We have had an exceptional start to the 2008 season. There have only been 2 days where we didn’t get to swim with a Whale Shark and that in comparison to most other April starts is fantastic!

Today we swam with 2 sharks, 1 was approx 3 1/2m and the other a little bigger at 4 1/2.

Some dear friends joined our tour today; Vix and Randall have worked in the dive industry up here for some years but are leaving town to move to the big city; Vix decided she wanted to have one last final Whale Shark spot; so went in and did it 4 1/2 months pregnant - so we have now taken claim to having the youngest child EVER swim with a shark lol.

We actually have a lot of pregnant women do the tour - they tell me it’s because they’re making the most of their freedom before having to care for someone around the clock - makes sense!~

“What a fantastic, AMAZING day! 7 snorkels with whale shark - an experience of a lifetime - Thankyou!” Karen and Dave Stratford, Geoff, Anne and Holly

WOW - What a fantastic start to the Whale Shark season in Exmouth, Western Australia~!

I am officially BANNED from the very first tour - history has proven that when I am on the first tour; we don’t see a shark - so I have been unanimously voted off the boat for the very first tour!

Today we swam with a gorgeous 3 and a half metre Whale Shark; who seemed to be as interested in us as we were in him. He turned often to check the punters out and circled the groups when they were in the water; thrilling our swimmers to no end!

We were also fortunate enough to see some majestic Manta Rays; unfortunately we couldn’t swim with them as they were too close the reef and it wasn’t safe, but they were fantastic to watch!

We have so many pre-bookings for April - with many days already completely booked out; so if you’re coming to swim with these unreal fish - best be booking ahead to secure your seat :)

Kat

How do you decide where to take your next holiday and the adventures you want to experience?

It’s fascinating to watch Internet activity - especially blogs - and see how real people spread the word around the world about their real travel experiences. I’d certainly be interested to know how you plan your holidays.

Gone are the days when tour operators like us relied totally on glossy brochures or even travel agents to sell our tours. Now our visitors are coming to us because they’ve browsed online and read about other people’s experiences.

I picked up this entry just this week, and is a great example of the potential power of real stories. If you read something like this when you were browsing for an adventure holiday, you’d probably sit up and take notice. Alex is right - swimming with manta rays is truly awesome.

And the great thing for us at Ningaloo is that almost 100 per cent of the stories we are seeing out there are not just positive but raving with enthusiasm! The fact is that Ningaloo sells itself. Once you’ve been and experienced it, you’ll want to tell the world about it - no exaggeration.

The Ningaloo Blue crew are still recovering from the 2007 season; and the 2008 bookings are beginning to come in thick and fast.

This is just a reminder; if you are planning to visit the Ningaloo Reef in 2008 to swim with the hugemongous Whale Sharks; the most cost effective way to do this is to 1. Book ahead and 2. Book a package.

I can bundle up (sheesh sound like Telstra) your Whale Shark tour with accommodation / diving tours / car hire etc to get you the best value available! We pride ourselves on being Exmouths one-stop tour shop; where we’re able to give you an honest opinion on the various experiences / tour operators / accommodation available and can also assist you with general Exmouth enquiries.

PLease FREE CALL 1800 811 338 if you would like to start planning your trip and get some quotes etc and REMEMBER it’s ok to book an ‘OPEN’ ticket; and confirm the dates later!

Happy holidaying
Kat

As we wave goodbye to the whale sharks, the humpback whales arrive at Ningaloo for around four months as they migrate south to cooler waters in readiness for summer.

We regularly spot the whales while out on our fishing and diving tours, and we’re sometimes lucky enough to see calves with their mothers.

Many of the dedicated whale-watching tours enable guests to snorkel with manta rays too - two breathtaking experiences in one hit!

Contact us for more information.

Isn’t it fantastic that our reef has so much attention at the moment?!

Our pristine Ningaloo Reef hosts thousands of different species of fish and coral; the pristine waters need to be seen personally to be believed.

From Exmouth it is possible to access the Ningaloo Reef from the Cape Range National Park. This is located approx 30 min drive from the town centre.

Once within the National Park boundaries; there is an endless coastline of turquoise waters; unspoiled sandy beaches and snorkeling just a stones throw off the shore.

During the summer months the water temp is absolute beautiful (however the scorching summer heat can leave a lot to be desired); it can be a little cooler in the middle of winter; however the clear bright skies and warm sun; still make it a pleasurable experience.

Some of my favourite snorkel spots are: Turquoise Bay, Lakeside & Oyster Stacks. At all 3 locations there is an abundance of beautiful coral, colourful reef fish and the odd white tipped Reef Shark. It truly is an amazing experience!

