Today we packed up and left Quobba Station. Then we drove 300 km north to Coral Bay which is on the Ningaloo Reef. The drive was uneventful until we reached a roadhouse where Mum got some fruit out of the car and Dad bought 2 Chicken Schnitzel Burgers. Then we drove on to Coral Bay. On the way we ate the Schnitzel Burgers and some fruit. When we arrived We set up the caravan.
Dad, Mum and I set up the awning. Mum and Dad put out the awning while I pegged in the guide ropes. After that we all had a nice cool drink. Then we rested for 15 minutes. Mum's sun glasses broke when they fell off her head. We then walked down to the stores where Mum was going to buy some new sun glasses. Meanwhile Dad, my sister and I went the 100 more metres to the beach. Then we put on our flippers and diving masks. We waded into the water and swam out over the sand flats. There were all these Spangled Emperor (They're a type of fish) swimming around. Then as Dad and I were getting into the water about 2 metres deep Dad pointed out a small stingray on the bottom.
It was very well camouflaged but you could see it's outline pretty clearly. The stingray saw us and flapped it's "wings". Stingrays do this to stir up sand. They stir up the sand so that when it settles again they are covered in sand and camouflaged. After observing the stingray for a few minutes we swam out even further. There were Spangled Emperor every 10 metres in schools of 2's and 3's. If the fish were smaller the school contained about 7-10 fish. Then we swam out even further and saw some coral in the water. By this time we were about 100 metres away from land. Then we turned our attention back to the water where all these little fish were swimming around the coral.
Then we turned back and swam to Mum who had now arrived and my sister had finally gone ready to come snorkelling. Mum stayed on the beach and watched us. On the way out I saw about three little stingrays. The little stingrays are so cute. My sister was also here this time and we had to keep waiting for her as she wasn't using a snorkel and was running out of breath. Then We turned around and went back to the beach. On the way I happened to look at the bottom ahead and saw a massive stingray. It was about 1 metre long and it had a tail about the same length. I pointed it out to Dad but he only saw a tiny glimpse of it as it moved swiftly away.
My blog makes it appear that the place is swarming with stingrays but that's not true. You only see the occasional one and these ones just try and hide from you. They won't attack you unless you provoke them. We didn't annoy them but they moved off speedily when you got to close. Anyway we saw some more Spangled Emperor and then headed bcd to shore. We adjusted our flippers, un fogged our diving masks and headed back out to sea. This time I started out first and saw a big stingray. It buried itself in the sand so that only it's eyes poked out. I told Dad to get out there fast because we both like watching the stingrays. This time though Dad was taking his time. Dad used to scuba dive and likes playing with stingrays. One of the things he used to do was pat them. Not pat them with his hand, just with his flippers. He and his friends only left the stingrays alone when the stingrays raised their barbs. That means that they're in attack and defend mode. After watching the stingray for a bit Dad tickled the stingray with his flipper. It stirred up a bit of sand and in the end the stingray moved off. We followed it and eventually it turned back towards us. I thought it was going to try and sting so I swam as fast as I could in the other direction.
Now after my previous visit to Coral Bay I always exercise a fair bit of caution when dealing with stingrays. Last time I was here I was unlucky enough to get stung by a stingray. Mum reckons that Dad stepped on it by accident and it lashed out with it's tail. This time though I want to keep snorkelling so I am always carful when stingrays are concerned. Anyway, after a while Dad stopped trying to find the stingray. We swam out to a buoy seeing lots of little colourful fish on the way. Then on the way back my sister pointed to a thing lying on the bottom. this "thing" turned out to be a Flathead (Another type of fish). We watched it for a few minutes then it saw us and moved off in a cloud of sand. We followed it until we lost sight of it. Then we swam east until I saw another Flathead. It was very nice just to float on the water and watch these fish. Suddenly the Flathead moved off. This time though we didn't follow it and it stopped and lay down 6 feet away from it's original spot.
This occurred several more times before we got sick of watching the Flathead and swam back to the shore. When the Flathead moved off I saw that it was a Bar Tail Flathead. I could tell by the black bars on it's tail. On the way I spotted another one of the small stingrays but noticed that it had no tail. It also had two Spangled Emperor swimming above it. Dad told me later that the stingray was stirring up the sand so that it could hide and the Spangled Emperor were feeding on the little critters that the stingray was also stirring up as they were hiding in the sand.
Then we headed back to shore, packed up and waked back to the caravan. When we arrived at the caravan we went and had a shower straight away. After the shower Mum and my sister went and had a shower while I wrote the blog and Dad walked to the supermarket. When he came back Mum started cooking dinner. I had to stop writing the blog so that I could have dinner. For dinner we had fried sausages in sauce and fried potatoes. After dinner we had dessert. For dessert we had Banana Split. It tasted great! After dessert I finished writing the blog and went to bed.
Oggi abbiamo fatto snorkelling.
Ho visto un sacco di pesci piuttosto.
E' stato divertente.
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