Ningaloo Club Coral Bay

Coral Bay was another chance to enjoy and relax on the beach. Unfortunately though, the further south we are traveling, the worse the weather is getting. Once again we were facing gale force winds, which made lying on the beach and snorkeling a bit difficult. Coral Bay is beside Ningaloo Reef, a smaller version of the Great Barrier Reef but just as spectacular! The reef is called a fringing reef because the coral is so close to the shore and it creates a protected lagoon around the bay. Jeff ...

On the 28th we left Monkey Mia and headed further north to Coral Bay, stopping at Carnavon on the way. Once again another
strange little town, but we were told to buy supplies here before going onto Coral Bay, as it is even smaller. Arrived at
Coral Bay stayed at Ningaloo Club Backpackers, nice hostel with a cheap bar-bonus! Coral Bay is tiny about 90 people living
here with one main street. The beach is beautiful and the Ningaloo Reef is literally about 10 metres from the shore, ...

So, we're a bit further north now - the weather's balmy and beautiful and aside from extreme sleep deprivation right now, everything's good! Quite a lot seems to have happened since Perth, so I'll try and recall all the details! From Perth we travelled a couple of hours north to Cervantes, which is a tiny town next to the Pinnacles National Park. The Pinnacles are these crazy rock formations which basically look like hundreds of jagged pillars jutting up from the ground, between one and two m...

Coral Bay Coral Bay is located at Point Maud on the edge of Ningaloo Marine Park, Western Australia's biggest and most accessible coral reef. It is the underwater paradise of Western Australia. I'd booked to stay 3 nights at the Ningaloo Club and I'm pleased I did. The place was relatively new, had great facilities, including a brilliant pool adjoined to a bar and pleasant outdoor areas around the pool. Each day I took to the beach with my snorkel, goggles and fins and swam over the famous Ni...

Pippa and I finally made it up to Coral Bay. We've seen a dingo, three feral goats, three feral sheep, and a wedgie (wedge tailed eagle). We've also seen a few huge ant hills and the Tropic of Capricorn. Our hostel is pretty nice, and besides the other 5 or so hostels and bars here, there is nothing. It's absolutely georgeous on Bill's Bay though, so I'm pretty excited. We are right off the Ningaloo Coral Reef, so Pippa and I will go out snorkeling tomorrow. There is a reef shark nursery righ...

I went snorkeling for the first time today! It was kind of scary, even though the reef is right off the beach. I freaked out the first time that I found something living- a hermit crab. There are a ton of huge sparkling emperor fish in the bay, which like to nibble on your toes. We're right next to a reef shark nursery, so this is the second time that I am swimming close to sharks. No sightings of them yet, only rays. My back got so burned today! Pippa promises to come snorkeling with me tomo...

Yep, I saw a shark today. The fin came out of the water and everything. It was probably about the length of my leg. It was swimming in the shark nursery, while I, luckily, was on land. There were a lot of rays in the water too. I spent most of the day bumming on the beach and just reading. I also did a bit more snorkeling (keep in mind that the shark nursery is less than half a mile from where I'm snorkeling). There was some gorgeous blue coral, and I swam right over a sting ray! I'm getting ...

I was so nervous about going snorkeling today with the manta rays, but when I got to the snorkeling company, they had to cancel the trip because it was too windy and too dangerous in the outer reef. I was really bummed out, but it just means that I will have to come back again one day to swim with the manta rays and the whale sharks. Instead, I went with Pippa in a glass bottom boat around the reef. We are in a coral reef made up of hard coral, so it doesn't have the brilliant color that you ...

Coral Bay was not so much a town as a short street with a few amenities. The only attractions were the beach and the reef, which were fortunately why we were there. We arrived in time to book a couple of dives and then get onto the important stuff - sunbathing and swimming! On our second full day we were at the dive shop next to the hostel at 8:30am. We had a nice sized group of four divers plus the Dive Master. We had two really good dives. We saw lots of new little things. The Black Sail Fi...