June 23rd: The wind had been blowing day and night for days, so it was no surprise to wake up to wind on the morning of our dive trip! I had chosen a small outfit, Ningaloo Live, to go on our swim with the whale sharks trip because they only take 10 passengers rather than 20 passengers on  the 20 or so other  boats on  that work out of Tantabiddi Boat ramp on the Ningaloo reef side of North West Cape. We were picked up from the caravan park on time in a minibus and proceeded to the boat ramp where a tender took us to a nice looking small vessel. We initially motored to inside the reef. We were fitted out with snorkeling gear and had a practice dive without wetsuits to try out our fins and masks. We had 4 staff to look after us- Nick the skipper, Maddie, marine biologist,dive leader and photographer and Holly dive guide and Kate deckhand. We proceeded to the outer reef where the wind caused a large swell and stirred up the visibility. The whale sharks being spotted by spotter planes proved elusive! On our first dive half of us didn’t see the whale sharks at all, being too busy trying to follow our dive guides difficult to see in the swell, and the visibility under water was poor!

I became very cold after this dive and apparently my lips turned blue, but fortunately Kate suggested I put on another wetsuit over the first and this warmed me up! Two women declined any more dives. However Nic and I went for another go and this time saw our first whale shark-a side on view! We spent a long time trying to find another whale shark and when one was finally spotted Maddie the dive leader took particular care of Nic and I, giving us a guide rope to hang onto and we had a great front on view of a whale shark on our next dive! 

Interestingly, we had been promised photos of us all swimming with whale sharks! However we have just been sent the photos of the dive -there are 2 photos of the whale sharks we saw seen in poor visibility water and no photos whatsoever of any of the divers!!. All other photos were taken on the boat or inside the reef, so I’m not exaggerating the conditions on the outer reef dives! However we did see whale sharks if not exactly swim with them!!

We were very tired so had a meal at the BBQ Father at our caravan park- delicious seafood spaghetti with a creamy garlic and chilli sauce.

Our boat
An inelegant snorkeller!
Warm pre-dives!
Fellow guests
One of our 2 whale sharks
Warming up after our dives
Celebrating!
Group photo



















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