Fishing, Snorkling, Coral and Big #@$%! Sharks

Went on down to Cape Range National Park straight after I finished the dive course on Sat night with my new snorkel gear and heaps of enthusiasm. Drove down there with two of my dive buddies from the course, Luke and Lisa a couple of fiz ed teachers from the UK. We camped at Tulki beach and me and Luke went fishing for dinner. Within 20 minutes I had bagged a big Emperor and I cooked that for dinner and it well fed the three of us.

Recepie:

• 1 Large Emperor ( Or Snapper )
• Score the flesh with a knife down each side of the fish.
• Rub Tarragon + Garlic Salt + Lemon Oil into the fish
• Stuff with red peppers and onion
• Wrap tightly in aluminium foil
• Cook in a hot pan for about 18 minutes
• Eat! Yum Yum Yum

However the luck afforded us on that night had no bearing on the following 3 nights as we caught nothing of consequence and sometimes just plain old nothing at all. However on my last night there I lost my rig twice when something struck the line, bent my rod down and then cut the line. Probably much too big for dinner I reasoned and went back to the camp for a can of Stag Chilli and rice.

The snorkeling in the Park is fantastic. Even though the coral is a little bleached due to the current El Nino the fish life is amazing. Everything from the super big to the exremely tiny is on offer as you paddle around. The best place is Turquoise Bay where you can drift with the current over the reef for a couple of hundred meters before exiting on a sandbank then running back to the start to do it all over again. For the less adventurous you can snorkel in the bay where the current is much less but the scenery still pretty good. There I got to swim with a couple of turtles. They are quite unconcered about humans in the water with them. I was able to dive down and swim with them and even touch one gently on the shell.

The biggest thrill was when I was snorkeling alone at a location called Lakeside. I had been in the water about 20 minutes, circling these big coral bombies ( stacks ) admiring all the fish when out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of something big. I froze. A large shark was cruising by from my left. I just kept very still and kept watching this amazing ( and lethal ) creature. However as soon as it noticed me there it looked panicked and flickign it's tail very powerfully bolted off like a torpedo into the milky beyond. Needless to say I slowy swam the 50 metres back to the shore always looking behind me. I need not have been worried as the sharks that patrol the inside of Ningaloo though sometimes looking scary are generally more terrified of humans than the other way round and just as I observed that tend to dissapear very quickly if contact is made. Still it was a major thrill to encounter such a beast in it's own territory.

Some of the wildlife however is less timid around humans. At the Tulki beach campsite there was this pesky Kangaroo we nicknamed Skippy for want of a better name. This little bugger would boldy wander into camp whenever your back was turned and start stealing and destroying whatever it could get it's little paws on. Our first encounter with him was while we were eating dinner. I saw Luke look over my shoulder and with a start pointed behind me. There was skippy helping himself to the remains of my dinner which I had placed on the ground just behind me. Later that night Lisa was woken up to find skippy sitting down at our camp table, no kidding, leafing through my New Scientist magazine and tearing out pages with his paws and teeth. Whether he admired the writing and interesting articles or just the culinary quality of the paper we were unable to determine. Another night I had finished eating dinner and was sitting reading in the car when he appeared and grabbed a loaf of bread off the table right before my eyes. I had to chase him with my fishing rod and give him a whack on his backside before he would drop his prize. Bad Bad Skippy!

Anyhow I am back in Exmouth and have signed up for another 3 days diving after which I will be an "Advanced Diver" I guess I can say I like diving :) Oh yeah and a plug to Exmouth Diving Centre. They are really professional and really love their work so if you wanna go diving in Exmouth go with these guys. My instructor was Merran and she was really cool.

Cheerio till next time.