The whale shark season may be over, but the adventure continues.

Now’s the time of year when the water temperature over the Ningaloo Reef begins to rise steadily to a 30 degree crescendo in summer. This makes the Reef ideal for snorkellers - and there’s certainly plenty to see and even photograph in our beautiful clear water.

Some of the best spots are at Ningaloo Reef Retreat and Turquoise Bay, where the coral begins just 10 metres off the beach. As summer draws on, this is the place to be, with temperatures on this west side of the cape around 8 degrees cooler than in Exmouth, thanks partly to a refreshing sea breeze.

As well as colourful coral and sponge gardens, the list of fish goes on and on - parrot fish, sea stars, humbugs, angel fish, clownfish, butterflyfish, surgeons and anemones. Patient snorkellers regularly spot huge lazy turtles, who can be seen heaving themselves up the beach to lay their eggs from November.

There are fantastic drift snorkels in both the Retreat and Turquoise Bay, and the Retreat has sea kayaks available for those who want to paddle further out to an area known as Blue Lagoon. Snorkelling and sea kayaking at the Retreat must be booked ahead. I recommend a full day tour that includes Turquoise Bay too.

Another good option is the Ningaloo Coral Explorer II - a glass bottom vessel that shows off the Ningaloo coral and has snorkelling options for those who want to get a closer look.

You can be sure of some stunning tropical fish on this tour, and their guests often spot manta rays, dugongs, dolphins, turtles and reef sharks too.

These are both great tour operators and I’d be happy to organise a snorkel for you. Contact me for further info.

WOOHOO! The Whale Sharks are still here and are the best EVER!!

Yesterday we swam with 5 different sharks and saw approx 70 manta rays strung across the back of the reef all feeding in unison.

Leith our videogragher also managed to get some great footage of a bronze whaler shark that came up to check our group out.

A quick note on accommodation:

The town will swell to approx 10 000 people in the coming fortnight as we head into the July school holidays. Accommodation is booked out and has been since January; so if you are planning to come up this way it is worth booking your accom ASAP.

We’re smack in the middle of whale shark season at Ningaloo, but we never tire of the huge variety of marine life here throughout the year.

But don’t just take my word for it - here are a couple of blog posts from travellers who’ve also been blown away by the abundance of species.

The first is from a family travelling around Australia and raving about the Reef.

The second is from UK couple, Chris & Vee, who enjoyed a birthday celebration that exceeded all expectations.

So if you’ve ‘done’ the whale sharks, consider a visit later in the year when it’s a little quieter, and enjoy snorkelling with the turtles, manta rays, dolphins and endless arrays of fish.

The time that I’ve spent on the boat so far has been amazing. I’ve seen and done some brilliant stuff… Some of the highlights so far:

Well, obviously the whale sharks. We’ve seen really little ones, just 2.5-3m, all the way up to a 10m one - a female that looked suspiciously pregnant, so the industry and researchers working here are all very excited.

Whale sharks aside, my biggest highlight was a really long snorkel with about six manta rays. It was brilliant! They are such amazing creatures, very curious and very gentle - provided you don’t chase them, they’ll come within millimetres of you.

The scariest moment - and the biggest adrenaline rush so far - was when the skipper let us (just the staff, NOT the customers!) jump into a bit bait ball (heaps of krill and little fish), where we saw pygmy mantas and walls of tuna rushing through to eat what we were swimming in! When the tuna swam through the second time they split up into two separate groups and a 2m bronze whaler shark came through the middle of them and charged straight at us. Our videographer, Leith, charged back at it with his camera, which put it off for a while but didn’t stop it from circling under us until we got back on the boat. It was an amazing buzz to get that close!!

I’ve also swum with a baby hammerhead, we’ve seen orcas, humpbacks, huge pods of spinner dolphins, bottlenoses and other dolphins, tiger sharks and even blue whales. We’re really lucky here at Ningaloo because the reef drops off straight into the open ocean so anything and everything turns up.

As well as being out on the boat I’ve managed to fit in some time going out with pilots for the whale shark spotting. Seeing the sharks and other marine life from the air - especially the whales - is awesome, and the birds-eye view of the reef is absolutely breath taking.

Exmouth is a very special place.

There’s a great online news article on news.com.au by Mike Smith called “In Deep with Whale Sharks”. People get an emotional high from the experience of swimming with a whale shark and the abundance of marine life, and there are some great quotes in here that express that:

“At no stage do the daunting pre-dive thoughts of meeting up with a deadly man-eater enter my mind. Sheer exhilaration takes over, the adrenalin rush so great we need little encouragement to take another three plunges.”

and

“The abundance of sea creatures in the marine park is another factor – giant manta rays, turtles, dolphins and various giant fish and sharks among them.”

