After 18 years of diving with 14 years working in the industry I finally got to dive in my own backyard although a lot further north of Perth in the Ningaloo area.
It's one of those things that I have been going to do for a long time, but my hobbies or work and overseas dive and motorsport/photography trips have pushed going to Exmouth and diving snorkeling the waters nearby. After a bit of a change in my life I finally made it to Exmouth and had a opportunity to see what the place is all about.
While here this place has just amazed me big time with it's colour and beauty both on land and underwater with a special treat thrown in. How could you not be amazed when just the simple thing of going to and from dive and snorkeling sites by boat you get entertained by Humpback Whales playing or just traveling past (a lot with calves).
On land you have the beauty of the Cape range and Yardie Creek Gorge and the many bay's in the Cape Range National Park like Mangroves bay where when I visited it the tide was on it's way out and it was about knee deep. The place is like a nursery for marine life with plenty of Blue Spotted Ray's a juvenile sharks (White/Black tipped reef sharks and Tawney's) ranging from half a metre to just over a metre swimming by. If you stand in the water long enough you will feel this strange sensation of cleaner fish that normally clean the fish doing the same to your legs.
A jewel in our back yard
As for out on the boats, I have had the opportunity to dive the West Side plus the Muiron Islands as well as the dive sites off Lighthouse Bay all with the sweet music of the Humpback whales talking to each other.
The West Side - is along the outer reef with the dive sites controlled by the open ocean and being a sandy area with bombies scattered along the reef the the weather needs to be good to dive there. On the day I visited it the first dive was West End it was just coming off some swellie weather so the visibility wasn't fantastic but once we descended we were greeted by two manta rays playing and doing rolls over each other, I could have stayed there all day and watched them. Moving along there was the reef to see and more Manta's this time getting cleaned by little cleaner fish darting in and out of their gills. I just found a sandy spot, let all the air out of my BCD and just watched them gliding past and over me with some passes coming within centimeters of me while taking photos. While doing a safety stop a turtle swam by, nice way to finish a dive. Just magical.
At the second site Nick's Lumps the visibility was a lot better having a lot more rock/reef formations with a couple of nice swim through's under the formations and plenty of ledges to look under to see whatis hiding. A fun dive.
Muiron Islands - Lying just north of the mainland where the Indian Ocean and the Exmouth Gulf meet has a good choice of dive sites. The day I went out to the Islands the Weather was perfect so I got treated to some good diving. The first dive site (Jaws) is a Reef in a horse shoe shape, pretty simple navigation unless You're like me who likes to explore swim through's and passage ways. The reward was 2 sites in 1 dive and a smorgasbord of different types of tropical fish and a couple of Reef Sharks - the down side was a bit of exercise swimming back to the boat but well worth it. The second site (Key Hole) is in about 9 metres of water coming up to 4 metres. Not a lot of fish on this site but it made up for it with a field of Corals that are different to what you see on the dive sites closer to the mainland. The colours and amount of coral's were just spectacular. Both sites are good dual sites for both dives and snorkeling. We finished the day with a gentle drift snorkel along a sandy drop off that has bombies littered along it. A nice way to finish the day.
Lighthouse Bay - lays on the western side of the main land not far from the Harold E Holt communication towers. All the sites lay within the sanctuary zone so they all have permanent moorings for dive boats with 3 main dive sites Blizzard Ridge - Labyrinth and Gulliver's, all laying in 14 metres of water but all with their own individual character.
Blizzard Ridge is a 2 metre high ridge that runs along for a couple of hundred metres. The marine life is just unbelievable - several different types of ray's including the odd manta coming in for a clean, Reef Shark's, Wobbegong's, Sea Snakes that glide by, and large Cod and thousands and thousands of Glass Fish which you have to gently move out the way to see what is hiding behind them with literally hundreds of fish species scattered along the ridge and if you looking hard enough you might find a Frog Fish camouflaging along the wall.
Gulliver's is 2 circular reefs with a couple of metre drop off in the centre with a selection of hard and soft coral's around the edges. For those that like Nudibranches, I counted 7 different species of different colours and sizes then you have the bigger species like rays, a health variety of fish with some Sea Snake's here as well. The main thing I remember from the last dive here was the 6+ White Tip Sharks just lazing about on the sand chilling out.
As for Labyrinth, this site is made of a series of ridges that have some very colourful soft coral's lining it with every dive having a turtle or two dropping in and again a good range of tropical fish. This site holds a soft spot for me where I had one of the most amazing moments of my life while diving at 13 metres I had 2 adult Humpback whales and a calf swim by; just mind blowing moment just unbelievable.
While here I also had the opportunity to go out on the Whale Shark boats and have some swims with the big fish. It is something i recommend everybody to do at least once in your life; they are the gentle giants of the ocean and so graceful making you feel very insignificant.
All in all Exmouth/Ningaloo has a lot to offer on both land and in the sea whether you're a diver or just a snorkeler.
Big thank you to Exmouth Dive Centre for looking after me and making this such a Memorable experience.
More info can be found at www.exmouthdiving.com.au or email: bookings@exmouthdiving.com.au
