Just before Easter Rupan was up north working in Karratha for a few days, and then flew straight to Adelaide for the ASOHNS conference. Great conference and a bit of a British reunion as all the English Fellows working in Australasia turned up, including Charlie and Jo Giddings, Scott Henney and Mat Daniel - really great to catch up!
For the Easter weekend, we left the rain in Perth early on Thursday 5th April and landed in the blistering heat of Exmouth, just after eight in the morning. There we took the shuttle bus to Ningaloo Lodge.
We were picked up just after twelve, as we had arranged to dive the Navy Pier that afternoon - this is one of the worlds top ten dive sites. The pier is situated at the north eastern tip of the cape and stretches out into the Exmouth Gulf. As it is still located on a working US Navy Communications base security is tight and we had to show ID at the gate.
We kitted up on the Pier and made our way down to a dive platform, which was still some three meters from the water. It was from this platform that we were to make our entry by giant stride. Rupan was a little scared but finally made the leap into the water. Grrrr!
With 5m viz, the coral encrusted pylons and cross beams gave the site an eerie feel. Schools of snapper and trevally were abundant. We spotted a wobbegong and four white tip sharks sleeping on the bottom. There were plenty of smaller critters too - lots of colorful nudibranchs, flat worms, shrimp and a toad fish. On our safety stop we were spooked by a giant groper - locally know as BFG. An awesome dive - one we would dive again! In the top ten - maybe?
There are not many eating options in Exmouth and we were advised that we should book especially as it was Easter. We booked Whalers and were not disappointed. We munched our way through the seafood extravaganza - whole tiger prawns, crispy soft shell crabs, natural oysters, grilled chilli scented calamari and king prawns, Exmouth bugs & grilled Local fish. Yum. Yum. And very filling.
Next day we were up early and at the dive center by half seven. We boarded the dive boat and set off to Lighthouse Bay. The viz was bad, we dived both Blizzard Ridge and Labyrinth and were a bit disappointed. That night we bbq'd some T-bone steak - again very yummy.
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| Yummy T-bone |
Saturday and we were due to go out on the dive boat again but decided to pay the extra and go snorkeling with the whale sharks. Steve was grumpy as he did not want to go - said he did not want to video "snorkel soup" as there was bound to be too many snorkelers! However only ten snorkelers were allowed in with the shark at one time - that's nine too many as far as Steve was concerned! There were three whale sharks in all, the largest was around 7m. Rupan took some great photos - almost bumping straight into one as it sneaked up - but sadly no video as Grumpy Steve sat on the boat! That night we visited one of the only bars in Exmouth - Pot Shots. It was a bit feral, the speakers "pumped" out country and western music and schools of mullet swaggered through to the bar.
Sunday and we were back diving again - Steve was a lot happier. This time we took the speedy RIB to the Muiron Islands some 10 nautical miles of the north west cape. The viz was a lot better and we dived Fraggle Rock and Key Hole. The hard and soft coral was amazing and we saw lots of turtles.
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| Christmas tree worms |
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| flatworm |
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| Turtle at Muiron Islands |
Hope you all had a great Easter
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Great blog!
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