Great article Mike: In Deep With Whale Sharks

Well - the whale sharks are absolutely CRANKING!!! I can’t help myself - I get so excited! Swimming with these wonderful creatures is still as much of a joy to me now as it was on my very first tour.

We’re hoping that with the fantastic numbers we’re currently seeing that the season will continue well in to July.

I joined the crew on Sunday and swam with three stunning whale sharks, including a young male at about 4m who was very cruisy and allowed us to have a really good look at him. Best of the day though was the 8m shark which was a little speedy but still breathtaking.

On Monday we broke our previous all-time record of nine whale sharks by swimming with 10 on one tour!! That’s ten different whale sharks. It was tremendous!

We also stayed behind after the whale sharks had left to swim with some AWESOME manta rays. As we gathered in a tight group and made sure they didn’t feel threatened by us, they milled around in front of us for quite some time. They were simply stunning.

Today we swam with four whale sharks by 11 am and had heaps of spinner dolphins playing at the bow of the boat.

Hope business is well for everyone. Remember if you ever need any POS or extra information on our tours or Exmouth please feel free to contact Mel or Kat in the office.

Happy days!

Wow! What a day we had on Friday - not only did the group swim with a giant 10 metre whaleshark, but it was female and pregnant! Quite rare to find on the Ningaloo Reef, as we see mostly juvenille males as a rule. So big smiles all around from both customers and crew. A group of local eco researchers got a close encounter while trying to measure her - she turned 90 degrees, and was pretty well right in front of them before they knew it! If you’ve ever tried to get away from a 10 metre whaleshark you will know how difficult it can be!

The manta rays have put on an early show this season, with swimmings becoming a regular occurance on the eco tours. We get pygmy manta rays as well as the oceanic mantas here on the Ningaloo Reef, and they are both two of the most graceful creatures you will encounter in the ocean. Gliding, barrel rolling, breaching and mating chains are just some of the behaviours we observe from the mantas at Ningaloo, and the season is only just beginning!

A HUGE decision which will impact whaleshark numbers around the world, is the recent abolishment of commercial fishing on whalesharks in Taiwan. Traditionally thought of as a delicacy in some Southeast Asian countries, whalesharks were hunted and called ‘Tofu Meat’ due to their similarities in taste to tofu. Last Friday came the news though, and banning the fishing of these majestic creatures is a huge step forward in the protection of a largely defenceless animal. We’re all having whaleshark parties over here in Exmouth!

The humpback whale season is just about to begin, with 2 lone females sighted over the past few days! We can’t wait for the humpback adventure to begin. Exmouth is a great place to view theses creatures, as they come into the Exmouth Gulf for a bit of R & R before resuming their migration. So breaching, fin slapping and hearing the huge ‘whoosh’ of their breathing spurts is a common sight (and sound) during the coming months.

Hi to everyone who has been on our Whaleshark Eco Tour this season (and previous seasons)!

Welcome to the start of our 2007 whale shark season!

Mother nature kept us on our toes with a slower than usual start this year. The first week of April was chaotic with whale sharks being sighted in large numbers, however the middle two weeks were a tad disappointing, with sightings being a little sketchy (only every second day) which is unusual for this time of the year.

Our theory is that maybe the food was a little lower than usual, so the sharks were feeding lower and not at the surface where we want them.

But by the last week of April they had finally become reliable and consistent, with sightings occurring daily.

We are now into a ripper season! Last week we averaged swimming with two whale sharks a day, and four on Wednesday!

As I write this it’s 11 am and we have already swum with a 7m shark. These days are so special and memorable!

Even more special is the baby whale shark out there at the moment – gorgeous at just 3m. And some big suckers too! The whale shark you can see in the picture with the dorsal fin sticking out of the water is guesstimated at approx 10m!

Last week our snorkellers were also blessed with an array of other marine life – minky whales, turtles, two big manta rays and an abundance of colourful fish.

We are really looking forward to the arrival of the humpback whales on their annual pilgrimage which should be arriving in the next few weeks. We can’t wait!

Welcome to the new Ningaloo Adventure Travel blogsite. This site is run the team at Ningaloo Blue, and we’d love to see you come on one of our tours.

As there is so much to do up at Ningaloo, we figured we take some time to explain not just our adventure travel opportunities, but also those around us.

So jump on in, and make sure to leave us a comment on what you like, and get in touch with us if there is some specific information you’d like to see.