Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range National park

31st of October

The highlight of today was a snorkle at Lakeside beach. We saw marine life of every description; little Blue chromis, rainbow patterned Green moon wrasse, Blue spotted fantail rays, White-tipped reef sharks, Anemone fish, Butterfly fish, Starfish, Staghorn coral, John even saw a Moray eel!
And to top it all off we saw a turtle while heading back along the beach.

From Ningaloo

The next day we decided to have a go at the drift snorkle along Turquoise Bay. Not much drift, but we did see lots of fish! That morning Bro had caught about five small chinaman cod off the rocks, and we saw some dolphins. During the snorkle the boys saw an octopus, we took some photos with the new disposable underwater camera (an impulse buy by john), and saw yet more fish. That night we had dinner and fished at sandy bay with Andy + Jules and their kids Elliot and Danial. No keepers.
Next morning, not sure whether to leave or not, we had an early morning swim at Pilgramunna. The verdict was to stay, so we had another snorkle at Turquoise Bay, where there was actually a drift this time.

From Ningaloo

John drove all the way to the caravan park to get some exorbitantly priced bait, so we had another shot at fishing, but this time armed with squid instead of lures. The fishing kept getting better as the sun went down, and Fabian caught four spangled emperor, one a keeper! Bro caught another undersized spanglie, and John a black-tip reef shark. In fact, the fishing was so fantastic we didn't want to leave, but as Daniel got lost (Andy and Jules were there again) we had a good excuse for being late home for dinner.

I was woken up in the morning by the boys leaving for yet another fishing expedition. An hour or so later, they came back with a good sized long tom, but said the fishing wasn't nearly as good as the night before. We went for a last snorkle at Lakeside, where we got to swim with a turtle!
On the way out we stopped at Exmouth for a shop, and stopped again just outside Exmouth to photograph an Emu with two chicks, very cute!

From Ningaloo

New bird: White-winged fairy wren, sanderling