So the bus journey upto Coral Bay was pretty boring, that is until we got to Carnarvon and our bus got raided by the police!! No joke, we all had to get off the bus and line up whilst the sniffer dogs went up and down the line. Then the luggage was unpacked and the dogs went up and down that and then they went on the bus too! I think there were more police there than there are on huddersfield response!! I think there was about 10 bobbies there! I felt like I was on police camera action or something. We were stood outside for about an hour, so the mossies were loving it. They did find a load of drugs in an unclaimed bag though, so after they'd finally finished, we were allowed back on the bus to carry on our way. So we got to coral bay about midnight that night and after I'd disturbed my dorm-mates I finally got to sleep.
The next day I booked to go on a tour, snorkelling with whalesharks for the friday, so I was very excited!! After that, I hired a snorkel, maks and fins and headed to the beach! I snorkelled twice on the reef, which was so close to the shore it was unreal! There were so many beautiful fish, my favourite had to be these little electric blue ones, who had obviously heard of safety in numbers! And then there were some big white and blue fish that were burrowing in the sand just infront of the reef, they kind of freaked me out at first as all you could see was clouds of sand so weren't sure what they were at first!! It was so mesmerising though, just being in their habitat, watching them! I loved it!
I met some people in the hostel in the evening and we went to the local pub and watched a musician who was playing, that was really nice, to be out!
So the next day was my whaleshark tour, the weather didn't look good though so I went to the shop and was told it had been cancelled! oh no! So i rebooked for the next day, saturday, and spent the day in the hostel, with most other people as it was grey and rainy most of the day! We played ping pong and the hostel put Alice in Wonderland on, so it wasn't all bad!!
So, I was up early again on Saturday, looked out and thought, oh no it's going to be cancelled again as to me the weather was just as horrible, but no it was on! So off we went! I met Jane and Niamh on the tour and oh my goodness, it was so cold on the boat. There was no sun, just wind and rain!! So we sat with our wetsuits and clothes on for most of the day!! A few hours had passed and no whalesharks had been sighted..boo! However, soon afterwards we did come accross a feeding line of manta rays, so we all got our snorkelling gear on and headed out to swim with them! And wow, that was amazing! We spent most of our time with quite a young one we were told after, apparently you could tell because he still had creases on his body, which shows he must not have been out of the womb long! But it was amazing, he/she(!) kept rolling over in the water so you could see all of it's white underbelly...it was so smooth! They are beautiful creatures, and very graceful! So we spent a long time just swimming along with it, then all of a sudden there were two! It was breathtaking! After a long time swimming with them, we got back on the boat and then lunch was served! And it was delicious! Salads, bread, meat, potato salad, pasta salad, fruit - watermelon!! I think it was the most fruit and veg i've eaten since i've got here! We carried on sailing for another few hours but no sign of any whalesharks so we headed back into shore! We were all offered another tour as we didn't see any, so I booked in for monday...third time lucky!!
I did some washing on sunday as it was quite sunny in the morning, then I went for a walk with Sandra and we had an ice cream and a bun sat in the shopping centre, then all of a sudden the heavens opened....that was out washing not getting dry! it rained torrentially for about 20minutes! I did not expect this weather in Coral Bay!!
So anyway, Monday came, and it was a lovely sunny day - result! So we set off, this time in much better conditions, the only time you wanted to be under the canopy on the boat was to shade from the sun! In the morning, before the aeroplane who spots the whalesharks was airbourne, we went snorkelling on the reef, which was beautiful. The coral was so colourful, pinks, purples, blues, whites, yellows! Amazing!! And the fish...WOW! And I saw a shark...it was a Tawny Nurse shark or something, he was just lying at the bottom of the sea bed minding his own business and I was like...A Shark!! The fish aswell, were so so colourful and bright, every new one I saw, I kept saying to myself...Wow, they were all such pretty colours!! It was just amazing! I could have just snorkelled on that reef all day, just watching all the fish eating from the reef and swimming about!!
After we'd snorkelled for about an hour, we all got back on the boat and it was not long afterwards that they got the call to say they'd spotted a whaleshark, so we made our way to where it had been seen. When we got there, there were two other boats there too and the shark had dived to the bottom. So our crew got another call to say another whaleshark had been sighted so we went to find that and left the other 2 boats with this one. We all got our wetsuits and gear on, ready to get in the water when instructed. And then the boat slowed down and this first half of the group (me included) got into the water and followed our swimmers towards where the whaleshark was approaching....And Oh My Gosh, it was huge! But incredible. Once we'd seen it swimming towards us we had to move to the side and then we could swim alongside it and it was amazing. It was like a gentle giant...and it had loads of smaller fish swimming with it, latched onto it almost, like the whaleshark was their security guard! It was mindblowing, being so close to the biggest fish in the sea and just swimming along with it!! We got out of the water after maybe 5minutes, to let the other group get in. Then we took it in turns to swim with them, I think we swam with 2 or 3 different whalesharks in total. It was brilliant. Just swimming next to it was the best thing, I will definitely be doing it again!
After a while, the shark we were swimming with at the time kept diving, so we called it a day with the whalesharks and headed back on board for lunch. Lunch was yummy as before! And then we started heading back towards Coral Bay, as we'd gone quite far North with the sharks. But on our journey back, some people were at the front of the boat and said they'd seen whales, so we all made our way up front, and there were 2 humpback whales quite a way infront of the boat just swimming along! It was a mummy and calf and it was amazing! They kept coming up for breath and breaching in the water, and then we saw a tail and it was fab. They were making their way to warmer waters to mate and then the mum would abandon her calf..maternal creatures I guess! On our trip back we also saw a pod of dolphins right next to the boat and they were playing, there were adults and babies, loads of them!
In the afternoon, we snorkelled on the reef again, and this was even more beautiful than before. I felt like I was in a clip from finding nemo! The coral and fish were even more colourful than before, and I saw 2 white tipped reef sharks, so in one day I saw 3 different types of sharks! And I also saw a turtle and he was so cool, he did a somersault at one point to get away from us wierd humans! But I caught up with him again and just swam with the dude! And I saw hundreds of different fish, all insanely coloured. There was a massive yellow fish with black spots on, and a pink, purple and blue one and so many of the little blue electric fish who seemed to form curtains infront of the reef! They were my favourite!
On the tour there was a professional marine photographer so I have some amazing pictures on disc so will try and upload those as soon as I can!
When we finally got back to dry land, I had a quick shower, went and watched the sunset and then waited, and waited, and waited for the bus to take us on our lovely 18hour journey to Broome!