Day 18 Coral Bay

At the end of the pier is the boat I went out on for the day.

Humpback whales.

Manta rays.

Reef shark in for a cleaning.

Lemon sharks in the shallows.

Tuesday 27^th.
All 10 of us slept pretty well in the room. We had breakfast and got organized and then walked to the tour place so we could pay for our glass bottom boat tour (had Damien had recommended to us about yesterday and pre-booked for us). When we got there I asked Damien if it was too late to change my mind. I was thinking about the tour and decided I was more interested in the Eco Day Tour which offered the chance of swimming with manta rays (I really wanted to swim with whale sharks, but it was the wrong season). He told me to go for it.

I boarded the boat with 21 other people and four crew and we powered out to the inner reef. They gave us all wetsuits and equipment and we had a 40 minute snorkel around some excellent coral with lots of the usual colourful reef fish. The water was cool but it was colder when you got out and in the wind. We were told to take off the top part of our suit and I put on my fleece which helped. Then they gave us a snack while we sailed to the outer reef in search of manta rays. They sent up a spotter plane to find them. As we were powering along we came across three adult humpback whales and a calf, along with four or five dolphins. We stayed and watched them for a while and then got the call that they had located a couple of rays. We were divided into two groups and told to suit up and get ready. The instructions were to stay together, follow the leader and stay behind the ray. The first group went and then my group. Both groups got two chances to swim with them. The first time they were quite deep and swimming with the current. The second time they were shallower and swimming against the current. I found that hard to keep up with them as they moved through the water. Great experience though! They are enormous and incredibly graceful as they 'fly' through the water.

After that we sailed through very rough water and the boat got soaked as we sailed back to the inner reef. They took us to an area of sea grass where dozens of green turtles were feeding.

Then we had lunch before our third and final snorkel. This was at a large 'cabbage' coral where reef sharks come in to be cleaned by cleaner wrasses. We saw two sharks laying there and being serviced with their mouths open. We swam around for a half hour before boarding the boat again. I was quite chilled by this point, but we were near to the wharf.

When we got back I walked around the beach in the sun warming up. Then I went back and bought the USB key with today's photos. After that I heard about a shark sanctuary where reef sharks bear their young. I walked about two kilometres along the beach and saw about twenty of them swimming in the shallows. They were about two metres long. I also saw a couple of stingrays that were in the shallows too. They were a tan colour with blue dots on them.

Then I hiked back along the beach to the town where I watched the sun set before heading back to the hostel. Damien made us a pasta dinner with leftover sausage salami and bacon in the sauce. It was very good. We sat around and swapped stories about our tours.