Coral Bay & Carnarvon

Beautiful Coral Bay and Ningaloo Reef.........................

Hundreds of gulls on Coral Bay Beach

Clear water taken from the deck of the boat

Inquisitive but never threatening

Dragging myself back on board after another big snorkel

Some patches of coral were 10m across

Lots of these little blue fish followed us everywhere

Giant clams about 600mm across

Even sharks need a rest

Blue spotted ray hiding in the sand

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Just a bit down the coast from Cape Range NP and towards the bottom of Ningaloo Reef, but quite a long way round by road, is the seaside village of Coral Bay.  There are two van parks in the main street both across the road from the beach which is a beautiful protected bay.  Tourism is clearly the main income earner with snorkelling, diving, fishing, quad bike tours, sailing, swimming with whale sharks and manta rays, etc all offered.  After the strong winds at Cape Range we were hoping for calmer weather and booked a tour for the next day snorkelling the reef and swimming with manta rays.  The weather was almost perfect with calm seas, little wind, small waves (ripples) and beautiful clear water. On the cruise out we watched several turtles and dolphin and after we located a manta ray had two swims with it.  The ray was 4 to 4.5m across its wingtips and was very calm about us watching it closely although you have to swim constantly to keep up with it.  It was a really impressive experience.   We also had 2 snorkelling swims in different parts of the reef and the coral and fish life was amazing.  We also managed to swim up close to turtles and watched a couple of reef sharks cruise by.  One patch of ‘cabbage’ coral was about 6 metres across and 4 or 5 metres high.  There were rays, giant clams, sea cucumbers, and all sorts of sea life to watch.  It really was a great day out even though us oldies had to retire for a quick nanna nap once we got home at about 4pm.  

Big peaceful creatures that take some keeping up with..

We saw several turtles wandering about

Another blue spot ray resting

Why would the sharks eat us with this much food around!!

Unfortunately it was not whale shark season so we have a reason to revisit Coral Bay in the future.  The next day the weather turned windy again and the fishing trip Garry had booked was cancelled – very disappointing.  We managed a snorkel in the beach out the front of the park and walked around to the next bay which is a reef shark sanctuary.  The reef sharks gather to give birth to and raise the babies.  It was great to see pods of 5-7 fully grown reef sharks circling in shallow water very close to the shore and not at all alarmed by the tourists snapping photos. 

Coral Bay shark nursery bay - reef sharks circling in the shallows

These 5 mums were swimming circles only 5m off shore

We pushed on further south to Carnarvon which has very different surrounds than the reat of the north west.  The Gascoyne River runs into the sea here and has huge rich soil flood plains either side of the river that support many farms growing all sorts of fruit and veges.  Bananas, mangoes, tomatoes, and corn are some of the crops we saw on the way in.  Coupled with great seafood there is a lot of food produced here.  Carnarvon also has a prominent landmark being the large radio communications satellite dish on a hill overlooking the town.  The dish was a major part of the communications link between earth and the Apollo spacecraft when they landed on the moon.  There is a new Space Museum that was opened in June this year by Buzz Aldrin which is very interesting for space buffs and has been developed entirely by the Carnarvon Community.  It is well worth a look. 

Carnarvon was the first port in Australia to export live cattle and has a huge jetty with railway tracks to the end.  There is a good little museum at the jetty with a big new building under construction. The museum contains jetty railway gear, shearing and whaling displays.  There is also a lifeboat from the ‘Kormoran’ which is the German warship that sank with the ‘HMAS Sydney’ off the coast here.  All 645 sailors on the ‘Sydney’ perished but 2 lifeboats from the ‘Kormoran’ made it shore and only about 100 German sailors died while 319 either made it to shore or were rescued.  The shipwrecks were only located a few years ago in more than 2,500m of water.   Carnarvon used to be a big wool centre and also a whaling station.  An old map on the wall showing the location of male and female whales killed in the bay is sobering.  The fishing is supposed to be good from the jetty but the wind is strong at the moment.  With a bit of luck the wind will die down and I will get out for a fish soon.  

Space Communications dish in Carnarvon

one of only 2 lifeboats to make land from the 'Kormoran'

Carnarvon's One Mile Jetty