Coral Bay: snorkelling with turtles and manta rays

21 October 2013

We left Exmouth for the second time, bound for Coral Bay, a much recommended location south of the North West Cape and Ningaloo Marine Park. Coral Bay is very remote as it is 152km south of Exmouth and 247 km north of Carnarvon. So you take your pick when you need to go shopping.
At Coral Bay there are two campsites, a smal hotel and a backpacker hostel, plus some accommodation for seasonal workers. That's it!


It's a two minute walk to the beach...and it's stunning. The lighter colour water shows where the shallow water is covering soft sand and the slightly darker area is over coral.
After our snorkelling experience the previous week, it was a little strange to go back into the water and we had several sessions before we felt relaxed. I have also found myself watching and listening to other swimmers far more than I should!
We signed-up for an outer reef snorkelling trip of six hours. The attraction was the possibility of swimming with manta rays and seeing the bigger coral. We were a little hesitant until the nice lady in the office told us that the little aeroplane that we had seen over the bay that morning, was in fact a manta ray spotter. This convinced us that it might be money well spent and so we committed.
The next morning we joined about twenty others on a small boat and were only a few minutes out when we spotted a Lepoard Shark, possibly a metre long.

There were several opportunities to snorkel over the coral near the edge of the reef and well within earshot of the deafening sounds of the ocean breakers on the other side. No wonder ancient mariners struggled to sail through barrier reefs.
We were briefed about snorkelling with manta rays (they don't sting and they can swim quickly) and split into two groups. The basic idea was that the leader (powerful swimming Italian young lady) got into the water close to the rays and swam with very long fins, keeping her arm stretched out above the water to signal that she was staying with them. It was our task to enter the water very quickly and then follow in a rough V formation. If we got left behind, then we regrouped and the boat picked up and repositioned.
Now snorkelling on your own, pottering around a bit of coral is one thing, but trying to keep up with a pair of manta rays is something else! However, it's FANTASTIC to see them and both Dawn and I did have a couple of sessions, over quite quickly as the rays were swimming quickly.
There were two rays which the leader managed to follow for about an hour. My view was of both rays swimming below and almost towards me, one behind the other. As I hooked in behind, the first one performed a full roll, showing about half a dozen keeper fish on the white underside. These rays had a wingspan of about 2 metres, so you can imagine just what a sight they are.
Photos will have to be added at a later date as although we have a full set, they are on a USB stick which I can't load onto the iPad. It might be possible to edit this blog post online at an Internet cafe where I can maybe add the pics.
After the rays, we had some food and then a free snorkel during which we had a sustained view of a turtle, in quite deep water. These are slow swimmers that need to surface to breathe every 30 minutes or so. There are countless other sights to see such as giant clams, myriad colourful fish and beautiful coral. The stars of the show though were the manta rays.


A further wildlife sighting was at the campsite early one morning. Dawn was leaving the toilet block and right there in front of her was a kangaroo complete with joey in her pouch. Both parties stood and stared but as it was an unplanned meeting, neither had brought their camera and so it has gone un-recorded but they each have their memories.