This one’s specially for Miss Barson and Mrs.Marra and 3/4B and 5/6B. I’m sure all the kids at school are enjoying Sound Waves in the waves. Aren’t they?

People often ask “what are the children going to do about schooling?”. Do you remember what you did in Term 3 of Grade 4 or 5? Fergus and Harry will!

We also do out times tables on the beach. Doesn’t everyone?

The peninsula we are on reaching out to the north has one road up the east side to North Cape and the lighthouse, where we stayed, and it continues round the tip and heads south down the western side along the Ningaloo Reef. There are numerous places to access the beach as well as some Department of Conservation (DEC) managed camping sites. These sites get booked out well in advance, and there’s a queue at the entry gate at 8am (they actually start arriving at 6am) every morning hoping to get a spot. We planned to drive on through the National Park and find somewhere further south to camp on private land, past Yardie Creek. But the gate keeper said she had one site left at the most southern camp ground – Boat Harbour. Lucky us!
We stopped at Yardie Creek and John and Ferg paddled the Mango up the creek. See them?

It was a lovely quite creek – only about a kilometre long. Harry and I walked up the track atop the gorge. The creek will sometime break through the sand bar after a cyclone and then flow for several years.

Today it was dry crossing, but the sand was fairly deep and soft. Super Cruiser did it in high range. Easy.
The camp site at Boat Harbour was secluded and quiet. There are just four sites available. It’s just over the dip in the sand dunes in the photo below.

John and the boys dived off the rocks. There were plenty of fish and coral. The wind was a strong south westerly, so it was good to be protected by the dunes.

Here is Harry’s Post about our trip on the boat with the Whale Sharks…
When the tender left the dock at Tantabiddi boat ramp, on Ningaloo Reef, I was thinking about how awesome swimming with 3m manta rays and 7m whale-sharks will be! As the double decker 50 foot Bertram cabin cruiser (yes, I mean it) began to speed along to our first snorkel site, I went up to the bow.

When we eventually made it to our first snorkel site, I jumped in and there was an amazing array of coral and fish and all sorts of other sea life.

There were different species of life such as brain coral, wrasse, tawny nurse sharks, staghorn coral and fan coral. One of the crew duck dived and held onto the ocean floor and blew bubbles in a circle shape.
When we finally found a manta ray, we all hopped in to swim with it and take photos. I took photos on an underwater camera but it’s an old fashioned film camera and I have to wait to get them developed. (Mum should buy me a waterproof digital camera) But the thing is, this was just a small reef manta which was about 3 metres wingspan. Oceanic mantas can be over 6 metres wide.
When our spotter plane found a whale shark, we all got called to the deck to prepare to swim with it.

But the whale shark went down to the depths of the ocean and instead we saw the dorsal fin of a hammerhead shark. We don’t have a photo of that. We were very disappointed that we didn’t see a whale shark.

It was still an excellent day.
By El Harro

Just in case you’re not familiar with these gentle giants, they are the largest fish in the world. They are harmless, docile, serene, and they like to hang out at Ningaloo Reef for several months each year – generally advertised as April – July. We never thought we’d get the chance to swim with the Whale Sharks this late in August, but some other travellers we met back at Karijini told us the tours were still running. So we went out with a group of 14 hoping to see these beautiful animals.

The view of the reef was quite different from the other side of the breaking waves.

We stopped for a snorkel inside the reef first and saw an enormous bombie of coral with heaps of fish hanging out there. Fergus and Harry have been diving with John since their feet were too small for the smallest flippers. We used to make booties from old wetsuits to get the flippers to fit. John started scuba diving at secondary school, and has taught the boys well. They seem to have a love for the ocean in their genes.

Here’s John and Harry investigating what’s hiding under the rocks.

There was a professional photographer, Michelle, on the trip who took these photos. But I’m sure you thought I took them. Ha! Here’s one of all of us………

There was so much to see down there. Here are some of Michelle’s photos.

I was really excited when they said there was a whale shark we could swim with, but it dived and we never found another before the spotter plane knocked off. Talk about a slump of the shoulders. Can’t manage a smile. Not fair. There’s been a whale shark to swim with every single day this season, except today, when we are here. It felt like the entire universe had been swimming with a whale shark except us. We all just sat there, feeling flat. They gave us a photo, to show how magnificent it would have been to see these fish.

