Roadtrip Perth to Darwin - Part 2

Day 4

Coral Bay - Ningaloo Reef

I got up to do some yoga early in the morning and Angela joined me. It was actually dark when we got up but it was a worthy start. You feel so much better after stretching for a bit. Then we went to the jetty and went up to the boat that would take some of us on a snorkelling trip.

The Ningaloo Reef is the main feature of Coral Bay. It is mainly conformed by hard corals and there are thousands of species of fishes, sharks and various other animals. We spent pretty much all day in the water exploring the reef and its magic.

We did the first stop in a spot that had lots of corals. It was a bit windy and the water was a bit choppy but it was absolutely transparent. The visibility was so clear so you could perfectly see everything even if it was quite deep. I spotted a turtle and I made the turtle sign to Angela so she could spot it too. The turtle was just resting, surrounded by corals and fishes and looked at us while I dived to get closer.

After the first stop, we headed to the bay. The tour guide was explaining us the next activity with the manta rays and all of a sudden a tiger shark appeared. It was huge and jumped a little bit out of the water. Amazing. The boat moved along the bay until we spotted a manta ray. Then we all jumped in the water and we swam with massive manta ray. It was really close to the bottom and the water was not too clear but we could see the manta ray swimming. 10 minutes later, we did another swim with another manta ray and this time was amazing. The manta ray came closer to the surface so we could almost touch it. It was swimming peacefully underneath us, moving its wings and just giving us a brilliant performance to admire. We could even see the fishes that were swimming with the manta just holding to its belly. It was incredible.

After the manta, we had some lunch on the boat and we headed to another snorkelling spot. This time the reef was massive. You could swim in between amazing structures of corals and thousands of different colourful fishes. Suddenly, I crossed a huge coral and I saw a couple of turtles chilling there in the middle of a beautiful spot. It was so good to see them and I started swimming with one of them. I swam underneath it, on top of it and the turtle was letting me do whatever. They are awesome. Swimming with turtles is blissful and they make you feel so free and so good. After being friends with that turtle for a while, I went with another one and I spent a bit of time again being delighted by the way it swam and looked at me while I was swimming next to it.

I went back to the boat after an hour and I saw Ben swimming next to it. We both went back to the boat because we were the last ones and we ate some fruit to recover from the cold haha.

Day 5

Coral Bay

The day before we had an awesome day and we expected another awesome day snorkelling at Coral Bay.

Vlamingh Head Lighthouse

First of all, we went to a lighthouse to see if we could spot some whales jumping. It is a nice place and you can see the immensity of the ocean.

Turquoise Bay

Then, we headed to Turquoise Bay where we would spend pretty much all day snorkeling. You have to be careful in Turquoise Bay because currents can be really strong but we did it well and none of us ended up in the middle of the ocean haha. Brian and I ended up swimming together for an hour because you always have to be with someone just in case something happens, so buddy swimming with Brian. So many corals, so many colours, so many fishes and so much fun. We took good shots of the corals and some of the fishes. I had an argument with a black fish that had spikes on its head. That fish might have felt threatened or something and started to attack my googles haha. I was getting close to the coral and the fish and it started going back and forth towards me, staring me with an angry expression. I laughed a lot with this fish.

After that we took some pics with Petra and we tried to transform her into a mermaid. A sand mermaid to be precise haha. We were quite hungry so as soon as Petra finished washing the tons of sand on her body, we went to the bus to have some lunch and we went to the beach again for another dive. Petra and I were together now and it was brilliant. 

All of a sudden, I was swimming around a beautiful coral and I saw a reef shark swimming in front of me. I was so excited and I started following it. I could not even turn on the GoPro on time to film it but it was more important for me to spend time with the shark than to take a picture so I started swimming as fast as I could. I chased the shark for a while but it was swimming too fast and Petra was not following so I stopped and I went to tell Petra that I swam with a shark. Petra, actually, saw the shark too but we were in different sides of the coral. She thought “is that a shark?” and a second later she knew it was a shark because she saw me swimming with all my strength to follow it haha. It was fun when she told me because I did not even think and I just started swimming after the shark. It was amazing, the shark was so beautiful and you can feel that these animals are on top of the food chain. Really good snorkelling day.