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Aran, our new driver came to pick us up at 8am. Took us about half an hour to find room for our bags, but managed it in the end....bring on having a car of their own again! Haha
From Broome we headed towards Karinjini National Park so the lads could do some gorge walking. We stopped at an outback campsite on the way, and set up camp with the bonfire, and made jacket spuds in the fire, which ended up tasting of charcoal! Karinjini was gorgeous though. We went on some lush (but very strenuous) walks. The difficult part was the hike back up the gorge, but the gorges themselves were beautiful, with a freshwater pool and waterfall waiting for us after the walk down. We did gorge walks for 2 days, but on the afternoon of the second day me and Mand stayed at the top of the gorge and took pictures, as we were all gorged out. Our legs were killing, and the hikes were getting more strenuous, so we left that to the lads!!!
From there we headed to Tom Price, which was a random town not far from the National park. A good stop before the 7 hour journey to Exmouth. It was freezing there though, and raining!!! So nothing much to report, other then a sleepness night. The next day we made our way to Exmouth, which was what all 3 of us had been waiting for, as it's were the Whale Sharks go every year as they migrate. You're able to snorkel with them and there are also some great dives spots, so once we arrived in Exmouth we went to book a tour straight away, and ended up getting a really good deal by bargaining with them as all 4 of us wanted to do tours. Managed to save ourselves $100 each, we were well chuffed.
The next day was our Whale Shark tour. We got picked up at 7, and made our way to the boat. After an hour of being on the boat trying to spot manta rays and anything else of interest, the spotter plane for the whales went up. It was dead exciting, cos there are 3 different tour companies in the water using the same plane, so as soon as they're spotted the race is on, as the first boat to the Whale Shark gets in first, so you're all racing to get there. You're not allowed more than 10 people at a time swimming (snorkling) with the whale sharks, and you have a talk before hand about how you get in, and about how quickly you have to get out of the water and back onto the boat, as the next group is approaching with the whale, and so you need to get out the water so there aren't more then 10 in at the same time.
When they explain how we have to get in it all seems a bit confusing and manic. Our boat had 18 people on, so we were split into 2 groups. We were in the second group which I was fortunate for, cos as soon as the boat arrived by the whale, the group has to stand on the edge of a platform, and the boat skipper tracks the whale on radar, and as soon as its close enough he's like screaming, 'quick, get in, get in'! It's like a scene from an SAS advertisement, you s*** yourself, especially as you don't know what to expect as these are the biggest fish in the world. Some can be as big as 18 metres long!!! You're also faced with the fact that you're in the middle of the ocean, so god know's how deep it is, or how cold it is, or what other fish (or sharks) might be lurking. And just to throw more into the equation, the water was covered in Lion Mane jellyfish. They look like the big, scary jellyfish that you see in Finding Nemo, except their tentacles don't sting all that much!
So, fortunately, we got to see the procedure (sort of) by being the second group in, but in reality, as soon as they're in the water, we're all being screamed at by the skipper to get onto the platform and be prepared to jump in. It weren't just me that was crapping it though, Mike was too, haha, and so there we waited for the scream of us all to 'jump'!!! And after about 20 seconds it came! The water was surprisingly warm, and on this ocassion we could see the reef about 10 metres below us, so it didn't seem to scary, but the jellyfish were everywhere, you proper have to dodge them while swimming. So, we follow our leader to the spot where the whale will swim, and them he's like look down, and swim, swim, swim. We're looking around in the water, and about 7 metres below us is this 6 metre, beautiful Whale Shark. You have to start swimming as quickly as possible in the same directionas it, to keep up with it, and get the best views, but it was amazing. You're literally with it for only a minute or two, and then you can't keep up with it anymore, so it's back on the boat to get up ahead of it again, ready for the next swim. Even getting on the boat gives you this huge adrenalin rush, as you're trying to get your flippers off and get yourself up the ladder (while dodging jellyfish) cos the next group are approaching. It's hysterical.
Then no sooner are you on the boat and catching your breathe and talking about how amazing it was, you're back on the platform getting ready to jump back in. We dive 4 swims with that whale, then another one was spotted, so the race was on to get to that one. By this point we're pro's (haha) so we all jump in, and we're looking around under the water trying to see it, when we look up, and a 9 metre Whale Shark is literally right infront of us, and heading straight for us. People were being booted and punched in the frenzied rush of trying to get out of the way of the whale, but then we're beside it, swimming along as fast as we could. It's the most amazing thing ever. They're huge, but seem so harmless (they don't eat humans) and they have the cleaner fish attached to them and you can see them being cleaned, and then they have these fish that hibernate near the whales mouth for protection, and the whole experience is just incredible.
The Whale Sharks themselves are stunning. They are a light blue colour, with white spots all over them. They have their own spot patterns, like a finger print, and we were fortunate enough to have a conservation group out with us from America, who were photographing them to learn more about there migratory habits, as little is known about them. They photograph their spots above their fin, and then using a program that NASA developed to track constellations, they're put into a computer program, and if that whale is photographed again elsewhere, they log it. All very exciting, and interesting.
We got the chance to swim with a third whale, a baby one this time, that was about 3 metres long. He was hysterical, he kept swimming around in circles, so he kept us busy, trying to keep up and turn around at the same time, to stay out of his way.
The day was so enjoyable, well worth the money. We were really lucky apparently, as you sometimes only see one whale, or sometimes non at all, but we had 3, and got 7 swims in total. We ended the day by having a bbq on the boat, and champagne, then went back. I loved it, I'd definitely do it again!
Today we're chilling out after yesterdays excitement, and tomorrow we all dive the Navy Pier, which is reported to be one of the best dive spots in Australia. From here we head to Coral Bay to snorkel some more on Ningaloo Reef, then we head towards Perth, stopping at the famous desert pinnacles and another national park.
Hope you enjoy the photo's, love Lauz xxx
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