Manta Ray

Archive for the ‘Manta Ray’ Category

The power of real stories

October 11th, 2007 by Ningaloo

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.

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The humpback whales are here

August 10th, 2007 by Ningaloo

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!

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After the whale sharks

July 24th, 2007 by Ningaloo

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.

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Sharks in Great Numbers

July 6th, 2007 by Ningaloo

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.

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So much more than whale sharks at Ningaloo

June 28th, 2007 by Ningaloo

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.

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Highlights of the whale shark season

June 25th, 2007 by Ningaloo

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.

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In deep with whale sharks

June 14th, 2007 by Ningaloo

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

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Record-breaking whale shark numbers

June 13th, 2007 by Ningaloo

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!

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Heading for a ripper 2007 whale shark season

May 18th, 2007 by Ningaloo

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!

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Welcome to Ningaloo

April 18th, 2007 by Ningaloo

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.

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