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We really wanted to go over to the West Coast and up to Exmouth to dive the Ningaloo Reef, but as we had no replies from any dive shop we had e-mailed there, we decided that our best bet was to head up the East Coast and try our luck all the way up to Cairns. So, we purchased a bus ticket to get us to Coffs Harbour (Terry, having worked in a dive shop there 5 years ago thought it would be a good place to start). We spend the day doing the tourist thing around Sydney (the flying foxes in the Botanical Gardens are a must see), then returned to the hostel in the early afternoon having walked for hours. We quickly checked our e-mails only to find we had been offered a job in Exmouth!!! This changed everything. Top After a quick phone call to Beccy at Coral Coast Dive in Exmouth to see what was on offer, we decided to change our plans and go to Exmouth after all! We walked back to the bus station and changed our ticket from Coffs Harbour to Melbourne (which caused much merriment in the ticket office), then back to the hostel to try and work out how to get to Exmouth - approximately 6000 kilometres away by road. The first thing you realise when you get to Australia is how big the place is! Luckily, our bus didn't leave until 3pm the next afternoon which gave us time the next morning to try and find a cheap flight from Melbourne to Perth (the bus was definitely out of the equation). As it happened, Virgin Blue had just set up a new route from Melbourne to Perth at a very reasonable rate (cheaper than the bus and only 4 hours instead of 2 days). We boarded our bus bound for Melbourne where we arrived 16 hours later at 7am, making us glad we had aeroplane tickets to fly to Perth the next day! We checked into a Backpackers and spent the day being tourists in Melbourne (more flying foxes in Melbourne's Botanical Gardens). Up early the next day and we flew to Perth and one of the best days travelling we had had in a long time. Firstly, we were touted at the airport by a Japanese guy who drove us to a hostel in the town which was virtually only inhabited by Japanese backpackers. It had a Vietnamese Buddhist Temple next door which gave free food at 11am every day and insisted all the backpackers go for a free feed. They also donated any leftovers to the hostel at the end of the day. The next stroke of luck we got was buying a car! The car was advertised on the notice board for AUS $400 so we rang the owner up who brought it around for us to view. The car was called "Matilda the Wonder Wagon", a very, very beaten up Mitsubishi Sigma Station Wagon. The owner was a Canadian guy called Joseph and he was flying out of Perth that afternoon and just wanted some beer money. We eventually purchased Matilda for AUS $200 ! A bargain - as long as she made it to Exmouth... (still cheaper than the bus!). Top The next day, stocked up with bottles of water, engine coolant and oil, we began our journey. We started off nice and slowly, just easing Matilda into her long journey ahead. We arrived in Geraldton, 450km later without missing a beat. The next day, another 450km to Monkey Mia to swim with the dolphins. Then the big leg of the journey, 700km to Exmouth and once again, Matilda took it all in her stride without using a drop of oil or water. Neither of us could believe Matilda made it without breaking down in the searing heat. So, after just one week we arrived at Coral Coast Dive in Exmouth and met the owners Paul and Beccy, who had rented a 3 bed roomed house for us for our 6 week stay. We checked into our house, did some shopping then fell asleep for the rest of the day to be refreshed for the diving ahead of us..... We ended up staying 6 weeks in Exmouth, in which time, we became friends with 3 English customers of the dive shop. They were Tony, Amanda and Andre who we celebrated Christmas and New Year with, plus our Skipper Lance who we shared many a good laugh with both out on the boat and in the Potshot bar over quite a few beers! Top Exmouth is probably the most remote place we have been to. It is 1270km from Perth and 1394km from Broome, perched on the end of the North West Cape. It is home to the Whale Shark and a world renowned dive site called 'Navy Pier'. We didn't get to see any Whale Sharks due to the fact that the season is from April to June, and we were there in December and January. We only dived the Navy Pier in our last week in Exmouth as it had been closed to divers since the September 11th terrorist attacks. Luckily for us, security was relaxed at the beginning of January 2002, so we managed to squeeze a few trips in to this remarkable dive site, adding to already great diving we had experienced in Exmouth. Another thing you realise when you get to Exmouth is that the town itself is a long way from the Ningaloo Reef, which is on the west side of the North West Cape and most of the diving is done in the Exmouth Gulf at either Bundegi Sanctuary or Lighthouse Bay on the tip of the Cape. Luckily for us, Coral Coast Dive, is one of the few shops that actually dives the 'West Side' on the Ningaloo Reef from Tantabiddi Boat Ramp. Top The Ningaloo Reef itself stretches 260km along the coastline, but only 72km of this is accessible on sealed roads, to Yardie Creek from Lighthouse Bay. The whole area is a National Park and the impact by man is quite low and so the marine life is abundant. Saying that, there is still a lot of room for improvement for the protection of the reefs. All dive shop boats (at the time of writing) drop anchor on the reefs, damaging coral which gives strength to the opinion that mooring buoys should be established for the reefs' protection. Also, even though a lot of places on the reef are regarded as Sanctuary's, fishing is still allowed on a private and charter basis. But the biggest outrage is that shark finning is still legal (at the time of writing) in Western Australia and practiced in the waters around the Ningaloo Reef and the Exmouth Gulf. The marine life around the North West Cape is plentiful and the corals are alive. The only real damage in recent times has been from the Cyclone 'Vance' which occurred on March 22nd 