Coral Bay and the deep blue sea

Now, back to our regular scheduled program: “Coral Bay and the deep blue sea!”

 

Date:	26 – 29/06/2017
Location:	Coral Bay (Western Australia)
Distance Travelled:	231 km
Temperature:	Min:	5.2
	Max:	24.1
hours spent swimming with Manta rays:	3

 

Packing up our wee trailer, we slowly made our way back out of the Cape Range National Park and said a fond farewell to our slice of heaven on the shores of Ningaloo Reef. The early morning light made the slow drive back to Exmouth (albeit, along a road littered with corpses of many a slow-moving kangaroo) all the more magical.

Stopping briefly in Exmouth, we restocked with a few essential supplies and had a hearty breakfast of pies and coffee (Ahhh, pies and coffee, the food of champions!). And so, with bellies full, trailer restocked, and car full of diesel, we hit the road once more.

 So long Exmouth – we had a blast!

Today’s journey would take us 230km south, down the Western Australia coast towards Coral Bay. The trip was lovely, with the coastal road giving up glimpses of the ocean as we moseyed on by.

By early afternoon we pulled up at Coral Bay. Almost like magic, the immense stretches of roughly shod highway transmogrified into well-manicured byways. And here, in the middle of nowhere, all roads seemed to lead to little other than two caravan parks and little shopping mall – both of which appeared to have been built with the single purpose of catering to the whims and vagaries of a passing nomadic trade.

With school holidays in WA just around the corner, we had opted to book ahead at the main camp site, Bayview Coral Bay. At this time of year, both sites were a sprawling metropolis of tents, caravans and motorhomes of all shapes and sizes. Well, perhaps not all shapes – there are, after all, only so many ways you can pack a living space into something that is rectangular enough to fit on a campsite, yet also compact enough to be hauled down the highway without taking out too many other cars in the process…

Despite the vast size of the camp ground, we followed the earnest directions of the campsite owners and soon found our way to the allotted plot on to which we squeezed in our trailer. Luckily, Nat had booked a site at the end of the row. However, while this afforded a little breathing room for us, most people weren’t as lucky. The campsite owners had certainly found a way to capitalise on every available patch of ground on their expansive plot of land. And so, with a little manoeuvring, we were able to slot ourselves in alongside the other sardines, just in time for a spot of lunch.

Sardines, anyone?

 Our first afternoon was spent wandering around the shops and the multitude of seafaring tourist-companies, hoping to spot the best deal for a cruise out to the reef, where we hoped to belucky enough to hang out with a manta ray or two. After a little negotiation, we left Ningaloo Marine Interactions, clutching tightly to three and a half tickets for a snorkelling cruise two days hence (yup, three and a half – Daniel wasn’t overly keen on the idea of jumping in the water with a massive manta ray – who can blame him… these things are HUGE!).

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering along the beach, setting up our trailer in a way that would give us a little more protection from the sun and wind, and watching our neighbours dig their camp-trailer out of the soft sand of the Coral Bay caravan park. With the day’s jobs done, we wandered across the road for a spot of afternoon tea. But, unfortunately, the bakery had already run out of its world famous hot jam donuts, so we returned forlornly to our trailer. That evening we sat down to a sumptuous Mexican inspired dinner – making the most of the fresh veggies we’d picked up in Exmouth.

 

Fiesta Mexicana 

Rising bright and early the next morning, I still had a hankering for the donuts that I felt I was robbed of the day before. So, figuring it was time for a treat, I wandered across the road while the kettle was heating gently on the stove of our trailer. Returning just in time to pour the coffees, we sat down to a hearty breakfast of sugary donuts filled with runny strawberry jam. These little beauties had just been cooked and were still warm, fluffy and oh, so scrummy! (sorry, no photos of these beauties – they were gone quicker than the snap of a camera lens)

With a day to kill before our grand adventure on the high seas, we had a nosey around for something to pass the time. Chatting to the local information officer (which really amounted to an old dude sitting in a run-down shack near the beach), I learned that there was some decent fishing at the nearby marina.  With that, Ben and I grabbed our fishing gear and made our way to the boat ramp to try our luck.

It’s hard to describe what the Coral Bay marina/boat ramp is like, particularly the number of colourful fish that were dancing about in the waters nearby. Over the course of the afternoon, Ben and I pulled in many weird and wonderful fish. Everything from stunning silver bulletlike fish, to pretty zebra striped marvels, and my personal favourites the iridescent green and blue beauties. Unfortunately, the photo of this last green fish didn’t really show its true splendour, but they sure were good looking. I’m sure these all have names, but to me they were new and exotic – and likely will remain elusively so forever.

(although, it occurs to me now that a handy fish spotting guide such as this, surely might have helped)

Fish caught off the marina in Coral Bay

Having returned to the trailer for lunch, we determined that the rest of the afternoon would be spent exploring one of the plentiful 4x4 tracks that have been carved along the coast. Clutching a roughly drawn map, given to us by the same old dude in the shack wo pointed us in the direction of all the fish caught this morning, we head back to the highway to find the hidden sandy entrance to a path less trodden by man nor beast...

