Ningaloo Reef Exmouth

Hi everyone,our last night in Exmouth after about 3 weeks here.  Tomorrow we head south down the coast to Coral Bay about 200kms away. Yesterday I went on a glass bottomed boat out to Ningaloo reef, then went snorkelling for the first time in my life.  I didn't stay in the water too long but enjoyed looking down at the coral.  The water temperature was about 22 degrees, so not too cold, but I was not worried about that, more trying to keep water out of my mouth!  I think my flippers had a life of their own, which tired me out.  The boat had four large glass panels in the bottom and we sat in 2 rows, one each side of  the length of the boat.  There were about 20 of us on the trip.  We saw some amazing coral (some a thousand years old), lots of fish, sting rays & a Green Turtle.  The following photos are courtesy of our friends Chris & Steve, as my camera was on the blink.

Colourful welcoming sign entering Exmouth.

Another (far better than mine) photo of the Naval Submarine Communications Base, taken from the old lighthouse lookout.  It is a Very Low Frequency radar which enables signals to be sent to submarines under water.  It was built in the early 1960's, in a joint operation with Americans, and is the reason Exmouth came into existence, a direct result of the Cuban Missile Crisis. There are 13 towers, all over 300 metres high. The centre tower with the white block beneath it ( this "block" is 3 stories high) is the only transmitting tower, all the others are basically there to hold it up. They also put a light on one tower to serve as the new Lighthouse, as it is much higher than the old one.

Some photos through the glass bottom of the boat.

Drying off in the boat after my snorkelling adventure! 

View from the boat  of the happy swimmers!   We are about 1 km offshore, but in fairly shallow water.

These 2 photos are taken from inside the boat, looking down through the glass bottom.  When the boat was at anchor while we were snorkelling a crew member swam under the boat and proceeded to clean the glass underneath! There are 4 panels of glass on the boat, this guy could clean one at a time before coming up for air. The skipper & owner can clean all 4 in one breath, his hobby is free diving which is like scuba diving without oxygen, he has pretty good lungs. He can hold his breath for over 3 minutes underwater.