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

Again; we spotted a number of Whale Sharks but couldn’t get a swim on them; they were being very uncooperative!

As mentioned in my post yesterday; we rely on them swimming on the surface becasue they want to not becasue they have to; so there are naturally times when it is difficult to get a swim with them.

On a positive the day was magnificent and we had a BRILLIANT snorkel and swam with some turtles and lots of beautiful fish and still finished the day with a chilled glass of champers!

Although dissapointed by the sharks; everyone on board still had a joyful day; basking in the warm Ningaloo sun, swimming in our turquoise water which is still about 28 degrees!

After yesterdays fantastic Whale Shark Interaction; today has been especially dissapointing; we didn’t get to swim with a Whals Shark today.

The spotter plane saw quite a few but the sharks wouldn’t stay at the surface, whenever the boats got close to them - or one of our ’spotters’ jumped in the water; the sharks would dive.

Who knows why? There could be several reasons; however the fact that the Whale Shark is a fish and only comes to the surface to feed means we are relying on them to stay up for the swims.

Never mind I guess this is nature at it’s best; hopefully we’ll have better luck tomorrow!

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

I often read and hear comparisons between the Great Barrier Reef and our own Ningaloo Reef. Some say the GBR can’t be beaten, others that Ningaloo is far superior.

So which offers the best experience?

Honestly - they are both fantastic, and both ‘musts’ for any adventure traveller, whether you’re a seasoned diver or inquisitive snorkeller.

But they are different, and if you have to choose, then the choice is purely personal.

Divers who have dived the GBR won’t rest until they’ve also dived Ningaloo which is considered the “next thing” - and many are frankly blown away by the experience. I have even heard some admit in hushed tones that actually, Ningaloo is right up there with the Great Barrier - I think the tones are hushed because they don’t want to be seen to insult a national icon.

Personally I love Ningaloo because it’s relatively undamaged by the trample of tourist fins. Hordes of overseas visitors have caused a lot of damage to the Great Barrier Reef, and here in Western Australia we hope to learn from this by focusing on ecotourism. We’re very protective of our beautiful reef and strict about educating everyone who ventures into the ocean about looking but not touching.

The reef is also very close to the shore, which means you can wade out to it with your snorkel when the mood takes you - no need to take a long boat trip. This appeals to a lot of independent travellers, who also love the relative uncrowdedness of the region.

Then there’s the light and colours, which are again quite different from the GBR. I’ll leave you with the words one writer chose to describe the Ningaloo shoreline in a recently published article:

“The sheltered shallow waters between the reef and the beach are crystal clear, and the white sand beneath shines through the bright blue, giving the beaches an incandescent quality.”

I just came across this delightful video. I feel sure these kids will remember this experience and that it will contribute to their inner psyche - helping to produce adults that care for our marine environment.

As a staunch supporter of ecotourism, I’d say that first-hand experience of the natural world needs to be added to the firing of children’s imaginations through art.

Here’s an interesting post from global warming specialist, Jane Genovese, which gives us real evidence from research showing the importance of a child’s early experiences in terms of their commitment to the environment.

Fascinating stuff.

Unfortunately, there are tour operators that won’t allow children to participate in interactive experiences because they are viewed as a liability - unpredictable in their responses with the potential to cause damage to the fragile environment.

While it’s essential that we protect our environment, children need to take part, with us adults taking responsibility for educating and monitoring them as they do so.

We encourage families to join our whale shark tour as a group. In fact our boat has been designed to make it easy for kids to hop in and out of the water, as the marlin board sits flush with the water. Even two-year-olds can join in - all the kids need is their own wetsuits as we only have adult sizes.

And if the kids paint their experience afterwards, we’d love to see the results!

Coral Bay is a popular holiday spot for West Australians in winter, but many don’t realise how stunning it is in spring and summer, especially outside school holidays.

