The aptly named Coral Bay, the secret of Ningaloo.

If I had a do-over, I would have allowed 2 nights in Coral Bay instead of a day trip to snorkel. While the 90 minute drive is easy, give or take a little, it meant we missed the boat excursions, and had discovered their swim with the humpback tours were already open while we were in Exmouth for the Whale Sharks.


















Note also with the drive, we had emus run in front of our car so be on alert for wild life crossing at all hours of the day, not just dawn and dusk.

My advice, if you are intending to swim with the whale sharks in July, check with the Coral Bay operators re the humbacks and try to do both in the same trip.

Even if you can't do both, it would be well worth landing at the airport and heading to Coral Bay for two nights so you can do a manta ray boat trip as well as some free snorkelling on the Ningaloo Reef.










Ningaloo Reef is one of the longest fringing coral reefs in the world, spanning roughly 300 kms, so there are plenty of places to see it, at Coral Bay, the formations are a spectacular coral garden that you can literally snorkel from the beach. You walk through knee height water and then suddenly, there's the magnificent coral and sea life. In the photos, the navy line is the reef. It's so close to shore, and only soft sand and shallow water to navigate (and there are no filters on these photos and they don't do justice to the beautiful colors).



Allow one day (even 2 half days) to snorkel - you can hire equipement from the dive shop or a kiosk by the beach, and one full day for a boat trip.

Then continue on to Exmouth for at least four more nights (more on that in later posts).



I would also pre book your boats so as not to miss out.

There are a couple of options for accomodation if you aren't bringing your own caravan. See here for further details or Booking.com etc.

When people talk Ningaloo, this little gem seems to get left out of the conversation, yet the snorkelling there was the best of the trip, whaleshark aside. Don't make the same mistake we did, and almost miss it completely!







Practicalities:
Qantas flies to Learmonth (Exmouth) 
Australian Tourism: Guide To the Ningaloo Reef 
Visit Ningaloo (Tourism Guide)


Further Reading:
Unique Eats in Exmouth