Memorable marine encounters - Coral Bay

The small coastal towns at the Ningaloo are all geared towards water related activities. Think surfing, whale watching in season, and whalesharks! (Which is March to July)

Another must-do is diving or snorkelling. With the fringing reef so close to the coast it's a waste not to. Of course we've done some in Exmouth, but we also went a little further south to tiny Coral Bay. (2 campsites, 1 hotel and 8 shops, of which 7 tourism related.) 

But Coral Bay has something extra special: a resident manta ray population! To be more exact, there are a row resident mantas, and many seasonal and visiting ones. But it is one of the few places where you are almost guaranteed to see them year round. A chance not to miss.

Exploring Ashos Gap

There are many manta ray snorkel tours on offer, but since there's just one dive shop in Coral Bay, our choice was an easy one. A full day tour, with a dive in the morning and afternoon, and a manta interaction snorkel in between. If the mantas felt like it. Because the previous week they hadn't shown up for five consecutive days... But, if you don't try, you're sure not to see them. 

Later that afternoon, the dive shop owner told us our tour might not happen, since the other couple that had signed up, had cancelled. And they had a 4 person minimum. After a few phonecalls that evening it was certain: no tour tomorrow. So we spent an extra lazy day at Coral Bay and went one day later: on a fully booked tour. 

After the usual morning fitting sessions (who doesn't love a cold damp wetsuit in the morning?) that go with dive tours, we were ready to go. And can I just add that I simply love Australian sizing? I easily fit a S, sometimes even XS suit, always nice when (un)dressing in front of complete strangers. 

Blue spotted stingray 

On board were 10 divers divided in 2 groups. We were happy to be in the 'experienced' group, which made for lovely relaxed dives. We all had about the same pace and mindset. Keeping an eye out for each other, but wandering off a bit it you saw something interesting. As opposed to the 'less experienced'. When we saw them, the six of 'em were huddled in a tight knit, condensed shoal following the leader.

The first dive was around a clusters of coral bommies not far of shore. We saw loads of tiny fish, some bigger ones like potato cod, little cleaning fish doing their job, a few blue spotted stingrays hiding underneath the corals, nudibranches, sea worms, a moray eel, clown fish, and loads more.

It's pretty cool to see how every coral and anemone has its own species of related fish. Two coals right next to each other, but slightly different, both have tiny fish on them, but slightly different. 

The underwater landscape was really nice too.

First look at a wild manta ever

When we surfaced after a shallow 55minutes dive, it was time to head to Batemans Bay. In search of mantas. 

On our way there we got some instructions on what to do and what not. In the mean time a spotter plane was on the lookout for mantas to optimise our chances of seeing one.

We were divided into two groups, and instructed to sit on the rear of the boat, on the platforms. Fins and mask on and snorkel in. The boat would drop us in the manta's expected path. At the crew's 'go, go go' we slid in the water, moments before we saw th manta underneath us! 

How utterly, extremely cool was that! 

Just a few meters below us was the his magnificent creature, gently flapping its wings. They really do fly. 

Showing its belly just before flying away

We swam with it, until some of our group got slower. That was when our guide gave the cue to stop swimming. Group two was then dropped, after which we were picked up again. As soon as the other group stopped swimming we were again dropped in. The second time in, the manta swam sideways for a bit. 
Another boat in the vicinity had had no luck yet with finding a manta, so our skipper decided that we'd pull back for a bit to give them a go. We looked on, and to be honest, our tour looked far more professional in getting everyone in and out of the water. And it was apparent that we had some stronger swimmers on board. Because it does take some effort to keep up with a feeding manta! 

We then did our third and final run. Most of us stopped swimming when directed, but one of our group continued... Rodie stealthily joined group 2 for an extra long manta swim! Afterwards we had lunch aboard, and went to the next diving spot. During that trip we saw even more wildlife: Dolphins, several turtles surfacing to breathe, stingrays, and even a humpback with calf! 

Giant cuttlefish

After that superb manta swin, we really didn't care that much about our second dive, but happily went in. What a surprise was that second site! Ashos Gap are two interconnected bommies, with a cleaning station at it. Basically it is one massive coral garden. We stayed under for an hour, and swam above coral that enitire time.

Some really good marine life too. A lovely green turtle (I never get tired of those!), a distant grey reef shark, some barracudas, giant clams, and a really big giant cuttlefish. This one was about 30cm, and prettily changing colours as we stayed with it for a bit. 

The number of small fish was incredible, and the coral itself was more diverse than at the first spot. Really. Opal was that you could actually see some of the coral 'breathe'.

Yep, that was a pretty amazing day! 

Green turtle