Exmouth bound

Exmouth and the Whalesharks. 
We left Dampier and headed south along the North West Coastal Highway to Exmouth where we were hoping to swim with the famous whalesharks. We didn't like our chances as the season for them to be at Ningaloo Reef was from March to the end of July. As we were arriving mid August we were expecting to be told that the biggest fish in the world had ' left the building'.  We were pleased to find that the Whalesharks don't read the pamphlets and were still in the area and that the cruises were 1/2 price. We booked our seats on the next available trip which was in 3 days. We settled into the caravan park for our stay. The next day we travelled around the coast to the Cape Range National Park first stopping of at the Vlamingh Head Lighthouse were we saw whales cavorting in the distance. Our next stop was the Jurabi Turtle center which wasn't in use due to the turtles being at sea ( wrong season ). We stopped at Ned's Camp and enjoyed the view before heading onto the Milyering Visitor Centre which had a mountain of information and educational videos. After increasing our knowledge we went to Lakeside where we were able to have a swim. We decided to return the next day to take advantage of the snorkel hire and let the kids have a go at snorkeling before going out with the whalesharks. After picking up our snorkeling gear we headed for Turquoise Bay as this had been recommended by the people at the Visitor Center. Turquoise Bay offered a drift snorkel were you enter the water, swim a short distance out to the reef, drift with the current for approximately 200m before returning to the beach where with much enthusiasm you raced back along the beach to do it again.  Each run took roughly 1/2 hour and we saw an enormous variety of fish and other aquatic creatures. Unfortunately on one of the runs Marie and Claire got into some trouble when they found themselves further out than they realized and had to fight the current to get back to shore. Having learnt a valuable lesson we made a few more runs before retiring for the day. We were very proud of Claire for giving it another go after having an unpleasant experience. We returned to Exmouth tired and cold but happy. After tea we headed for bed for tomorrow we were swimming with the Whalesharks !!!!!