Another great day yesterday as the whole family headed out on a glass bottom boat for a 3 hour cruise… the weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed, if not for the courage of the fearless, crew the minnow would be lost… the minnow would be lost…err…umm… sorry, I mean a 3 hour cruise to see the coral and turtles and have a snorkel.
The day didn’t start so well as we were booked on the 2 hour cruise at 10am, but when we got there in the morning, they informed us we were the only booking and they needed at least 4 paying adults to run it 🙁
Instead they transferred us to the 12:30pm cruise at no extra cost (whoo… finally a $75 saving in this expensive place!!!). Problem is we were all screened up with nowhere to go, so there was no choice and we headed ot the beach for a swim.
Now Zac is almost an expert snorkeler now, so I didn’t even have to worry about him. Tara is also coming along quite good, but was kicking her legs so much that her snorkel was filling up with water all the time. We finally convinced her that if she did a star fish pose and just floated, she could look under the water longer. Once she calmed down, I dragged her out onto the reef in about 3m of water and…. let go!!! It probably took her 3 or 4 minutes before she realized that she was free floating in deep water!! I was never that far away and had my eye on her the whole time, but she did really well.
I even convinced Jess to give it another go, but without her snorkel. She begrudgingly agreed and once she saw the big fish just off the reef she loved it again. Problem is she kept jumping up and ripping off her mask so she could tell us what she saw, and then could never get it back on properly, so it wasn’t too long before she lost interest again.
We only stayed at the beach for an hour before heading back up and getting lunch from the cafe. Then it was time to rescreen and head to the water. While screening, we were entertained by a small lizard that was running around the caravan and under our feet.
We boarded the boat which was a little crowded with 21 people on board, but once we got going it wasn’t too bad. The glass bottom was great. The boat had been custom built for Ningaloo and was easily able to go over any of the coral reefs in the bay without damaging them. The whole bay is very shallow, mostly about 3 to 4m with the outer reef about 6 or 7m in spots.
We headed out to the point and saw a couple of reef sharks, then headed to the outer reef where we were surrounded by turtles. The whole boat was entertained by the kids yelling “Turtle” every time we went over one of them.
After that we headed to our first snorkel spot. Now Fi was a little apprehensive at first, as this was a deep water snorkel in about 5 or 6m, but she was given a pair of fins on the boat and found it a lot easier. I sent her off with Zac… who abandoned her and stay with me and she had a great snorkel before heading back to the boat.
Meanwhile, I took Tara and Jess out with a noodle each under their arms. Jess had to argue with the skipper for the purple one as there was only one purple noodle and he wanted it!!! Jess used her exceptional negotiating skills (and puppy dog eyes) to melt the resolve of the skipper and in the end he let her take it. Tara took the yellow one, and after a tough battle with Jess, the skipper gave in easily.
We geared up and jumped into the water. Wasn’t easy taking the girls out, but they were very brave given how deep the water was. We stayed close to the boat for about 10 minutes before I put them back on the boat so I could have a look around and duck dive without them.
I didn’t go too far though, as the girls loved waving at Zac and I through the glass as we swam under the boat. I was most impressed with how Zac was able to duck dive under the boat, wave at the girls and make it back up. It really is amazing how well he has done in the last week. Hopefully he still loves it when we get back to the cold waters of Melbourne!!
We spent about 30 minutes in the water before climbing back aboard and heading to our next snorkel location call the aquarium. A shallow snorkel of only 2 to 3m that was filled with fish. The skipper fed the fish off the back of the boat and that only ensured that they swarmed around the back.
The girls stayed on the boat which meant that Fi, Zac and I had the freedom to explore the reef. Was great and I think I was the last out of the water. The girls entertained the skipper (who had as much fun with them as we did in the water), and again, Zac and I spent a lot of time swimming under the glass bottom.
After that it was back on the boat and a slow cruise across the coral back to shore. Everyone on board had a great time which you could clearly see in the grins everyone held as they exited.
The crew took a lot of photos on the cruise (121 photos) and the staff back on shore were amazed they had taken so many. There is a good number of us, and so we had to buy the DVD. They even had a the couple of photos from the quad bike tour, and so included them as well. Unfortunatley, with only our iPads and my Netbook, we don’t have anything here that can read a DVD, so you will have to wait until we get home to see those photos.
