What a fantastic day! And this was supposed to be the least special day in Exmouth.
The day started around 5.30am when Amy & I woke up. Christy woke aroiund 7.30am and a bit later we enjoyed breakfast on the verandah, even though it was a bit cool. It was very lazy morning and we didn’t actually meet up with Nan & Pop until after 9.30am. We headed over to the visitors center and organised a full day 4wheel drive tour for Tues and a glass bottom boat trip for this afternoon (and we already have our whale shark tour booked for tomorrow). We then headed into town (very much a small town – around 12 shops) so I could track down a memory card. We did this in the chemist/photography shop. I also got a card reader so I can hopefully download photos as well.
Feels do good to have a working camera again – it was so odd not having one. While here we also visited the bakery, IGA supermarket and a swimsuit shop for new cossies for the girls.
Then it was back to the cabin for lunch on the balcony. The girls then had a swim. You can see our cabin behind them.
Aroun 2pm we headed back out for a little drive around (had to slow down for 2 emus to cross the road) before our glass bottom boat trip.
This was great. We learnt a lot about the Ningaloo Reef and how the inner reef had been destroyed in 1999 by a cyclone. Further out the reef still thrives and we were about to see lots of coral and fish.
After viewing through the glass bottom for an hour it was time to snorkle. The girls were so excited about their first time snorkeling in the ocean. We all got in and it wasn’t even too cold (24 deg). I held onto Christy for the first few minutes while she got the hang of it and them she was off. So much better seeing things from the water – one of the first things we saw was a huge stingray on the ocean floor. We spent about 40mins in the water, with me getting out before the girls – who I don’t think ever wanted to get out they loved it so much. Luckily they’ll be snorkeling again the next 2 days.
Here’s a short video of the girls snorkeling.
[flickr video=3712227549]
We were served some fruit when we got out and it was then the deck hand, Fran, spotted some whales off on the horizon. On our way back to shore the captain, David, suggested to extend the tour and go closer to the whales. Of course we all said yes (there was only our family and another couple on the tour). It was so exciting seeing them in real life, and the last time they surfaced they were really quite close to the boat – so exciting. Talk about a trip highlight.
On the way back to the beach we saw an amazing sunset, the perfect ending to a perfect tour.
It was pretty cold coming back so though we were sad to end our day, we were happy to get into the warm car. We drove back to the cabin and said farewell to Nan & Pop. Since it was already 6.15pm we decided to have dinner on our own tonight. We all had a shower to get warm and then had dinner. The girls watched a bit of a DVD then wrote up some of their diaries. I downloaded photos and wrote up my blog.
We’ve got an early morning for our date with the whale sharks.
And finally just had to share a sunset photo of my baby who is growing up way too fast.
Wow, what an incredible day!