Next we drove to Kalbari. We went snorkeling in one of its beaches (not much to see...) and visited the national park near it which has the same name. At the entrance to the park we discovered something that will accompanied most of the national parks along our way - 4WD access only. An unsealed rough road spread out from the main road to the far horizon. Our car insurance doesn't cover us on unsealed roads, but we gave it a try. We started driving the 30km dirt road as slow as we could (20km/h) but still the car bounced like kangaroo on this road, closets opened, things flew in the air. After 10km or so and after all sort of lights led up on the dashboard we gave up and turned back, promising to ourselves no to try driving on unsealed roads again. Disappointed we went to 2 other lookouts in the park (accessible by sealed roads) but they weren't impressive. Everything was dry and millions of flies bugged us every time we took our nose out of the car.
Our next destination was Shark Bay. On the way we visited Hamelin Pool and the Stromatolites (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stromatolite),
Shell Beach and the Eagle Bluff. We spent the night at the boring town Denham and the morning after we went to Monkey Mia, the highlight of Shark Bay. The thing about Monkey Mia is that dolphins visit it's beach every morning (it could be related to the fact that the rangers feed them every morning). Anyway, after paying the entrance fee we went to the beach (along with 50 more tourists) and walla, 2 dolphins came. People not allowed to touch or play with them.
Very boring experience. At least a pelican was nearby and gave us something to look at (it got fish from the rangers as well).
Disappointed we kept going north, starting to worry we'll be disappointed again...We stopped for a short visit in a place called blowholes. 1km south to the blowholes there is a blue lagoon, which is, so we've been told, a great place for snorkeling. Of course we gave it a try and of course we got disappointed... Well, actually there were few corals and few colorful
fish, but we expected more than that. Later we drove to the blowholes spot. Blowholes are few holes in rocks located by the sea. When a wave comes it enters beneath the rock and comes out from the holes in a great pressure. It looked like gazers.
We kept driving north to a tiny town called Coral Bay, which is located at the shore of Ningalo national park - a marine national park. After all the disappointing experiences we had since we left Perth, we didn't expect much. And then it finally happened - a little piece of heaven just in front of us. We stood on the beach, amazed from the beautiful sight - clear, quiet, turquoise water, no waves. exactly what we imagined about Australia's beaches.
10 minutes later we were deep in the water, snorkeling above beautiful corals, with lots of fish in all kind of colors, and all that beauty only few meters from the beach. We spent few hours in the water, until our backs became red from the sun. As the hours passed the water's level went down (low tide) and a group of big fish swam at the very edge of the water, tried get something to eat.
It was a weird sight because half of their body was out of the water.
Anyway the water seemed so tempting we jumped again for one last snorkel, before dinner. Too bad we didn't have a waterproof camera...
The next morning we continued to the gateway of the Ningaloo national park - Exmouth. One of the main attractions in the national park is the whale sharks. They come every year to this area and you can actually swim with them, if you're willing to spend the money for it. Luckily the whale sharks arrived early this year, usually they arrive on April. We've been told that every group had managed to see them since the beginning of March. After a long indecision whether it's worth the money or not, we decided to go for it. We said goodbye to a nice amount of money and booked a tour for the next day.
We were picked up early in the morning and were happy to find out we were going to be only 8 people in the group. We got on the boat and headed to a nice snorkeling spot in the reef, to warm up before swimming with the whale sharks. We jumped into the water and spent some time exploring the amazing corals and fish. The highlight of that snorkeling was a sea turtle that swam fast next to us. It was the first time we saw a sea turtle so we were quite existed - it's a very special animal and Sarit fell in love immediately with it. We came back to the boat, satisfied from what we saw and hoping it was a good start for the day. Apparently it was...
After a nice breakfast on the boat the skipper led us to a deeper area, where we were supposed to meet the first whale shark (a plane locates a whale shark from the sky and sends the boat to the right spot). We were ready with our snorkeling gear on us, waiting to jump and swam with the whale shark.
