Blown away

Close your eyes and relax. Now imagine yourself in a World Heritage Area. On the coast. In the tropics. Fringed by one of the world's largest coral reefs. Ningaloo is exactly what you didn't imagine. No rainforests, no crystal streams, and the only palm trees are the ones that form an incongruous facade along the nearby Lighthouse Caravan Park. This is flat, semi-arid scrubland bounded to the east by a low, rocky limestone ridge. No wonder the Dutch didn't want it.

It rarely rains here, but when it does, it pours, as it did on the day of our arrival. We hit the storm half way along our journey from Tom Price and within minutes the shallow floodways were filling with water, giving Nic a cheek clenching driving experience. Fortunately by the time we arrived at Ningaloo the rain had finished, but the runoff had made the water very murky.

Undeterred by the wind and murky water, I took the girls fishing but in these conditions it didn't take long for them to lose interest. Which is how I came to be holding Jarrah's pink rod with a small pink lure as 3 big fish cruised past. In these conditions with such a light lure it was going to take a huge cast to land the lure in front of them. A big back swing. The two piece rod comes apart. The tip falls off. The line wraps around my leg. A big follow through and now I have a pink lure deeply embedded just below my knee. On the bright side, the trip into Exmouth Hospital allowed Nic to book a Whale Shark and Snorkeling trip the next day.

The wind had thankfully eased up for the day and we set off first for some snorkeling on the reef. Visibility was still a bit poor for from the storm, but the reef fish were beautiful. All sorts of colours, from vibrant blues and yellows, to browns and greens that gave perfect camouflage against the reef. Then it was time to head outside in search of whale sharks. Over the course of a couple of hours, we found four, including one 9 metres long.

Now the regulations say that people are not allowed to go within 4 metres of the sharks, but clearly some of the sharks don't read the regulations. I was towing Jaz on a noodle when the shark turned towards us, and despite my best efforts Jaz almost disappeared down its 1 metre wide cavernous gob. Nic's heart stopped beating but Jaz and I were treated to a close up view of the biggest shark of the day.

I feared that after the breathtaking beauty of Karijini, the rest of the trip would seem pedestrian. Swimming with the whale sharks was a completely different experience, but every bit as breathtaking, or in Nic's case, heart-stopping. A day we won't forget.

That evening, the wind returned with renewed strength. Strong enough to blow a dog off a chain, or more relevantly, fold our 100 km/h rated tent in half. We decided that whatever else Ningaloo had to offer would have to wait till next life. We packed up camp and headed for the relative shelter of Exmouth where we forsook our tent and stayed in a 'chalet' (though I was very disappointed by the lack of gluhwein or raunchy apres ski activities).

We'll see you when the dust settles.

Jaz and Geoff taking evasive action

The skipper

As long as a bus

Family photo

Mallee swimming bravely away

Marine girl