It’s just down the road (by Western Australian standards) from Exmouth - 152 km to be precise - and well worth the journey. Four-wheel-drivers can take a short cut via Yardie Creek for a day trip. Otherwise there’s plenty of accommodation, but do book ahead.

You can take a catamaran tour over the reef here for spectacular snorkelling, or just float out from the beach. But above all, this is one of the most relaxing places to really get away from it all. Just a short walk from the main beach gets you to some virtually empty bays of soft sand and lapping turquoise water.

Take a look at these holiday snaps on Flickr - these are the kind of pics that make you just long to be there. Taken by real people on a real Coral Bay holiday (in winter), they give you an honest view of the place - no touch-ups or professional tricks in these pics. And I can vouch for the colours being true.

By spring, the temperatures are warming up to a perfect 30 degrees, hovering around 24 degrees in winter and rising to around 37 degrees in the height of summer.

So if you decide to visit and need advice on accommodation and tours, get in touch with us.

Well of course I’m biased - I live on the Coral Coast and the Ningaloo Reef is my love, life and livelihood, so to me, Ningaloo is perfect all year round.

But for many people, spring is THE time to come. Temperatures are rising with daytime max averaging 30-36C. If this seems a little on the warm side, the reliable afternoon breezes come in every day to cool you down.

Then of course there’s the cooling effect of swimming and snorkelling over the stunning reef, which in places is just a few metres from the beach. Water temperatures are between 26 and 30C, cool enough to be refreshing, warm enough to save you from shivering.

If all this sounds appealing as a way to wind down after a winter in the city, I’d recommend the Ningaloo Reef Retreat. There are few more relaxing spots. It’s an ecologically sound, luxurious tented camp and right in the dunes just south of Turquoise Bay. And when I say ‘luxurious’, I mean real luxury camping with pine furniture, wooden floors, ensuite solar showers and hammocks on the front deck of your tent.

Whenever you feel like cooling off, you can just stroll down to the water’s edge, wade in and you’re there - hanging over the reef with a whole crowd of marine creatures darting around you. Guides at the camp can also take you out sea kayaking, help you find sea turtles, and direct you to the best walks in the gorges of the Cape Range National Park, just a few minutes away.

What also makes the Retreat interesting is the communal dining experience. The camp sleeps around a dozen guests, and most choose to join in together at the camp kitchen to cook and eat dinner outdoors by candlelight. Even the least sociable find themselves drawn into this wonderfully Australian atmosphere of mateship over a glass or two and an ocean sunset - a fabulous way to unwind.

True blue Aussies - or visitors wanting a real Australian camping experience - can even choose to sleep in a good old swag under the stars.

Contact us or the Retreat to find out more.

Watch this Channel Nine broadcast created after Jules Lund joined us in July to film the whale sharks!

It was an awesome day; we all had a ball and Jules was awesome!

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

September and October are fantastic months here in Ningaloo’s North West Cape, thanks to the wildflowers dotting the ranges - more than 630 species I’m told.

You can see the flowers by following the Cape Range Trail independently, or we recommend a tour with Ningaloo Safari’s Dave Mongan. Dave has taken over this popular tour company, which was built up by Neil McLeod - a local legend proudly supported by his mum’s famous fruit cake!

I love this Sydney Morning Herald article, which captures the character of the tour. Don’t miss it - whatever time of year you come. Dave not only hunts down the wildflowers, but local wildlife and photo opportunities too, with a Yardie Creek boat trip and snorkelling at Turquoise Bay thrown in for good measure.

Contact us if you’d like to book this tour. We can also help with accommodation and marine-based adventures to round out your holiday.

We’ve just picked up a great article in the New Zealand Herald: Australia - Out of the Blue.

It was written by a journalist we took out on one of our Whale Shark Ecotours recently, and gives a clear picture of the experience.

We’re delighted to see the coverage, so thanks Paul. We’d also like to thank Steve Gibson for the photo that appears at the top of the article.

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.

