Last night was very windy & this morning the wind has dropped right off thankfully.  One lone bird started singing when it was still pitch black & slowly woke the other birds by daybreak. Thanks to that bird we had breakfast cooking at sunrise, before most of the people in the park were up.  We picked up our snorkelling gear by 8 am.  We found a nice shady spot (yes, it’s warm & sunny here) to leave our gear then I went over to the coral boat moorings & had a snorkel around.  The fish hang around under the pontoon, lots of big spangled emperor, parrot fish, trevally plus lots of little colourful fish as well.  I swam to the edge of the reef about 5m out (it’s high tide) & had a look at some of the coral, there are lots of tiny colourful fish hiding around it.  Back to the beach to warm up & dry off a bit while we waited for our glass bottom boat cruise on the Ningaloo Reef.

The glass bottom boat we went on for a reef exploration is fairly new, with good clean glass windows & a ramp to enter the boat from the shallows.  We started looking at the coral 5 metres from shore & a contingent of spangled emperor swam under the glass with us for a long time to give us a special treat.  After about an hour of looking at all different types of coral, including one absolute giant estimated at 1500 years old, it was time to snorkel off the boat on the outer reef.  The corals were nice, with some nice fish, however the current was a bit strong as it was high tide plus the swells were rolling over the reef from the big breakers outside. This filled the snorkel with water every now & then.  After about 15 minutes you have to get out because you get so cold. Our next snorkelling spot was a bit closer in, a little bit deeper water over some sand, but nowhere near as much current.  We were lucky to spot a sea turtle below us getting a clean from some fish, it had set its flipper against some coral & the other against the sand & held itself steady while the fish picked at the parasites around its neck. There were so many beautiful coloured fish swimming around us, it was a shame to get out but after about 15 minutes it was too cold so standing in the sun on the boat drying out was very pleasant.  It’s amazing how quick two hours go by when you are enjoying things so much.

After lunch Tereza read for a while, I started to read but dozed off.  We went for a long walk in the afternoon on the northern beach towards Maud’s Point & came across an albatross that had an injured leg.  The walk was very pleasant though windy, it was also sad because we couldn’t help the poor albatross.  We observed one of the three wind turbines the town uses for power being stood up again after being lowered for maintenance.  The bay is very pretty with the sun starting to set & glistening off the water.

Dinner was Chorizo sausages & marinated chicken on the BBQ (I cooked) with a nice fresh salad washed down with a glass of red.  The wind was also buffeting the caravan a bit, it is blowing fairly solidly tonight.