It all happened very fast. The guide shouted "JUMP!" and everyone jumped after her, divided to two groups we waited few seconds for the whale shark to swam towards us and when it did we accompanied him from its sides and swam with him. Amazing! A whale sharks the biggest fish in the world. The first one we saw was only about 4 meters long (a young one...), but they can get up to 18 meters! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_shark).
Few minutes later Sarit looked back and saw Roi with his hand up, waiting to the zodiac to pick him up. Few more people were doing the same. No one expected to swim more than a few minutes with the fish. Sarit didn't give up and stayed with the fish the all way until it was too fast to caught up with. 22 minutes in total! Great experience!
We were sure that was it - just one swim, but we were wrong. About 20 minutes later the plane located another one. The guide shouted "Ready" - everyone stood in line, "Jump" - everyone were in the water. Few minutes later half of the group was in the zodiac again. That fish was faster than the first one.
Then again - a third fish, the biggest one we saw that day. We were divided into two groups in the water. Usually the fish swam straight. This one didn't. It was very curious and tried to have a close look on us, so it turned to its right - the side we were. Everyone in our side tried to clear the way and not bump into the whale shark. But then he turned right again. It kept doing so few times and everyone freaked out, bumped into each other. It was quite scary to see its huge face coming right towards you. Finally it stopped with the crazy turns and swam straight...
We were quite sure that was the last whale shark we were going to see. Wrong again. The 4Th, and the last, showed up not long after. Some people gave up and were too tired to jump. Not us (well, we were tired, but we didn't gave up. How many times you get to see a whale shark in your life?).
We turned back to an inner reef, had a lunch buffet in the boat. One last snorkeling to see a bit more small fish, a fruit buffet on the boat and we were on our back. Again, poor thing we didn't have waterproof camera...
The next day we drove to two beaches in the national park to snorkel some more. The first beach, turquoise bay, was amazing, similar to the beach in coral bay, but a lot more corals and fish.
We spent few hours there. On the last snorkeling we were lucky to see another sea turtle, this time a slower one. Sarit didn't agree to leave him for about 10 minutes. She swam with him until she was just above him and then he got scared and started to swim faster, so she finally left the poor guy... :) (Where is the waterproof camera?).
The second beach was different, very rocky. You need to jump from the rocks in order to get to the water. We enjoyed snorkeling there, but not as much as we did in the first beach.
The next morning we sadly left Exmouth and Ningaloo national park and headed north east to a town called Karratha. It was our first night that we felt a real Australian humidity. It was hot, very hot, and humid, very humid. The next day we stopped for a quick swim in a place called Honeymoon cove and kept going north towards Broome. Two days later we arrived and experienced the most hot and humid night we've ever had. We couldn't sleep, tropical rain started to fall at night. We HATED Broome!
We tried to get a nice sunset shot (Broome is famous for its sunsets) but it wasn't as beautiful as we hoped.
The only nice thing we saw in Broome was a kangaroo with its baby in its pocket.
A few arrangements in the city (including a 12v fan we bought for the hot nights) and Broome was left behind us. It took us 3 days to drive to Darwin, the northern big city in Australia. The way was beautiful, but we spent most of it in the car. We even skipped the famous Purnululu (bungle bungle) national park, again - 4WD access only...
We went to see a small version of the landscape in Mirima national park - very small park near the city Kununurra. Well, it wasn't like the real thing.
All the way from Broome was full of Baub trees, we stopped almost every time we saw one to take a picture of it. It's a very special tree, looks like a tree from the fairytale, or like a tree a child drew.
Finally we arrived Darwin. One good shower (after three days without showers), new clean cloths and we were on our way to celebrate the Passover Seder in the city (that was actually the reason why we came to Darwin...). We were about 30 people - most of them Jewish people living in Darwin, one Israeli girl that immigrated to Darwin, one south African Jewish working in the city's hospital (student), one English Jewish traveler and us. We were the only Israelis travelers there. The Seder was arranged and managed by 4 Habad guys from Germany and USA. They did a wonderful job! It was a very special Seder for us.
Most of the people there cannot speak or read Hebrew, so we read most of the Hagada in English, which was quite weird for us (it sounded like a Christian prayer...). Anyway, we were glad we drove all the way to Darwin. It was worth it.
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