We arrived in the early evening at Coral Bay after spending the morning with the Monkey Mia dolphins. Just in time to catch the sunset from a popular lookout. The most crowded we have been in Australia I think! Despite the strong breeze we managed to eat our pasta dinner watching the sunset - pretty good location for dinner! We then headed back out onto the "main road" to stay in a lay-by we had found as we turned into Coral Bay - more free camping!

With the need for power and a shower we checked into a campsite for the following night and then headed off in search of the shark nursery in the bay. After a very scenic walk we came across some rocks/seaweed that was in fact dozens of juvenile black tip reef sharks. Was really interesting just watching them chilling out in the secluded bay, they all seemed very relaxed! We also saw some young rays - they are cool! We then walked all the way to the end of the bay and back - the coast is just stunning, could spend all day looking at the sea! In the afternoon we took ourselves off snorkelling. I had cheekily asked if we could borrow some fins from the dive shop after booking our dive trip for the following day and we were glad I did. You had to swim out about 150M to find the reef and it was choppy! Well worth the effort though as the reef just near the shore looks mostly dead. When we got out though we saw some gorgeous blue coral formations and a few fish but not the multitude we had come to expect from diving in Thailand. As we got to the sandy parts as we drifted back we came across what i was pretty sure was a string ray but it was very well camouflaged in the sand. After swimming closer to take a look he decided to swim off which was a bit of a shock for us both (fortunately not directly from the ray!). In the evening we watched the sun setting over the sea which was awesome - go see the pics!

The following day we were off on our dive trip. Snorkelling with Manta Rays (if we could find some!) and 2 dives on the Ningaloo Reef. When we got out to where there are sometimes rays the skipper got in contact with a spotter plane who pointed us in the right direction. The guide then jumped in the water and we were told they would swim above and just behind the Manta ray and were to just swim along side her. Sounds easy in practice but Manta's with their 1.5-4M wingspan in this area can cruise! So after we were dropped in we pretty much swam as fast as we could for 10 minutes just trying to follow our guide. This extreme effort was eventually rewarded! To be so close to such large graceful creatures was a real treat. The Manta we had found was feeding (plankton and the like) so every now an again we were treated to a backward roll which gave an awesome view of the entire ray. We followed it for about half an hour and were then given a rest as our guide "passed" the ray to another group. While this was going in the Ray was good enough to just continuously roll and roll - an truly amazing site allowing you to see right into its mouth and down into its body. As we got back in the boat we realised it was only Alex, I and another guy who had kept up and the other 9 people were already back in the boat - hard work but definitely worth the effort! We then did our 2 dives which were no more than 12M and unfortunately a bit of an anticlimax after the Manta rays. We did see some sting rays, a frog fish and other fish but it was surprisingly cold (even with a shorty) after diving in Thailand with just a rash vest! We then headed off on our 800km trip to Karijini. We stopped in a 24hr Parking spot in the side of the road and were treated to a tropical storm pretty much directly above us - lightning lighting up around us like daylight!