I don't think either of us could have imagined this trip could get any more incredible, however the Ningaloo Reef and most especially swimming with whale sharks have totally blown us away becoming the highlight of our journey so far.

We arrived into Exmouth very early on Tuesday morning (about 2am) so spent the day chilling out at our accomodation. We scoped out Exmouth, which is very spread out for a town, and then relaxed by the pool.

We awoke the next day for the trip we've been anticipating more than any other ever since we arrived in Oz and people we met told us about it - our swim with whale sharks. We were both fairly nervous as our bus picked us up; firstly despite being the largest fish in the world (they can grow up to 18 metres in length) they are notoriously difficult to locate and even though our tour operators utilise spotter planes to find the sharks, they don't guarantee a sighting so the day could turn out just to be an expensive boat trip! Secondly although these giants feed on microscopic plankton they filter out of the water (this is the reason they're at Ningaloo Reef now as the coral on the reef has just spawned) they are still sharks and have 300 rows of teeth - something we found difficult to get to grips with. Finally 'Chelle was quite seasick when we swam with dolphins so was worried how well her sea legs were going to fare. As we drove to the boat launch, I gave myself a stern talking to. On our fear of not locating a shark, the Three Islands company we were going with have a 90% success rate and had successfully swam with sharks for the three days prior to our trip. Also the Ningaloo Reef is one of very few worldwide locations whale sharks regularly visit - if you wanna see a whale shark this is where you come. On our fear of being eaten, a code of conduct exists to ensure when you're swimming with them you're not ever going to be in the way of their mouth. On 'Chelle's sea sickness, bizarrely back in NSW a bloke had given 'Chelle two sea sickness tablets when we'd been talking to him about possibly doing this trip. 'Chelle carefully looked after these in her backpack for two and a half months and earlier in the morning had popped the first one - she was still conscious so I was satisfied they weren't rohipnol - all was good! Whilst all this had gone through my mind our videographer Andy had given us the history of Exmouth, it's US Naval base and "Tower Zero" (which we'd passed) - the southern hemisphere's second tallest structure used to transmit VLF signals to submarines; I'd signed a waiver form and we'd reached the boat launch. As well as Andy our Three Islands team consisted of Louise ("Lu"), Emily ("Em"), Elise ("Elise"!) and skipper Richard. Our first stop was a snorkel site on the reef to check our masks and flippers worked OK. This in itself was great as Richard took us out to some coral we'd never have got to from the shore and the colours (of coral and fish) were just incredible. We then had morning tea on the boat. Now occasionally 'Chelle and I will allow ourselves a couple of cookies with our morning cup of tea, which we consider a little treat, so nothing could prepare us for the huge plates of raisin loaf, tear breads, carrot and chocolate cake and jelly snake sweets that accompanied this cup of tea! As others ate politely and 'Chelle and I scoffed and slurped, Elise gave us our safety briefing and Richard (guided by our spotter plane) took us toward our first shark! On reaching its location Lu and Elise started to organise us and as Richard manouvered the boat into the path of the shark, "Chelle and I readied ourselves on the back of the boat. Timing was everything to ensure we dropped in front of the shark with time to split into two groups either side of it, so there we were in position with seconds to go when suddenly a flipper came flying into my vision landing a couple of metres from the boat and 'Chelle shouted "Oh no! My flipper!!" I was paralysed with embarrassment - with twenty eager tourists behind us who'd all paid a small fortune for this once in a lifetime experience, 'Chelle had managed to propel one of her flippers out into the Indian Ocean! As the flipper floated further away I could hear the shouts of crew to skipper "Abort drop!", "Flipper in the water - turn the boat around!" As the rescue mission was launched and the flipper reunited with 'Chelle's foot our whale shark got closer and closer but luckily only a small re-sdjustment of the boat was needed before we were back on track and we hit the water. As we postioned ourselves into our two groups the most amazing graceful creature approached us. She was a whale shark of maybe 4.5 metres (by no means the biggest but certainly big enough for us) with an entourage of what looked like small swordfish catching a ride under her belly. When we got alongside her we started to swim along with her. She was moving quite slowly feeding on the plankton totally at ease with our presence so that 'Chelle and I could admire her bright white markings, the rippling of her gills and the slow swish movement of her tail. Just incredible. After that first swim we managed a second with the same shark before we were called by our spotter plane to another potentially larger shark. This male was about 7 metres long and it took us a bit of time to get in the water with him as every time we were ready he would dive down out of sight! Eventually he stayed up for a while and we managed three swims with this beast. On the final swim he dived again so we were able to wave him off as his huge tail (about the height of one and a half Michelle's) sent him into the depths below us. We then made our way back in to the shallower reef for some lunch - again a banquet of salads, cold meats and breads that put our usual cheese sandwiches to shame. We then had another snorkel on the reef & some afternoon tea of fruit & crisps before heading back to shore and to our accomodation to reflect on one of the best experiences of our lives!

After an early night we were up bright eyed and bushy tailed on Thursday to pick up a hire car to take us into the Cape Range National Park to a couple of good snorkel sites in the protected sanctuary zones of the Ningaloo Reef Marine Park (seriously you're not even allowed to take shells from these areas!). Our car was a cheap, well used but plucky little Hyundai with manual transmission - something I struggled to re-aquaint myself with after three months of driving automatics. Our first stop was Turquoise Bay for a "drift snorkel". The current across this reef is so strong you have to start at one end of the beach and go with it, making sure you get out of the water before it switches away from the shoreline out to sea. Although we'd seen better coral the previous day and also at Coral Bay, we saw some cool fish, some Octopus (one of which changed colour in front of us a few times!) and even, on our second drift, a reef shark! This shark did actually look like a proper scary shark and was probably one and a half metres in length but it seemed more scared of us than we did of him. We then went to a place called Oyster Stacks that you really have to snorkel at high tide as the coral is so close to the surface. We didn't see anything new here and after 'Chelle cut her foot on some sharp rocks getting out we decided to call it a day.

Today we woke to another scorcher - in the high 30's (as it has been for the last few days), so we plan on chilling by the pool before our 19 hour bus trip to Broome that leaves at 10.30 tonight!