Walker's Down Under: Days 6, 7, 8 at Ningaloo Reef Continued

My best shot - a parrot fish in Ningaloo Reef.

More seafaring days for the Walkers. These pictures are from our underwater camera. So many things were flashing in front of us that I don't think we were fast enough to capture it all. The snorkelling was fabulous and we just ventured a short distance away from shore. One could just imagine what hunderds of square kilometres must behold?! Caleb was very brave as we were in 8-9 metres of water from the glass bottom boat and 2-4 metres of water along the beach at Turqoiuse Bay. He just floated freely and had his head under the water looking through his googles and breathing calmly through the tube. Daddy just held his arm and pointed out things to look at. Jackson went once with Daddy and even only chest deep water he could see stripped fish, silver fish, blue fish and coral. We saw angel fish, tomato clown fish, tiny fish, medium size fish, two coloured fish, multi-coloured fish, sea cucumbers, yellow and blue spotted ray, and coral of many shapes. On the drive home we counted 40 or more kangaroos, but no emus. The desert is wetter than usual so the emus weren't wandering into town looking for a drink.

Torqouise Bay -
one of dozens of beaches along the west shore.

Photos can only revel
partially how colorful coral is.

Stag Horn Coral with zebra stripped fish.

Tomato clown fish.

So many fish, can't name them all.

On our last day in Exmouth, I went deep sea fishing. Well not really, deep sea as we only fished in 15 to 30 metres of water and always had the shore in sight. On the way out we trolled for mackeral and tuna, but no bites. On the positive side, we did see and hear a momma and calf humpback whales breaching and splashing not too far away. Once we got to our fishing spot our skipper dropped a sea anchor (no metal weighted anchors as they damage the reef). A sea anchor looks like a under water floating kite capturing the current. Then, we dropped our lines over the side and jigged to whatever wanted to bite the baited hook. We were told to bring it up fast as we can, because our hooked fish turns into a bait fish for way bigger fish, like sharks! In the 6 hours at sea, I caught two large mouth and somewhat colourful tropical fish, called a Chinaman's Rockcod. They were YUMMY to eat for supper! Another good day with special memories. Once I got back to shore at 1:30 pm, the rest of the family was waiting for me as we had to drive more than 500 km to our next destination, Tom Price in the Pilbarra. But, that's another story...