Western Australia

[Mark Goodchild]

I'm hoping to visit the Coral Bay area of Western Australia next April. I was wondering if anyone has recommendations on dive centres?

I know there is not a huge choice. Exmouth has more but I heard its not the nicest place to visit. Coral Bay sounds much, much nicer.

Travelling in April to Ningaloo reef to meet the coral spawn and hopefully one of the best places in the world for whale shark spotting.

After a week or two here we will be travelling to Queensland too. So any help with a good liveaboard into the Coral sea would be appreciated too!

Any ideas?

 

[champ]

I was in both Exmouth and Coral Bay this past May. Coral Bay is a smaller town but it has a beach you can walk to. Exmouth has a lot more dive shops/restaurants. If you have a car, you can drive to some really neat beaches near Exmouth (in a park with thousands of kangaroos). Coral Bay will also have manta rays that time of year. I'd leave your bookings open, sometimes the whale sharks are more likely to be in Exmouth and sometimes in Coral Bay that time of year. It's about a 1 1/2 hour drive.

 

[Mark Goodchild]

Does anyone know what the weather is likely to do in April in both Western Australia (Coral bay, Exmouth area) and the Great Barrier Reef area.

My understanding was that it should be pretty calm and good over this period.

Am I right?

:monkeydan

 

[alcina]

Weather in April on the Ningaloo is usually warm - hot during the days and warm - cool in the evenings & early morning. Bring a layer. Seas are usually fairly calm but we can get wind and some swell. It is rare to lose a day's diving due to weather in April, May or June but it does happen.

If you are coming for the whale sharks specifically I would recommend as late in April as possible. If it were me, I would come at the end of May or anytime during June.

If you do a web search you'll find several operators - you can ask around to try to find the best one for you and several of the web sites have links to other useful info about the area.

Let me know if I can help.

 

[baitedstorm]

Learn from my mistake, I went 2 weeks earlier than I should have in March and missed them! I stayed in Exmouth and found it pretty cool I think the hotel was called the Potshot (nothing fancy,but the price was right and the air con was cold. I used the Exmouth Dive Center and really enjoyed them, they allowed me time to take photos without feeling rushed. Could just be the Australian way, but I truly felt like they bent over backwards to make everyone happy. Lots of stuff to go venture off to. Pretty cool light house to take some great shots of.

 

[northcoast_diver]

If I were visiting Australia for scuba, I would carefully check the history of the diving operators there, and choose one that had never left a diver behind on a boat dive. The incidence of the problem seems to be higher there than anywhere else in the world.

See:

http://www.cdnn.info/article/open_water/open_water.html

Another thing would be to make sure you and your buddy each has the following gear with you at all times:

o inflatable safety sausage
o DiveAlert miniature air horn
o signalling mirror
o flashlight (even in the daytime)
o small flask filled with fresh water

These items might come in handy, not just in Australia, but in Florida and Southern California as well. Lightning does strike twice, no matter how much denial anyone wants to religiously embrace.

 

[Mark Goodchild]

Think I might try and visit late April, early May then. A big reason for me visiting are the whale sharks but not just them...I heard the diving is very good here anyway.

I like the idea of the accessibility.

More time to save for my trip!

 

[champ]

I only dove in Coral Bay. The hard corals were the best and most varied I have seen!!! People who like the more colorful soft corals will not be as impressed. There were not a ton of different dive locations which was dissapointing. Most of the dives are shallow dives inside the fringing reef. It was an expensive but memorable trip. You never will forget your first whale shark!!!!

 

[poseiden]

Exmouth is definitely worth a visit, as the Murion Islands are only accessible from there. Don't miss at least a day out there.

I would also try and get as fliexible a dive operator as possible- not a lot seem to do boat night dives, and there are some great opportunities to be had with mantas late in the day if the boat is out on the western side of the coast.

It's a beautiful spot though- unspoilt reef, not too many competing boats in dive locations.

 

[baitedstorm]

Exmouth is definitely worth a visit, as the Murion Islands are only accessible from there. Don't miss at least a day out there.

I spent two days out there and still "needed" more. What a wonderful place! Can't wait to go back!