Blue, so bright and crystal clear it is startling. Its warmth envelopes me, calm and soothing as I float in another world, weightless. Floating with the current, absorbed by the sights around me I can only hear the sound of my own breathing.
Fish swim around me in shoals, parting and reforming, flashes of silver in the sunlight. Tiny tropical fish in a myriad of colours and patterns dart around their coral gardens. A clam sits open mouthed awaiting its catch.
I am snorkelling in the warm waters of the Ningaloo Reef in the Cape Range National Park at North West Cape, halfway along the Western Australian coast. I am close to the shore in only a few metres of water and for someone like me who has never dived and rarely snorkelled, the underwater experience is amazing, and goes to show that nearly everyone can experience the reef.
The Ningaloo Reef which stretches 260 kilometres along the coast and covers 5,000 square kilometres, is the jewel of Western Australia’s Coral Coast. It is one of the largest fringing coral reefs in the world, home to 250 species of coral and 500 species of fish and a prime conservation and sanctuary area as well as one of Australia’s great nature based tourism locations.
It is also one of the few places where you can swim with the world's biggest fish, the Whale Shark which visits Ningaloo Reef from late Mark until July each year following the mass spawning of coral.
This complete article can be read in "Australian Coast & Country" magazine, Edition 1, 2009.
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