Thursday 17th June - Exmouth

Have you ever signed up for something and then wondered if it was going to be worth the money?  Well, I think our first warm up snorkel over the reef had us edging towards yes, this really is special.  It was like a huge aquarium, filled with a myriad of fish of all shapes, sizes and colours, with the floor a maze of coral over which a friendly turtle effortlessly glided (sadly no pictures!).  Our previous snorkelling efforts paled into insignificance and we finally grasped why people get excited about breathing underwater.

We’d been collected at 7.20am and driven half an hour around the peninsula to where the boats anchor, before being ferried over to our vessel in an inflatable tender.  There were twenty of us which initially seemed like a large number, but the whole experience was expertly handled, having obviously been refined over the twenty years our chosen tour company had been running.  There were about eight whale shark boats in total that went out today from different companies, but they all cooperate, sharing a spotter plane and the whale sharks.

After our first snorkel tension mounted as we had a coffee and cake as we were now on whale shark standby. SPOT

All of a sudden the engines roared into life as the spotter planed reported a sighting and the race was on to be the first boat there.  A second sighting had us changing course to find our own whale shark, but as it turned out we needn’t have worried as the fish were around in good numbers and we were soon in the water for our first encounter.

You are only allowed ten snorkellers and the spotter with a whale shark at any one time, and we split into two groups of ten followed by two groups of five when in the water to allow the whale shark to swim between us, at which point we swam alongside for several minutes (never closer than 3m).  It was an awesome experience, with this 4.5m long fish (they can reach 12m) happily going about its business of plankton feeding whilst you try to keep up.

We must have been in the water eight or nine times with perhaps half a dozen different whale sharks (all with their entourage of assorted pilot fish, remoras and other hangers on) before it was time to head back inside the reef for a last snorkel over the coral.  We also got to see several whales (possibly humpbacks) in between swims as the icing on the cake.

Somewhat rosy faced from the sun, we slumped into our camp chairs back at the caravan park exhausted and elated after a superb day.  Expensive, yes, but worth it.