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Tuesday March 9th---Day Five
Today I woke up at 6am even though we were supposed to sleep in (meaning a 7am wakeup!)I rendered it useless to lie awake in a hot tent, so I went for a shower and then a stroll along the beach.The shallow water was just teeming with stingrays!They are so interesting and very good at camouflaging!It's very easy to walk by and completely miss them hidden amongst the sand.I met a man on the beach who told me that if I kept walking I'd come to a shark nursery, so I continued to trek on.No such luck this morning, when I got to the point I couldn't see any sharks.I did meet a couple ladies from Tasmania though that were also in search of the shark nursery!We decided to abandon the shark search and walked back together talking about my Tassie vacation and Canada.By the time I got back to camp everyone was up and preparing breakfast.Talk about perfect timing!After brekky we headed over to the dock to book our activities for the day.There were various options available and everyone did whatever they preferred or could budget.I chose to do a full day (5 hour) snorkel on Ningaloo Reef.This was well worth the money.We started out with an intro snorkel to allow those who had never snorkeled to familiarize themselves with how they worked.On this snorkel we saw tons of different fish—all colours and sizes.The corals were brilliant!In my opinion they were even nicer than the section of the Great Barrier Reef that I snorkeled last time in Oz.The coolest part about the first snorkel was definitely swimming with a loggerhead turtle for about 20 minutes!He was so mesmerizing!I was swimming so close that I could have easily touched him—but I didn't as we were swimming in a marine reserve which doesn't allow touching or taking of any marine organisms.
Our next stop on the boat was at a turtle sanctuary.We didn't swim here but observed the beauties from the boat.I think I may have found a new love for this animal.I've always been fascinated by them because they are so ancient, but after swimming with such a beautiful and graceful creature I think sea otters may need to move over and make room for sea turtles as my fav animal!
Our next stop was located with assistance of a spotter plane.(Jomo let's do this for a living.. you can fly the spotter plane!!!Maybe we can even make some GIS maps for tourists, I'm sure they'll appreciate our layouts for ohh a whole 3 seconds!)After locating a manta ray (http://www.globaltravelerreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/underside-of-manta-ray-between-batteaux-bay-and-little-tobago-island-trinidad-tobago-photographic-print-c12654307.jpeg) the plane radioed down the coordinates and we jumped in!The ray was about 4 to 4.5m in width and sailed through the water so effortlessly.The group was split into 2 groups of 8, so we got to swim with the ray twice before he started to descend too deep.During the second swim I felt a couple stings. Another girl complained about a sting as well and I guess it turns out that there were little jellyfish in the water that got us!No need to worry though, it wasn't too serious of a sting and the lash marks went away by the end of the boat cruise.
Our last snorkel location was at a reef shark cleaning station.Here the remora fish work in symbiosis with the grey reef sharks (http://www.oceanwideimages.com/images/5830/large/24M2644-50-grey-reef-shark.jpg ).The fish clean the algae off the sharks and in return the sharks provide food and transport for the fish.We snorkeled with about 10 grey reef sharks, which are for the most part harmless unless provoked.We had sandwiches on the boat for lunch (more sandwiches!We have them everyday for lunch!)These sandwiches were AMAZING though.The cruise finished around 3pm and only when we got off the water did we realize just how HOT it was!Instinctually we headed for shade at a beachside café and ordered chocolate milkshakes!Have I mentioned that I have been having ice cream everyday on this trip so far?!This trend will unfortunately be drawn to a halt tomorrow when we leave civilization and hit the red dirt roads to the outback. (So Lucy and I ordered ANOTHER milkshake and split it!We love… ok might be obsessed with ice cream, I could be obsessed with worse things!)
Happy Hour started at 5:30pm at the local hotel so I headed over there still decked out in my bathing suit and saltwater hair!All drinks were half price (aka Canadian prices!) so I grabbed a jug (pitcher) of Cascade Green for $10!Cascade Green is a pretty good beer that is brewed in Tasmania and apparently the brewer offsets their carbon emissions by 100%. (http://cascadegreen.com.au/default.aspx )When happy hour finished we trekked back to camp for a very welcomed hamburger and salad dinner.I then packed up my gear for the morning and called it a night.
- comments
carolyn i can't believe you got stung by a jelly fish! that's so scary. they are fascinating though, it's too bad you only felt them instead of actually seeing them.
David That jellyfish didn't know who it was messing with