We have been in Broome the last few days. Its pretty boring here with not much to do, so we basically chilled out by the pool or beach reading our books and watching the sunset over the indian ocean. Mike needs to catch up on some reading so we can do some book swaps. I’ve read about 7 to his 1. Its a bit hard to read while driving I guess.

We are moving on today.

Here is our route so far. You need to join the gaps where the GPS failed.

Swimming with whale sharks has been on my to-do list for many years now, and this is one more thing I can now cross off.

It was a full day out at sea and while we were waiting for our spotter plane to spot some whale sharks, we had a few swims along the way. A few of us jumped in to swim with Tuna that were feeding on the surface. This was all well and good until someone yelled “Shark” and I looked down and there was a bloody great big shark. I freaked out and decided to head back to the boat but there was another bloody great big shark in my way. I looked around me and there were about 5 or 6 bloody great sharks circling below us. And these weren’t tiny reef sharks; they were really big real things, more than twice the size of me.

The boat was about 300 metres away, and I was scared to break away from the other snorkellers (who by the way, seemed to think seeing sharks was cool) but I really didn’t like having these horrid things swimming below me. They reckon they are just inquisitive, but I reckon they were eyeing us up for a feeding frenzy. I decided to make the break and swam as fast as I could back to the boat, with my eyes shut so I wouldn’t have to look at them. Luckily Mike was safely on board, saving his energy for the swim with whale sharks.

About 1pm, just as we were eating lunch, we got the call that a whale shark had been spotted. How it works is the boat gets in front of the whale shark. A spotter jumps in the water. When they say, “GO”, 10 swimmers jump in the water at the same time and swim like crazy toward the spotter. Then when you are wondering where the whale shark is, it comes gently cruising past you, about 1 metre away. It’s really cool. The whale shark was a fairly small one, only 3.5 metres, but was awesome all the same. We got to jump in as many times as we liked for up to 1 hour. It was hard work though trying to keep up with it.

The photos aren’t really the best, but it is hard trying to enjoy the shark and take photos at the same time.

This is one of its head:

We found an even better place than Coral Bay and that is in the Cape Range national park, just south of Exmouth on the Indian ocean side. There are camping sites right on the beach, and the snorkelling is amazing. It is even better than Coral Bay and way less touristy. Most campsites only allow 7 campers. The coral was also more colourful and the fish more colourful. I saw a large shovelnosed ray, which was pretty cool.

We went for a walk at the Yardie creek gorge and saw two snakes. One was a death Adder (according to this guy in Army uniform), and we weren’t sure what the other one was. Mike can now cross “snakes” off his “to-see” list.

We spent two days here, just snorkelling and enjoying the weather.

We arrived in Coral bay around 3pm. The caravan park was really busy but we somehow managed to get a beachfront site in the caravan park. This was the view from our camp.

The snorkelling was fantastic. It is so cool having access to the Nigaloo reef from the shore.

Visibility is high and there is loads of coral and fish. As I was fiddling with my underwater camera I looked up and was face to face with a giant snapper. They were funny and seemed as amused by us as we were by them. They were very friendly and it makes me feel sad that we catch them, murder them, and then eat them.

There were colourful fish of all shapes and sizes. I saw a sea snake. We saw a black fish with whiskers (catfish maybe?). There were loads of stingrays on the sandy bits but I wasn’t so sure about them.

We spent two days in Coral Bay, enjoying the heat, the snorkelling and having the sea at our doorstep.

Just a quick update to say we’re going swimming with whale sharks tomorrow. Hope i don’t get seasick!

We made it to Monkey Mia early and decided to put up the tent for a change. The weather was deliciously warm. We hired a double kayak and went for a 3-hour kayak down the coast, stopping occasionally at secluded beaches for a snorkel.

It is quite a neat place. You see dolphins swimming about during the day, right in close to shore. We were swimming and a dolphin came right up to us. I screamed a little and hid behind Mike. It was pretty neat though. The dolphin swam down the beach a little then came right by us again. I could have touched it, but we aren’t allowed to.

The dolphins come in every morning to be fed. They pick people in the crowd to feed the dolphins. It is a bit boring really. I think they should get the dolphins jumping through hoops to make it more interesting.

The Pelicans on the other hand were a laugh to watch. They were being fed at the same time as the dolphins and they are real characters. We found them far more entertaining than the dolphins.

Here they are all lined up like good little kids waiting for their food:

The restaurant at the resort that overlooks the bay and it does amazing food. It is gorgeous having dinner there watching the sunset over the bay.

We enjoyed the warm weather so much we stayed for 3 days.

The next blog will be snorkeling in Coral Bay on the Nigaloo reef

We arrived late in the day and found an amazing free place to camp the night just outside of Denham – on the road to Monkey Mia.

We camped right on the waters edge and cracked open our bottle of sparkling and watched the sun set over the ocean while listening to Loreena McKennett (ideal sunset music). It was a magical moment.

We cracked open a bottle of red and attempted some arty sunset photos.

I was a bit drunk and don’t remember much after that.

This is Mike’s explanation of events that I don’t remember.

Mike:

I was just sitting there, enjoying the solitude, the waves gently lapping onto the shore, when there was a sudden almighty crash. I turned and saw Jo, lying on the ground, still sat in her chair, looking rather bemused where she was and how she got there.

“I’m stuck and can’t get up? ” giggles Jo.
I just stared in total disgust.
“Help, can’t get up,” she exclaims.
I still just stared in total disbelief.
“Well bloody help me up, just don’t stand there,” she demands sounding rather agitated.

I still just stared trying to figure out how to get her up. Do I extract her from the chair first or do I pick her up chair and all. I decided on the latter and pulled on the arm of the chair and brought Jo and the chair into the vertical position

Jo then stumbled into her bed and passed out, leaving me to tidy up as usual.

Our next stop was Perth, where we had planned to camp a few days and catch up with nephew David, but the weather was crap, and the camping grounds cramped due to school holidays. We decided continue north in search of warmer weather. We stopped at the Pinnacles which are cool rocks sticking out of the ground. It felt like we were in an episode of star trek starring Spaceship Dory, Captain Mike and Navigator Jo.

We stayed at a campground near the pinnacles, right on the beach. We treated ourselves to crayfish, as this is where they get fresh ones. For $50 we got two crayfish, as much salad as we could eat, and chips. Pretty good value I thought.

The weather was still crap, so we continued heading north with brief stops at Kalbarri and Dongara.

The highlight was the Margaret River region, where we wined and dined for free. Wineries were only a few hundred metres apart, all offering wine tastings. And taste we did! We visited cheese factories that had a variety of cheeses on offer. The nut factory had some delicious assortments of sweet and savoury items. One of the wineries had bread, olive oil and dukkha. And to top it off we pigged out on free chocolate at the chocolate factory.

The south of Western Australia was pretty miserable. Wet and cold, so we didn’t spend too much time there.