something to think about while watching the waves on the trip back to camp.

That night, we journeyed down to the beach, set up blankets on the sand, cracked some fine Emu Exports and gazed into the stars, trying to find our familiar constellations in the southern hemisphere upside down. And before you know it, we were on the road again, this time inland into mining country and Karijini National Park.