Coral Bay
Getting to Coral Bay from Exmouth turned out to be a bit of a circus. The Integrity Buses do not run very frequently. I ended up taking a transfer bus from Exmouth to the Learmonth Airport. From there I took another transfer bus to Coral Bay.
The bus driver was a bit of a character. He and his wife are originally from Newcastle. They have been travelling around Australia for about 10 years staying in out of the way places like Coral Way. She is working in the Eco Tours Office in the town.
After checking into the Hostel, I headed off to the ‘pub’. There I ran into the bus driver and his wife. As you would expect, I ended up booking a place on the Eco Tours trip out to this part of Ningaloo Reef. It turned out to be a good choice.
Manta Ray
In the morning I headed off to take the trip out to the reef.
We boarded the boat and sailed a short distance before diving into the water. The coral of the reef is not like the coral of the Great Barrier Reef. It isn’t very colourful. However the fish are. The GoPro photos I took do not do them justice.
We then headed into the area of the Bay where the water is quite deep. This is where the Manta Rays live. This type of Manta Ray are M. alfridi or ‘resident’ Mantra Ray. They say in the one location are a smaller than the ones that migrate and mainly in the deeper waters of the ocean.
The Eco Tours and their competitors hire a bloke with a small plane to fly over the bay to spot the Mantas. This makes the trip a bit expensive, but at least it makes it more likely that you will see one. They claim that they have a 90% success rate.
The plane flew overhead and circled over the area where he spotted a Ray.
One of the guides wearing metre long flippers swam out to see the Ray. When she spotted it she singled us and 10 of us swam out to where she was. The Ray was about 20 metres below us. It was amazing see the thing ‘flying’ through the water. We were told to stay behind it. After about 10 minutes we stopped and the boat came up and collected us, and another group of 10 dived in for a look.
My group had a second chance to see the same Manta. This time she was swimming at bit closer. I got some reasonable photos of her with the GoPro
Reef Shark, Whales, Turtles and Lots of Colourful Fish
After seeing the Manta Ray we headed back to the reef.
This was a better spot. There was lots of colourful fish including a Reef Shark. In the distance we could see some Whales in the ocean of the other side of the reef.
As we headed back to shore, we went over area of sea grass. We could see lots of turtles. They like the sea grass. You are not permitted to swim in this part of the reef.
It was a really good day.
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