Day 67 Nigaloo Reef

Exploreroz's tracker failed to upload the trip to Exmouth, but it has worked out that we are here at least.

Today we have a boat tour booked so spent some time in the town and it was so funny we have not seen an emu since we left home and today here they appeared in the town at the back of a building instead of in the open land where we have expected to see them.



We also unexpectedly found a canal subdivision that we see in affluent city coastal town, not something that we ever imagined would be here in Exmouth.







We drove to the Tantabiddi Boat Ramp to view Ningaloo Reef from a Semi Submersible Glass Bottom Boat about 1 kilometers from shore in the Tantabiddi sanctuary area.

The Ningaloo Marine Park is one of the longest fringing reefs in the world stretching 300 kilometres, and is one of two coral reefs in the world that have formed on the western side of a continent. What makes the Ningaloo Reef great is its close proximity from the coast in many areas being only 5-10 metres offshore. It contains an endless list of spectacular snorkel and dive sites.

The coral in the Ningaloo Reef act as a vital source of coral larvae dispersing through the Abrolhos Islands, and even to Rottnest Island. Both soft and hard coral are native to the area, from cabbage corals, brain corals and lavender corals to delicate colourful branching corals, which form gardens in the shallow lagoons. Ningaloo Marine Park boasts an endless list of molluscs, crustaceans, algae and over 500 species of the most decorated and revered tropical fish in the world can be found including giant potato cod, sweetlip, spangled emperor and lionfish just to name a few.

Unlike the colourful barrier reef this reef has muted, brownish, or greenish tones. Water looks cloudy or murky from dirt and sand washed off the land. Corals look duller because they deal with dirt and low tide air. So no bright corals here or soft moving corals just dull coloured solid corals which make the fish stand out so much with their bright colours.












We returned to Ned's Camp from yesterday for a picnic lunch.




We had another look from the lighthouse to see if we could spot any whales however they were a long way off shore so very hard to see.




On the way home we called into Bundegi Beach where you could see all the way to Navy Pier. The beach was covered with the strangest Lion's Mane Jellyfish, we had never seen anything like them they were the size of breakfast bowls, just huge.