1999. It destroyed a lot of the coral at Bundegi Sanctuary, but at least it was a natural occurrence. There is good diving, excellent snorkelling and beautiful unspoiled beaches all along the coast but it does need protecting otherwise it will end up ruined like so many other places we have been to in the world. So, get there as soon as you can to enjoy this remote place before it becomes over-developed and spoiled. Top The dive sites at Light House Bay are mainly all caused by a fault line in the limestone sea bed, running in a straight line, parallel to the shore. They are different in topography and the marine life which they host. Top As the name suggests, this dive site is one straight ridge that has been thrown up from the sea bed at around 14m deep and up to 9m. The beauty of this site is it's ease of navigation and the marine life that can be found lurking under the many ledges and fissures formed by the ridge. On a normal day this site plays host to White Tip Reef Sharks, Banded Wobbegongs, Blue Spotted Rays, Black Stingrays, Spotted Whip Rays and Sail fin Catfish. All making use of the ledges to hide and rest under. Other marine life includes swirling schools of Cardinals, Bait Fish, and Yellow Striped Snapper, plus Olive Sea Snakes, Turtles, Lion Fish, Scorpion Fish and Octopus to name just a few. A really nice easy dive with heaps to see. Top As with most things in Australia, places are named basically for what the are, and this site is no exception being a labyrinth of cracks, fissures, ledges and overhangs. There is much coral growth on this site, including Table Corals of all shapes and sizes - there is one particularly large one which acts as a perfect navigation point after you find yourself disorientated having followed too many channels in the sea bed! Lots of marine life here including schools of Ornate Sweetlips, Cardinal Fish, and Orbicular Batfish taking advantage of the services provided by Cleaner Wrasse at various cleaning stations. Top So named after the Flintstone's home town, because of the site's similarity to the house that Barney and Fred lived in. The site's main attraction is the dome shaped cave / swim through with holes all around it which gives the feeling of "windows" in a home. The rest of the site is relatively small so you find yourself passing through the "house" several times. Saying that, there is still a lot of marine life to see including swirling schools of Bait Fish and Turtles. Top HELGA'S TUNNEL Most of the diving around Lighthouse Bay is fairly shallow. Luckily though, there is one deep site where all the Advanced divers go to 30m and that is Helga's Tunnel. It is quite a long, bumpy ride out to this site but worth the effort. The reef starts at 17m and drops into the sand around 30m. It consists of three great swim throughs or tunnels, one of which is fairly tight. The other two are quite cavernous and make for easy access. Plus, there is a nice overhang to explore at the north end of the reef. Fish life is not as abundant here as on other sites, but the thrill of depth and swim throughs full of cardinal fish, make this site something special, Giving it more of a sense of adventure than it's shallower counterparts. FISH HOLE One of the great things about Australians is their simplicity in naming things. As this site suggests, it is a hole in the sea bed and it is full of fish! This is a lovely site, quite small and full of life. Unfortunately, it is prone to very strong currents and can only be dived at slack tide. But when the current is flowing, there is heaps of feeding activity going on. The best thing to do on this site is to have a quick look around, then find a sheltered spot out of the current and just hang there and watch the underwater world go by. The top of the site is also worth a look as it is covered in soft corals, ranging from yellows to purples. Top NORTH WEST REEF This reef is a fair ways off Lighthouse Bay and is prone to rough seas and strong currents. It is also the reef the 'Mildura' struck in 1907 during the cyclone causing it to flounder further in on the Cape shore. Once again, because of the strong tides, this reef is home to heaps of fish feeding, plus all the usual reef fish. Also, there are channels in the reef that take you under the waves breaking overhead on the exposed upper parts of the reef which look spectacular, but caution has to be taken not to be sucked up into the surge oneself. This site is also home to numerous white tip sharks and rays. Top NAVY PIER Exmouth's premier site which was closed for 5 months after the September 11th terrorist attacks in the U.S.A, when all security on military establishments around the world was tightened. Luckily for us, security eased around the pier a week before we were due to leave Exmouth, which enabled us to get a few dives in on it. Tracy was the first one of us to get a trip to it (2 days after reopening to divers). As with all dives that are supposedly one of the best dives in the world, Tracy went on the dive expecting to be disappointed by an over-rated dive. Fortunately, quite the opposite happened, as she returned to the dive shop totally lost for words by the shear volume of fish on the site ranging from schooling giant Barracuda, schooling Trevally, Jacks and Snapper, to the sea bed, and pylons littered with Wobbegong Sharks, White Tip Sharks, and Rays of various shapes and sizes. Also the small stuff, including hundreds of iridescent Flatworms and Frog Fish seeking refuge in old pipe work and fallen debris. The far north end of the pier is home to twenty or so Lionfish, whilst the south end seems to have the most sharks (including a Lemon Shark, which didn't appreciate Terry taking it's photograph and nudged him out of it's way). The pier is also home to a fish called a Bald Chin Grouper (which is actually Wrasse) which just looks at you with a gappy-toothed grin and like everything else on the dive seems unphased by divers. This really is one of the few 'must do' dives we would recommend doing. Our only regret is that we only squeezed in a handful of dives on the pier before we had to move on. Top |
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