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Debbie
Ward has spent more than 15 years
as a journalist, several as Features
Editor of Travel Trade Gazette.
She now works freelance.
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The Aussie
Spongers
Travel Trade Gazette
Dolphins that swim around with sponges on their noses? I thought
it was a typical Aussie wind up. Then I saw one leap out of
the water. Amazingly, the grinning mammal I glimpsed from a
catamaran had pushed the soggy mass onto its beak to protect
it from sharp coral when foraging on reefs. The two dozen or
so dolphins in Western Australia's Shark Bay that have learnt
this behaviour are the only known 'spongers' in the world. It
is just one of the things that makes this state unique.
The dolphins of Shark Bay have developed other unorthodox ways
of getting food and it is for this that the Monkey Mia resort
is famed. In the 1960s dolphins here started following fishing
boats to shore. A tourist attraction grew, with the aquatic
visitors appearing a few times a day to feed on hand-offered
fish.
It was a pelican that alerted us to the dolphins' presence on
the morning I joined a crowd on the beach. It was gliding along
the surface, changing direction with them.
His four flippered friends twisted and teased a few metres out
for over an hour then came closer, one rolling on its back to
get a good look up at our expectant faces.
There are hundreds of dolphins in the area but less than 15
ever come to shore. The Monkey Mia experience may not be entirely
natural but the researchers who organise it invite only a handful
of tourists to offer fish, allow no touching and limit the food
lest the dolphins become dependent on handouts.
From these highly intelligent mammals we travelled back to the
lowest rung of the evolutionary ladder with another special
Western Australian sight.
Stromatolites are neither cute or entertaining but these brown
lumps of sediment found just off the beach at Hamelin Pool are
no less impressive. They are created by microscopic marine organisms
believed to have been the first things on earth to produce oxygen,
so slowly creating an atmosphere that was able to support more
developed life forms. Hamelin Pool is one of only three places
in the world they are still known to occur and the only place
that's easily accessible.
But Western Australia's biggest coastal wow factor was yet to
come.
"Go! Go! Go!" With this signal ten of us dropped
from a boat into the deep ocean an hour-and-a half out from
Exmouth. Our leader had a brief look underwater, stuck his hand
in the air - our cue to submerge - and there we saw it: a huge
spotty whale shark.
The six-metre beast was gliding silently by with an entourage
of fish and we joined the party as rubber-clad groupies, snorkelling
at a respectful distance until it dived.
Whale sharks are the biggest fish in the world. Swimming with
these beautiful creatures is safe as they filter feed on plankton,
it's also another experience fairly unique to Western Australia
because they're rarely so easily encountered elsewhere. Between
April and July they appear almost daily off Exmouth and several
boats take tourists out to meet them, relying on a spotter plane
to radio the whale sharks' position.
We excitedly heaved ourselves in and out of the water several
times over two hours, also swimming with ghostly manta rays
and spotting distant humpback whales from our boat. On my most
memorable snorkel drop I entered the water a couple of metres
ahead of a gaping pillar box mouth. For a few moments I was
transfixed by the black hole before I twisted away to let the
whale shark feed in peace.
BOOK IT
Travel 2's Pinnacles, Kalbarri, Monkey Mia & Ningaloo Reef
tour costs from £583 per person for four nights' accommodation,
touring including visits to Shell Beach and Coral Bay, and some
meals. A five day Dolphin Coast Self-Drive starts from £241.
A twin bedroom with ocean view at the new four star Novotel
Ningaloo Resort, Exmouth costs from £51 per person per
night, room-only until March 20 2008.
www.travel2.com
Ningaloo Blue Dive offers Whale Shark Ecotours at AU$350 (£154)
per adult, AU$220 (£97) for under 14s, including transfers
from and to accommodation, equipment, lunch and snacks.
www.ningalooblue.com.au
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