I was passing through Coral Bay on my road trip back to Perth after a week in Exmouth. The plan was to enjoy the beach for a bit, maybe have a quick snorkel, and then continue on my journey to a campsite two hours down the road. That’s when I saw the signs. And I opened up my eyes, I saw the signs. Haha sorry! Couldn’t help myself. The manta-ray tours at Ningaloo Coral Bay Boats were calling me in. After missing out on swimming with the whale sharks in Exmouth due to high swells, I thought I may as well give this a go instead. I still had time. It was three days before I had to be back in Perth. I lucked a spot on the half day tour leaving at 9am the following morning. As I started my two-hour drive to the campsite I’d booked for the night, I realised how crazy that was, forfeited the $8 I’d paid for the campsite, and booked into a caravan park in Coral Bay.

Dolphins

At 9am everyone from the tour began congregating outside the ‘bus stop’ in their family units. We got kitted out with fins and snorkels, met the lovely crew, and then the bus took us to the boat. We could not have had a better day for it. The sun was shining, it was about 27 degrees and the water over the reef was like glass (it turns out most days in Coral Bay are like this). About ten minutes into our boat ride, I spotted a pod of dolphins not far from the boat. Wanting to share it with someone, I told the two little girls next to me who became my equally-as-excited-pals for the rest of the day.

Turtles

We arrived at our first snorkelling location where we would explore whilst the spotter plane flew out to find some of the local manta-ray. I was the only crazy person who chose to go wetsuit-less but I honestly didn’t get cold once. The water temperature in the middle of winter was a very comfortable 24 degrees. Heaven, I know. While we waited for everyone to hop in the water, a few people spotted a turtle in the surrounding reef. The variety of corals and fish here was unlike anything I had seen so far along the coral coast.

Sharks 

We were then told we would be swimming to a shark cleaning station and I instantly imagined humans cleaning sharks for some reason and was extremely confused. We swam through a beautiful metre deep coral pathway as fluorescent blue fish swam off in front of us and emerged at a huge coral shaped like a cabbage. Before long I caught glimpse of a shark. Then two. Then ten altogether! My heart jumped into my throat at first but the reef sharks are friendly and well-fed so I knew they were safe to swim with. As safe as wild, swimming, meat-eaters can be. They were about five metres below the surface and pulled up on top of this huge cabbage coral to be cleaned by the smaller fish. They would rest there, open their mouths and the little fish would go in like dentists and clean them. I’d signed up for manta-rays but swimming with these friendly reef sharks was the icing on the cake for me. I had ticked off a bucket list item without even knowing it was on my list!

Manta Rays 

Here we go. The piece da resistance! Like clockwork, the second we got back to the boat, the spotter plane had seen a manta ray so we headed off in her direction. Coral Bay is one of the only places in Australia that has resident manta rays who visit the reef year around so the chances of seeing them are extremely high! We got into two groups of ten people so that there weren’t too many people in the water at once and then we took turns to swim with the manta. She was the most majestic animal I’ve ever seen. So graceful in the water. Her sheer size was astonishing and apparently at about 3 metres wide, she was one of the smaller manta rays as they can reach over seven metres in width! She wasn’t in a hurry to be anywhere so we got to enjoy swimming with her in the shallows for at least half an hour! This was one experience I will never forget. 

Whales

On the way back to land, after a delicious afternoon tea provided by the crew, we were lucky enough to spot a humpback whale hanging out in the reef. Between June-October around 3000 humpbacks pass through Ningaloo Reef so it’s the perfect place to see them having a rest. The one we saw had her baby with her! We also spotted a tiger shark in the crystal-clear waters of the lagoon. 

I seriously didn’t think this post was going to be so huge but so much happened in just over four hours on the tour! As an added bonus, the tour has an on-board photographer who captured the most stunning photos of us all! This allowed us to completely emerge ourselves in the experience without having to worry about taking photos. And for only $50, it’s so worth it! 

DETAILS

Ningaloo Coral Bay Boats

Ningaloo Nature Tour – Half Day 9:30am – 1:30pm

Adults:                         $  125

Observer:                    $   90

Child (6-15 years):     $   90

Under (5 & under):    $    10

Family (2A & 2C):       $  420

Photographs by professional photographer: $50

If you’re interested in booking a tour, I cannot recommend Ningaloo Coral Bay Boats highly enough! 

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