Tuesday 20th May
It was another early start that day, and I was picked up by the Ningaloo Reef Dreaming mini-bus at 07.15. We were off to dive on the Ningaloo Reef itself, and there were four of us in total, including a girl called Karen from Melbourne who had been on the same whale shark boat as me the day before. It was nice to have a smaller number, and we all got chatting to each other straight away. The guy who picked us up was a Kiwi called Ricky, and he took us to the kit store to pick up our gear before we headed out to the boat.
The skipper for the day was a bloke called Terry, and the lead diver was an Aussie called Chris. They were all nice guys, very chatty and good fun (in contrast to some of the diving instructors in Thailand who thought they were too cool for some people). We got our gear in order and the boat started on its journey out to the reef.
We had three dives – two before lunch, one after – at three separate sites: 'Banana', 'Gullivers', and 'Blizzard Ridge'. Here, we saw quite a few sea snakes, turtles, boxfish, a blue spotted ray, a large stingray (which lay motionless on the seabed, covered in sand), and the usual tropical fish such as angelfish, batfish, and parrotfish that I had seen in the similarly warm waters of Thailand in February. They were very enjoyable dives, the crew were nice guys and there was a good balance between safety and fun, and it was all very relaxing. We finished up sooner than planned, one of the benefits of having a smaller group, and I left with a better impression of NRD than I had the day before, so I was happy about that.
We got back to the hostel at 16.00 and I met Sean and Emer, did some emailing and got changed. We had dinner of fish and chips and we hung out around the camp kitchen. More people joined us throughout the evening, and there ended up being a good crowd about. I was completely knackered and headed to bed at 23.30, not able to stay awake any longer. I had another three dives planned for the next day and, although I knew it would be great fun, the thought of having a lie-in was also very appealing.
