Ningaloo Reef- Sal Salis

June 10-14

After our "tiniest plane" deposited us safely back to Darwin, we flew to Western Australia and spent the night in Perth before heading to the northwestern coastal town of Exmouth. From here we travelled to another remote camp literally steps away from the Ningaloo Reef.  This is another long anticipated portion of our trip because of the opportunity to snorkel in the Indian Ocean and a chance to swim with the biggest fish in sea-the whale shark!
I hesitate to say this because we have seen beautiful places and have had fantastic experiences ( I have typed, deleted and retyped this sentence multiples times) but....
maybe because of my childhood days of tent camping or the hint of similarity to a tented camp the four of us stayed in before or because I love the sound of the ocean at night and birds in the morning...
For me, our time here, in this area, this experience and in these accommodations may be my top.  I realize we are not at the end just yet and I reserve the right to revise this statement in the future but Sal Salis & the Ningaloo Coast is a very special place on earth.

The weather and conditions could not have been better- warm but not too hot, cloudless skies, gentle breezes, gorgeous sunsets, literally millions of stars and the milky way viewable in the night sky, no mozzies, no crocodiles, delicious food, good company and a soft bed...hmmm...

To steal the word used by of one of my favorite musicians- "FANTABULOUS"!!

Our tents on the beach

Footie on the beach before dinner

Ample time to lounge in the hammock

A beautiful sunset every night

Ritual card game and canapés before the communal lodge dinner-
*each night Chef Lou prepared a 3-course meal and the whole camp ate together

Short walk to Nursery Bay for a drift snorkel-
*photos below are also from Coral Gardens  & Turtle Holes snorkels*

It was very exciting to explore a new reef-  We saw some familiar as well as some new sea creatures. 

Rock lobster

In snorkel gear again but on the opposite side of the continent!

Blue Linkia sea star

Fish hiding in the coral

I just love these clams

Colorful puffer fish

Nash doing a flip

We swam with this green sea turtle for a while-
He kept circling back to play

Black tip reef shark

We also encountered land animals that we had not yet seen along with some unique to WA. (Not pictured are the echidna found right outside our tents & the emus that ran along side the road.)

Wallaroos at dusk

Cape Range National Park

Walk to Pilgonamon Gorge-
to hunt for wallabies

The endangered Black-footed Rock Wallaby-
a mom & her joey

There are only about 300 of these cute little guys left in this region-
Our guide Will challenged the boys to beat the sighting record of 23 spotted during one walk with a prize of extra dessert...  the new record is 32!! The boys revelled in their extra ice-cream.

Come on & have a sit with me!

NEXT UP: WHALE SHARK DAY