We talk a lot about the colourful array of marine life swimming around the Ningaloo Reef - much of it visible to snorkellers as well as divers.

But until you’ve been here, it’s hard to imagine just how stunning our underwater world is. Have a rummage around this site set up by local diver Gudge, and you’ll see what we’re on about.

You might find Gudge’s temperature chart interesting too. From this data, it’s clear that the water’s at its warmest between February and May, rarely dips below 22C and reached a steamy 29.5C in autumn of last year. This, combined with great visibility and well preserved coral, attracts scuba divers from all over the world.

We’d love to see your underwater shots, so email them to us and we’ll publish a few in our blog.

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.

Photos and video of whale sharks are close to our hearts. We encourage guests to take photos and videos on our whale shark tour, and we’re always on the look-out for them as they get posted to sites and blogs.

Here are some great ones that appeared recently on NHNZ images and YouTube.

Of course it doesn’t substitute for the real thing …

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.

We often get asked for advice on where to stay when visiting Ningaloo.

There are lots of options – many listed on our site. In this and future posts I’ll keep you updated, starting with the latest info for the increasing number of adventure travellers wanting luxury accommodation.

There are a few excellent options now, in particular the new Novotel, and two of our old favourites are still going strong – the Pot Shot’s Osprey Apartments and Ningaloo Reef Retreat.

The Novotel Ningaloo Resort is Exmouth’s newest edition, bringing luxury, elegance and style to our small town! Here’s an article from news.com.au: Reef resorts to luxury.

It’s situated right on Sunrise Beach, part of the new marina development, so ask for an apartment with ocean views. The restaurant and bar is superbly designed, and the quality of service and meals is a credit to the resort.

Couples and families can all enjoy the comfort of this 4-star resort.

The popular Pot Shot Resort houses Exmouth’s main bar, where both locals and visitors congregate. There’s a late night party atmosphere here over the weekend, with the Bamboo Bar (affectionately known as the ‘Bimbo Bar’ by locals) rockin’ on until late on a Friday night. There’s also a relaxed restaurant and a swimming pool.

As well as budget and mid-range accommodation, the Pot Shot’s luxurious self-contained Osprey Apartments are just across the road from the main resort. Some have spas, the prices are reasonable for the quality of accommodation, and again they’re suitable for both couples and families.

Finally, the Ningaloo Reef Retreat, on the west side of the North West Cape, is the ULTIMATE in remote yet comfortable camping. This is for true adventurers who are into deluxe ecotourism.

The retreat is located within the beautiful Cape Range National Park right on one of the most delightful beaches in the world, so you’re guaranteed an ocean view! Accommodation is in luxury tents complete with wooden floors, fully furnished, solar showers and decks overlooking the ocean.

Guests can just slip on some snorkelling gear and swim a few metres from the secluded beach in front of the Retreat to see beautiful corals and tropical fish.

A little further from shore you have a good chance of finding one of the turtles that live and breed in the sheltered waters. Guides are on hand to show you where the turtles rest among the coral gardens.

Further out again, the Blue Lagoon is a natural aquarium buzzing with marine life – the best snorkelling on the Ningaloo Reef and an easy paddle from the retreat on a double kayak.

Stargazing is another good reason to stay here. The Milky Way stretches from horizon to horizon, and if you opt to swag it outdoors or relax in a hammock in front of your tent, you’ll probably fall asleep counting shooting stars.

You can also hike easily from here into the Mandu Mandu Gorge for stunning views over the reef.

In my next accommodation post I’ll run through the caravan/camping parks and give you the heads-up on their particular characteristics to help you choose the one that suits you best.

This is a great post by ‘Dingo Divas’; they have tapped into some more of the fascinating aspects of Exmouth, in this case swimming with green turtles, clownfish, and the canyons and gorges:
Trip Around Australia - Cape Range NP / Ningaloo Reef.

Love reading this kind of travel post, if you see any good ones, send me a link.