We gladly left Broome on the 8th February and took the Greyhound Reprobate Bus (seriously, it's like a prison bus) 22 hours south (the bus was 3 hours late too) to Coral Bay.

Arriving at our hostel at 6am we found a key had been left out for us, only to be told in the morning that they wanted us to pay for the whole night's accommodation, even though we'd only booked the night of the 9th and had only used the room for a few hours.  After rowing with three different people we got our way.  What a crappy couple of days!  Nearly got bottled by a drunk Aborigine, 22 hours on a bus, then some dense Aussie tries to rip us off 30 quid!

Still, the next day we did what we came here to do, snorkel the Ningaloo Reef, the west coasts answer to the Great Barrier Reef.  Unlike the Great Barrier Reef though, Ningaloo is made up of hard coral (well, most of the Great Barrier Reef is too, but some is soft), so we were told the colours were not as nice.  Instead of the beautiful colours you associate with the Great Barrier, Ningaloo Reef is nearly all brown and grey, though the coral formations are still really impressive and unlike the Great Barrier you can walk out to it from the shore. 

Our first snorkel was not too successful due to strong currents (and possibly the fear of Tiger Shark attack) though, so we gave up and booked ourselves onto a 2 hour glass bottom boat tour for the next day, and were so glad we did, as we got to see so much reef from the boat, as well as have two snorkels in some great locations.

The first was mostly to see some great coral, as well as some beautiful fish. 

The second was called the Aquarium, and was kind of a break in the reef.  Here the guide let us jump in before throwing loads of food in.  Huge snappers nearly two feet long were coming right up to us thinking we had food, and all kinds of beautiful, tropical fish swarmed around us.

Although the Great Barrier Reef was more beautiful and seemed to have more types of fish, this trip gave us the chance to swim in amongst dozens and dozens of fish as they fed.

The rest of the day was spent on the stunning beach (only about our 5th beach day), awaiting tonight's cricket final and hopefully a big upset for the arrogant Aussies.