Nele & Andrew Around Oz: Peoples Park, Coral Bay, WA

Day 85 – 12^th May 2011

Peoples Park, Coral Bay, WA

Well we booked in to swim with the whale sharks, it’s a full day out on the boat. We started off at 8am and went out for a practice snorkel within Ningaloo reef – amazing sea life, the amount of varied fish in size and colours – it is truly a snorkeler’s heaven. From here we went looking for whale sharks, this proved to be a little more challenging. It took us a long time to find one, the boats use spotter planes to locate the whale sharks. When we had a chance to swim with a whale shark it all happens very quickly and it can be hard to keep up with them even though they look like they’re not moving. The whale sharks kept diving so we had to wait quite a while each time before they resurfaced before we could go in again. In total we ended up only getting two swims with them which was a little disappointing as on a good day you typically get 4 to 5 swims and you are in the water for longer periods then what we were. We didn’t have the best weather (overcast – a bit choppy) so that may have contributed to the slow day. However it was amazing to swim with these gigantic creatures although I would only recommend going when you know you’re going to have fantastic sunny, calm weather, no matter what the tour guide places tell you. We had little choice as the weather is supposed to be getting stormy over the next week. We could have looked at swimming with the whale sharks in Exmouth (150km north) only there are a lot more operators (11), therefore more boats, therefore the boats have to share with what whale sharks are spotted. Coral Bay is the place to do it (2 – 3 operators), just pray for great weather however that still doesn’t guarantee or make your chances of spotting the whales any better. But good weather will make the experience more enjoyable (you don’t get cold and you can see more clearly in the water when it is sunny – we also reckon it may make it easier for the boats to see the whale sharks so they can drop you in good position as they come to you. We were dropped a little out of position and if they’re moving quick, start kicking hard to keep up. Summary - at $390 pp give yourself the best opportunity – do it in great weather and it is definitely worth doing.