Exmouth

There was little doubt that Exmouth was in the middle of nowhere based on the views from our flight in. The impression was further confirmed on the shuttle from the airport to the town. We were pleased with our booked accommodation which seemed to be conveniently located amongst what little Exmouth had to offer (I must add that it was obvious the town was growing!). We checked in with the dive center to be sure we would be prepared for the big event. Bright and early the morning of, we met up with the other divers at the center, sized up for our gear, and loaded up the bus for our transit to the water. There were approximately twenty people to be on board including the guides. The first activity of the day was a dive at the Ningaloo Reef. Most of the people on board were diving so we split up into two groups and slowly explored the underwater world. The reef was beautiful although there were indications that it was dying. We saw tons of colorful fish and swam through an underwater reef tunnel. It was very cool and turned out to be the deepest, longest dive we had done so far! 
Swimming with the Whale Sharks was limited to snorkeling only and was set up very differently than the Great White Shark dive had been. With the Great Whites, the sharks were beckoned in with tasty bait and the cages were available at leisure. The Whale Sharks were found by a spotter plane and once news was broadcast to their location, all the touring operators in the area raced to the site. It was an assembly line of boats and swimmers as 10 people were dumped into the water at “Go! Go! Go!”. The snorklers relocated themselves as quickly as possible in line with the oncoming shark. Once it started to swim past, the snorkler’s followed, attempting to keep pace with the large animal. Their ability to do so depended on how fast the shark was swimming and how long you swam with them depended on how far ahead the next set of 10 snorklers were waiting. Once you reached the next party, you were to stop and wait with your group for the boat to pick you up and move you to the beginning of the line again. This went on until you got bored with the shark or the shark got bored with you and dove down. We saw four sharks in all, ranging from approximately seven to nine meters each. The first was the most enjoyable since it was nice and slow and in shallow water so even when it chose to dive deeper you could still see it. We also shared the water with a sea turtle and a ray on this swim and some of the other operators were lured away by other sitings so we had a longer swimming time. Much less, rush! Rush! Rush!
We ended the day with a snorkel at the reef again in an area that was much shallower and seemed much more alive. It was a lot of fun to float in the current. We started swimming against it (as is always advised) and then lazily floated back without effort while watching the reef floor glide past.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of anything throughout the day because my camera casing failed on our dive and my camera didn’t survive the drowning. We did purchase the DVD from the day and hope to pull some pictures off of that to post.
Our last full day on R&R was basically in bed. ;) We had scheduled an extra day in Exmouth as backup for the Whale Shark Dive. Since there wasn’t a lot of activity to do in the area we spent it being lazy. ;) We sat outside reading and sunning for a while and then spent the afternoon lounging in the air conditioner. 