I swam with sharks... not intentionally!

I'm in Coral Bay - its *gasp* even smaller than Denham! It has only 1 supermarket! But it's larger than Monkey Mia and the room has airconditioning! I got the bed right beneath the freezing stream - so for the first time in a week, I actually had to go get a blanket to survive the night! The hostel is quite nice, with its own swimming pool and only a 5 minute stroll down to the beach.



I Went snorkelling on Ningaloo Reef last 2 days - it doesn't look anything like the pictures on the postcards - grey and brown coral - but it has the most AMAZING array of fish. I just couldn't stop looking at all the different colours, sizes, and types. And guess what? They all happily live right next door to each other, miding their own business, like a huge happy piscean family. Funnily enough, they all seemed to be just as curious about me as I was about them. Or maybe they though they were safe from being eaten just by hanging around with larger prey? Ah...




I spotted a turtle yesterday, a stingray today, and have had 3 sightings of a shovel-nosed shark! Apparently this is incredibly rare - especially since I was standing in waist-high water just off the beach, minding my own business adjusting the strap on the snorkel. I just happened to try to wash my mask and as it went into the water, I spotted a shark's tail about 1 metre in length right in front of me. I'd like to say I kept my cool, but I so did not! Although, first priority was to call out to Sara (who has the underwater camera that actually takes recognisable shots) before manically trying to get away. Apparently they don't "eat" humans. To me, a shark is a shark is a shark and I'm not sticking around to test the theory! This had so spooked me (and Sara) that we had another freak-out moment when what-looked-like-a-manta-ray came in close and and we both scrambled for shallower water. Again, a fish that apparently doesn't eat humans. Pity I didn't know that at the time!



Even just standing knee-deep in the water, there are lots of massive Snapper fish, which just swim along, stalking you. Hence Sara aptly renamed them "Stalker Fish". We went on a glass-bottomed boat today, stopping at several snorkelling spots on the reef. Unfortunately, I was severely traumatised when a mean-spirited fellow traveller threw in fish food around me as I was trying to climb back onto the boat... the feeding frenzy was unreal! I had Snappers jumping out of the water around me, smaller fish trying to butt me out of the way, and fish fins flying everywhere. I nearly drank the ocean (as opposed to just a river in New Zealand).



The pictures below were taken with my underwater instant-camera...not bad! Left is the mass of fish that was swirling around me!