Swimming with the world's largest fish

From Karijini NP we continued to Exmouth and Coral Bay. Here is the Ningaloo Reef. Unlike the Great Barrier Reef, the reef is close to the coast and you can swim to the reef directly from many places on the beach.

We did a lot of snorkeling here and saw beautiful fish and corals. Especially beautiful were those in Coral Bay (I have included a picture of it).

In Exmouth there was a drift, a spot where the current carries you over the reef. The corals were not really beautiful here, but we saw a lot of different animals. Among them were two sharks and three turtles. One of them was huge, with a head about 1.30 meters tall! At first, I mistook it for a mossy stone, but then it started moving slowly. That was amazing! It was probably much older than us...

One of the attractions in Exmouth are tours where you can swim with whale sharks. The whale shark season was already over in July. But this year, a few of them were still in the area.

The tour was, as expected, very expensive ($325; during the season you usually pay over $500...), so we were hoping to catch sight of one of the world's largest fish. A small plane from the company was constantly on the lookout for them.

When it was announced that a whale shark was on its way towards us and we should get ready, I started to feel a bit queasy. When we all jumped into the water, the crew members gave us some last instructions and let us know that the whale shark would be here any moment. As I tried to see it underwater, it suddenly appeared right next to me, very close to the surface of the water! What a sight!!!

As quickly as the moment came, it was over. Fortunately, the spectacle repeated itself two more times. The first time, I had forgotten to swim away in awe and excitement and ended up swimming with the whale shark for a short while. But the last two times went better and I was able to keep an eye on it for a bit longer.

That was one of the best experiences of my life!