Swimming with the Whale Sharks!

I've been looking forward to the Easter long weekend since the beginning of the term. I had long ago decided that if the opportunity presented itself to swim with whale sharks, I would grab it as I had passed it up last time I was in Western Australia due to a lack of funds. Whale shark season is from mid-March to July, so we would be at the early end of things, and I was a little worried that we wouldn't see any, but I didn't know if I could get to Ningaloo Reef at any other time this year. I contacted Katherine Macnaughton, a Scottish teacher on exchange in Perth, and we made plans to meet up. She would fly up to Karratha and we would drive the 580km together in my Astra. We left Karratha before 9am on Friday, March 29, and arrived in Coral Bay mid-afternoon. The drive through the Pilbara and Gascoyne regions of WA is not the most exciting, but we had excellent conversation and the time passed fairly quickly.

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After eating a quick lunch, we headed to the beach to stretch out and relax under the hot sun. We stayed until the sun set, which was quite spectacular. Check out this image I caught:

The next day was the start of our whale shark adventure. After checking in with Ningaloo Reef Dive, conveniently located beside our hostel, and getting outfitted in wetsuits and fins, we boarded the bus for the short trip to the jetty. Once on the boat, we were off to search for whale sharks! The crew gave us a lesson about these giant fish of the ocean. They are indeed fish, not mammals, which makes them more like sharks than like whales. They do not come up to the surface to breathe, they have gills like all other  fish, which makes it even more amazing that we get to swim with them at all. It is thought they come up to feed on on the plankton found in the warmer water near the surface. Check out Ningaloo Reef Dive's website for more information: http://www.ningalooreefdive.com/whaleshark.html

We divided into two groups so that no more than ten swimmers would be in the water at one time. Our group was the second to go in. The first whale shark we saw I swam right over! It was a small one, only (!) 5 metres, but it was amazing! We got to swim with it for a few minutes and then it was back on the boat, so the other group could get back in. We got in a second time as well and this time I got to swim alongside it. We got out yet again and went off looking for another one with the help of a spotter plane. In the end, we got to swim with three different whale sharks, which ranged in length from 5 metres to 9 metres. One was very curious and went up to the bow of the boat while we were in the water with it. Group 1 got great pictures from the boat and hopefully one of our fellow swimmers will be emailing those to us shortly. They are beautiful, peaceful creatures and it was truly phenomenal to swim with them. Check out this short video created by Migration Media, who also filmed our adventure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VFKdkVXd6RE

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After that awesome experience, we spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach! What a day!

Sunday we drove to Exmouth, which is 150km north of Coral Bay. We had a bit of a lazy start and didn't get to Turquoise Bay until after lunch, where we snorkelled and saw loads of amazing fish. The last time I snorkelled there (four years ago) I saw sea turtles, which was really exciting, but no luck this time around. We also went on a hike in Mandu Mandu Gorge, which was lovely.

Our last stop was the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse for sunset. The sky turned a beautiful pinky purple colour moments after we left, so no great photos to show, unfortunately. We did see some emus before heading out, but from a distance, so no photos of them either!

Monday was our last day of holidays and we spent it at the beach. After another lazy breakfast, we headed to the beach to snorkel among the coral that is only a few metres off the shore. Heaps of beautiful fish, especially these electric blue and green ones I just loved. Also lots of small black and white striped fish. Made me want to take a course and learn all these fish names. In the afternoon we hired a stand-up paddle board and had a go. It was easier than I had imagined, although hard going against the wind (and it was quite windy). Lots of fun though and I'd love to have the opportunity to do it again. After another snorkel and a quick walk down to Paradise Beach, we headed back to the hostel to shower and change for our last dinner together. 

An early morning saw us heading up to Exmouth before 7:30am so I could get escorted back to Karratha by two of my colleagues. I was a little wary of driving that distance by myself with no mobile reception as Katherine had opted to fly back to Perth from Learmonth instead. Having four days to chat with another exchange teacher about my experience was fantastic and I'm so glad I contacted her last month. It was reassuring to hear from another exchangee and it was great to swap stories with someone who understands where you're coming from. Hopefully we'll meet up again before the year is over. Kalbarri for the June long weekend, perhaps?

Car Shopping

I finally bought a car! It's a 2004 Holden Astra City edition. It's white, it has four doors and it has air conditioning. It does NOT have power windows, but I imagine I'll mostly use the air con anyway, so no biggie. It's also an automatic, which is not something I thought I'd drive again after discovering that I love driving stick. Last time I was in Australia I drove stick around Perth and I was fine, but this time around I was a little anxious about it and thought an automatic might be easier to handle driving on the left, so an automatic it is.

I bought it off of Karratha Buy, Sell and Swap on Facebook, not Dreamer's Hill, which is where I thought I'd find it. Buy, Sell and Swap is where Karrathans post items to (you guessed it) buy, sell or swap. You can find anything on it: dining room sets, gym memberships, video games, vehicles... I had been scanning the site for a couple weeks and noticed that most things went pretty quickly. You had to act fast to get in on the deal. When Ashleigh's ad came up for the Astra I was the first one to reply. I viewed it that afternoon and had my friend Beck's husband check it out the next day. I had bought my three previous cars privately before, but never without having a mechanic checking it out. Apparently that's quite pricy to do here and while I was a little nervous about skipping this important step, it seemed like a good buy, so after doing a Revs Check (a vehicle history check) I went ahead and bought it. The last Revs Check I had done showed the vehicle in question, a Mazda 3, had flood damage and had been written off, so that was $35 well spent. This one turned up nothing, which eased my mind a bit. I'd be happier if my brother the mechanic was here to check it out, but I think I did pretty well all things considering. Dreamer's Hill is a large lot on the corner of the Dampier Highway where people park their cars, utes and boats hoping for a sale. It's where I found the Mazda 3. It's a quite a busy place on the weekend and gets lots of traffic. When it comes time for me to sell the Astra in December, I'll probably use both Dreamer's Hill and Karratha Buy, Sell and Swap. I'll need to make a quick sale too!

A surprising thing about buying a car in Australia: you have to pay a stamp duty when you transfer ownership. It cost $220! What?! This car buying business was more expensive than I had thought. The car itself was $7400, the two Revs Checks were $70, the registration fee was $436 and then comprehensive insurance was ~ $900. Crazy! Just over $9000 initial investment and then gas (I mean, petrol), which costs $1.68/L. At least it's not New Zealand, where prices were as high as $2.16/L! Hopefully I'll be able to recoup most of the cost of the car when I sell in December.

I'm a little sad I don't have an SUV (I really had my heart set on a Toyota Rav4, a Honda CR-V or a Jeep TJ), but with gas prices being what they are, I don't want to shell out more than I have to. So I'm not driving what I pictured myself in, but I am driving an Aussie car, which I love! Hopefully it'll grow on me. My first big road trip will probably be to Coral Bay over Easter, which is at the end of the month. It's a six hour drive, which is a long day driving by myself. I've driven to Canmore by myself before though, so I can do it. I'm not sure how to do it without music~ I have no CDs here and I'm sure the radio won't work the entire time. I guess I'll be listening to my iPod through my ear buds- yuck!

This weekend is the Labour Day long weekend. It kind of snuck up on me, so I'm not going away anywhere special. I've been invited out on both Saturday and Sunday nights, so that's exciting. Hopefully I'll finalize Easter plans and make some headway with my April holidays as well.