Ningaloo questions

[Zept]

Thanks to SARS, my holiday in the Maldives has turned into a holiday in Western Australia. Could be worse, I guess .

We are travelling in mid May and it is not really a diving trip b/c my boyfriend doesn't dive. However, he does like to snorkel, so we are hoping to get up to the Ningaloo reef for a few days.

So....

1) Can anyone recommend a dive operation for whale sharking and/or a couple of reef dives? Will I need to book in advance?

2) Is is better to stay at Coral Bay, or at Exmouth? We will be driving up from Perth. We are not looking for nightlife, just somewhere quiet where we can relax and snorkel.

3) Not a diving question, but... my boyfriend is a keen sailor and would like to hire a beach catamaran for a couple of days. Is there anywhere along that coast (or even around Perth) where he can do that? If he can get a couple of days of good sailing, it will be easier for me to get a couple of days of diving .

Many thanks for any suggestions!


Zept

 

[jacob22]

stay in coral bay not exmouth decent snorkelling right from the beach. nothing out of exmouth

there are less whaleshark tours out of coral bay so more relaxed attitude

only one dive shop
if you dive get them to take you to the elbow

wish i was going back

 

[neilstewart]

Hey Zept was the switch from the Maldives because they would not let you in over SARS?

I hope you did find some whale sharks up at Ningaloo. I can tell you that I was in the South Ari Atoll, Maldives late May and saw eleven in six dives on the outside reef off the resort of White Sands. Overall for the month of May there were in excess of 50 seperate sightings. All without any other technology than one Dive boat going out and having a look about. So save your Maldives hols for next year and go to White Sands. I will definitely be there again.

Neil

 

[Zept]

Yes, we switched destinations because the Maldives was quarantining people from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. At the time when we had to commit, it seemed as if it would take very little for them to add Singapore to the list. Spending the first 10 days of a 10-day holiday in quarantine isn't my idea of fun!

Wasn't all bad... we drove up to Coral Bay and I snorkelled with a 5m whaleshark for about 40 minutes over a 3-4 hour period. Very cool experience and worth all the driving (fortunately we both like driving through the desert).

Ironically, we both developed coughs shortly after arriving in Western Australia... but fortunately they were the wet, non-SARS variety.

Maybe we'll get to the Maldives next year!

Zept

 

[DaG]

jacob22 once bubbled...
stay in coral bay not exmouth decent snorkelling right from the beach. nothing out of exmouth

there are less whaleshark tours out of coral bay so more relaxed attitude

only one dive shop
if you dive get them to take you to the elbow

wish i was going back

I just returned from 2 weeks in Exmouth/Coral Bay- Firstly my advice is not to bother going to Coral Bay - the majority of the coral in the bay itself is dead and covered in algae. Having been there 15 years ago and having quite vivid memories of how beautiful Coral Bay was back then, it was a huge disappointment. I'd personally reccomend that you stay in Exmouth. There is plenty of good snorkelling on the west side of the cape, Turqouise Bay and Oyster Stacks are great snorkels and you will see a lot of turtles and white tip reef sharks.

Staying at Exmouth will also give you the opportunity to travel to the Murion Islands - the was the most fantastic diving I had for my entire trip with incredible viz, spectacular corals, white tips, potato cod, manta rays etc..

On the west side of the cape outside the reef we had a few amazing dives - saw migrating whales, more potato cod, an incredible variety of fish, big turtles etc.