After a muddy, wet pack-up due to a thick fog we left Old Onslow river camp and headed south west again then north into Exmouth, a beautiful and amazing peninsula, boasting the Ningaloo Reef on the west side. I spent the afternoon washing and organising then we enjoyed a dinner out at an American country music themed bar and restaurant. The food and atmosphere was great. The next day we spent exploring the cape, checking out the countless white sandy beaches, the lighthouse and the very interesting American Navy Communications towers. There are 13 VLF (very low frequency) towers, taller than the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building! If you google-earth it, it's cool to look at from above! That afternoon we had a great Skype chat with the Munns, then an early night ready for our early morning.
We were up before sunrise ready to spend the day out on a beautiful boat to snorkel, whale watch and hopefully swim with the whale sharks. Our crew were young and fun and enthusiastic and looked after everyone perfectly. The huge boat was a dream way to spend a day; a beautiful interior with lounges and kitchen, a fabulous bow, a spacious wet area for standing around or for when everyone is preparing or finishing diving/snorkelling, and a beautiful fly bridge where you can sit around on lounges and watch the sea go by. We began the day with a snorkel on the inner reef, Lachie loving the fish and the rays! After a dry off and a delicious morning tea we cruised out past the outer reef and started whale watching. We saw heaps of beautiful humpbacks and their calves, one putting on a display, breaching right beside us. Then later we saw a mother helping or teaching a very new calf to breathe (according to the crew). They could tell the calf was very new because of its light colour and the mother was just laying still holding it up out of the water with her head, a very special sight.
After an exceptional lunch we all got a little sleepy and had a nice relax on all the lounges, Lachie fell asleep up on the lounges on the fly bridge. By this time it wasn't looking good for seeing a whale shark...one hadn't been spotted all day, and we were feeling quite disappointed, we'd been waiting for this for many many years. Then, out of the blue a call came through that one had been spotted on the surface by an ultralight pilot at the northern end of the reef. The spotter plane checked it out and confirmed and we were away, as fast as the boat could go! It took about a half hour to reach it and everyone was crossing their fingers it didn't dive and disappear, and then it was action stations with everyone having to be ready to jump in at the crews command! We were in the first group and jumped in all together and swam for our lives to be in the right position for it to come through.....it wasn't in the clearest water and you can't see it on the surface so it was just face in and wait, and then there it was!! Gliding past as enormous and beautiful as I'd expected! Will and I swam our legs off for about 2 minutes and then it started to dive. We all had a huge celebration, yelling and yahooing in the water waiting for the boat to pick us up, it would have been funny to see. After that the boys had another 2 swims, I had 3 more and Ben had 4 more. It was magnificent, everything we'd hoped, such a magical experience. I would love to do it again in a heartbeat. We were extra lucky as we found out later in the week that we had seen the very last shark of the season!
The next morning we set off around the Cape to the west side of the peninsula, Cape Range National Park.