Arriving at the gateway of doom, we stopped briefly to dutifully relive our tyres of some of their cumbersome air. With a conscientious deflated feeling creeping over our car, we headed gingerly on down the track, testing out the soft sand ahead of us. Quickly we realised that the map given to us by our enthusiastic, but ‘less than accurate’ fisherman friend, was intended for ‘illustrative purposes’ only – and the actual track twisted and turned in ways that were not included on our topographical diagram. Along the way we picked up a small train of other motorists, who were heading in the same general direction and wondering why we were creeping along so slowly. Having a chat to these fellow wanderers, they invited us to follow along, assuring us that they had driven this path a few years ago and they were ‘sure it wouldn’t have changed much’ (yes, mark the sarcastic italics and finger waggling quotation marks used with precision and not so much as a whiff of irony!).  But you see, the thing about sand is that it has a tendency to get blown about a bit by the wind and only lot in life is to eroded away by the elements that pound against the coast. What used to be a track last week could be massive sand dune today. I was beginning to see why the map was so vague on details… Yet, we pressed on, managing to keep our wheels from getting bogged (too much(, as we hopped from one patch of solid ground to the next.

The scenery along the way was pretty spectacular to say the least. The track meandered its way through dunes and scrub and eventually along the crest of a ridge overlooking the ocean. From this vantage point, the white tipped waves stood out proudly against the bright blue of the water below. We pressed on further along the coast until we came to a steep dune that turned out to be our nemesis this day. One of the other cars in our small ad hoc company managed to battle their way to the top… but the other two of us reached only half way, before rolling back – white knuckled – to the base. Deciding it was a hill too far, we said goodbye to the rest of the cars and headed back along the track to check out some of the spots we had passed along the way. In the end, the boys spent an hour or so rolling down sand dunes and hiking back up… over and over again.

 

Rolling down the dunes!!

With sun on its way towards the horizon, we decided to made our way back to camp – happy to have escaped another off-road experience largely unscathed. Tonight, we would be early to bed in preparation for our big adventure with the manta rays the next day.

Rising at the crack of dawn, we made our way to the small cluster of shops across the road from our campsite to meet up with our guides at Ningaloo Marine Interactions. Having tried all our gear for size, we jumped aboard a minivan and coughed and splutters out way down the same marina that Ben and I been fishing at the day before. Our vessel was spacious enough for the small adventurous party of 20 keen manta ray spotters, and soon we had completed our safety briefing and were heading out to sea.

Daniel peering over the sides of our Manta Ray spotting boat

The waters off Coral Bay are protected by a natural breakwater made up of a system of coral reefs. As such, today we would start our exploration inside the protected waters of the reef, before venturing out to deeper water to where the bigger rays live. We were fortunate enough to have a very experienced underwater photographer with us, so the shots we were able to get from this trip were awesome! He even threw in a few other shots for free, like this overview of the reef from the air.

Coral Bay – from the air

We first spent an hour or so cruising around giant colonnades of coral, with our guides pointing out turtles, reef sharks, giant clams and all manner of fish and other sea life. True to form, Ben took to the water like a veritable seal and dived deep to check out the hidden gems at the bottom of the reef. Nat was happy to take in the sights from the surface, as she floated along on her noodles with the group. While I swam back and forth between the two making sure all was ok. Despite our encouragement, Daniel was determined to stay on the boat. So, he kept the skipper company while the rest of us drifted along with the currents.

 Underwater adventure in Coral Bay

Soon enough, it was time to jump back on board the boat for a hot cupper and a snack, as the skipper took us further out to sea – just beyond the protection of the inner reef. With a spotter plane in the air, it wasn’t long before we had our first sighting of the elusive manta ray. Similar to our whale shark experience, when the ray was nearby we gathered together in pods of 10 and dropped into the water in front of the giant beast. 

Peering down through the crystal-clear water, we quickly spied a jet-black manta ray gliding serenely along the seabed like a prehistoric Pteranodon. This creature was immense, yet it moved effortlessly through the water; gliding on great watery wings. For the most part, it seemed content to have a gaggle of on lookers floating overhead. But, when a swimmer came too close, it would glide deeper under the water and disappear into the gloomy darkness below. Fortunately, it seemed to forgive these transgressions reasonably quickly and would soon return to warmer waters near the surface.

We spent a large part of the afternoon floating alongside and above this magnificent ray and were able to watch it roll and twist as it scooped minute krill in its massive maw. Smaller fish clung to its belly, holding on with mouth suckers and seemingly enjoying the ride.

 

 

 

Manta Rays at Coral Bay

Having gawped at the ray for hours, we left it in peace and returned once more to calm waters of the inner reef. We took a final swim amongst a new batch of corals and even more brightly coloured fish, before having lunch on board the boat and heading home.

Having not yet had enough fishy frolics, we ended our time in Coral Bay with another day of fishing at the marina and then feeding fish from the beach. It turns out that the wildlife folks around Coral Bay have had trouble with large crowds of people feeding fish for many years. Over decades, too much junk food had been tossed into the water, which in turn has had a negative impact on local fish populations. Realising that banning the practice was going to be difficult to enforce, they decided if you can’t beat them… well, at least help people do it responsibly. As such, every day during the tourist season, a group gathers in the knee-deep water at low tide, where they give a talk about the local fish species and provide environmentally safe fish food for the public to drop into the waters.

It was somewhat of an eerie feeling, as you stood there in the ocean with the cold waters lapping up the inside of your thighs. When, suddenly a large school of fish (many up to a meter in length) came cruising around you, ravenous and searching for food! As the environmentally safe pellets were cast in the water, the sea began to boil with countless fishy bodies – each trying to catch the small morsels of yumminess on offer. These were Spangled Emperor fish, and they came out in force!

Feeding fish off the beach at Coral Bay

With fish fed and the sun going down, we returned to our trailer and got ready to head off on the next leg of our journey. Tomorrow we would be moving away from fish, sand and sea, as we headed to a stop over destination at Carnarvon.

Bye ‘d Bye

Gregg