I’m not sure if it makes us feel worse to have the photo when we didn’t even see it. It was hard to get excited about the next dive with the manta ray. These are huge, and very impressive. And it was a good dive.

It’s an elegant animal, and we were lucky to have the opportunity to swim with it.
But! Missing out on swimming with the whale shark gives us a reason to come back another time! It was all meant to be.

This is another Post to put the kettle on for – so much to say!
Poking off the coast of Western Australia is a peninsula comprising Cape Range National Park, the town of Exmouth, and the World Heritage Ningaloo Reef. If you’re into diving, fishing or surfing, you will know Exmouth and this beautiful coast well. If you’re not, you better come and see what all the fuss is about.
History lesson first. Exmouth Gulf was named by Captain Philip Parker King. He’s the bloke who named the Alligator Rivers (South, North and East) in the Northern Territory when he saw all the crocs there. Accuracy isn’t a strong point for him.
There was a secret base here in World War 2, and then the US and Australian Governments built the Communications Station here in the early 60s. The town itself was built to service the Station and declared a Township about 1967. That makes it younger than me!
The Americans left town in the 90s, taking their left hand drive cars with them. The base still plays a role in the security of the Australian submarine fleet. The central tower at the base dominates the landscape, and is the second highest manmade structure (387.6m) in the southern hemisphere. Well, it was when the book I read that in was printed.

So there’s your manmade feature. Now for the good stuff. The Ningaloo Reef just knocks your socks off. It’s World Heritage Listed as a “superlative natural phenomena of exceptional natural beauty”. There’s the landscape, which is quite desolate, contrasting with the white sand and turquoise water of the reef. The pristine reef is one of the world’s longest fringing reefs, sometimes only 100m from shore. The marine life is diverse with hundreds of species of fish and coral. And of course there’s the mega marine life of whales, whale sharks, dugongs, sharks, turtles, manta rays and dolphins.
Basically, this is a great (read: exceptionally fantastic) place.
We snorkelled at the appropriately named Turquoise Beach. Captain King obviously didn’t name this.

The fish were so colourful – like the Preps kids had painted them as bright as can be! The coral was varied and extensive. The current drags you along the reef right next to the beach. We loved it and could have stayed all day – but there’s so much else to see!
After lunch we launched the Mango (our kayak) and the boys headed north along the reef edge to dive and see more fish and coral. This was outside the Sanctuary Zone, so you’re allowed to use the spear gun here.
I stayed on the beach…….

The few people you can see in the photo above left soon after I arrived, so I had the whole beach to myself. We’re on the same latitude here as Rockhampton, or thereabouts. Can you imagine so few people on the east coast?
The boys stopped for three dives along their 8km paddle, where I picked them up just near our camping ground. They saw a sea snake or two, Spangled Emperor, turtle, Wrasse, Angle Fish, Elephant Fish, various Leatherjackets, Cowfish and heaps of aquarium type fish. Plus a White Tip Reef Shark, and stingrays.
But wait! There’s more – they speared a fish! It’s a Many Lined Sweetlip.

Not quite enough for dinner for four, so he’s in the freezer waiting for company.
We got back to camp, dropped the dive gear, grabbed the bikes and headed up to the Lighthouse. John challenged the boys to a race: John runs, Fergus and Harry ride the bikes – up the steep hill to the Lighthouse right above our camp. Who would win? (Yes, I drove the car.)

You can see the road rising up to the top of the hill. The view was enormous. I watched whales breaching just off the shore, and the plumes of spray they blow had the setting sun shine through them. Quite surreal. You can also see the reef just off shore. This place is here to be treasured.
The sunset itself wasn’t all that good, but the rising moon looked great over the Communications Towers.

I just want to put this next photo in too. It’s similar to the other lighthouse one, but also has the anchor from the wreck of the SS Mildura, lost in 1907, and the impetus for building the lighthouse. The lighthouse is now decommissioned.

Now, you’re wondering who won the race to the top, I know. So Fergus was first, about 5m behind was John, then Harry – who had an issue with gears on the way up. That’s what he told me.