Reef sharks at the Asho’s Gap cleaning station, Ningaloo Reef
The second dive of the day was Asho’s Gap, which is famous for a giant shark cleaning station. It didn’t disappoint, as we saw about a dozen reef sharks swimming around. Again, visibility wasn’t amazing so the pictures didn’t turn out, but you can get a good idea. In addition, I saw more turtles, a very cool razorfish and a gigantic school of bannerfish.
A turtle at The Canyon, Ningaloo Reef
I did a one day dive trip with Ningaloo Reef Dive and got a bit closer to the spectacular west coast corals and sea creatures. The highlight was definitely the hard coral structures, but I also saw two turtles, a gorgeous trumpet fish and a nudibranch. Unfortunately the visibility was uncharacteristically low, at about 7 meters, so I didn’t get so many amazing shots. Here’s a sampling.
A hard coral at Coral Bay
For Christmas break I headed to the west coast of Australia for a week. I was meant to go on a road trip stopping at all the major sites between Perth and Exmouth, but due to a hangover-induced oversight I lost my driver’s license at the Darwin airport. After a couple of hours of pure panic at the Perth airport, I realized I could get a bus up to Coral Bay and actually have a pretty good trip regardless of the lack of rental car.
So, after a 15 hour bus trip I arrived at the tiny town (pop. 190) in WA and settled into the friendly Ningaloo Club hostel. The next day the staff directed me to the best snorkeling spot, which happens to be just a few meters off the beach. It’s one of the few places in the world where you can literally walk into a coral reef. Absolutely stunning.
A Yank without a Chain 