Talk about dreams coming true!
I (Sharyn) have loved turtles ever since I was a little girl. I had a collection that ranged from pencil –sharpener turtles, to soft turtles to porcelain turtles, I have always had a fascination for the cute little guys with shells. Here in Exmouth/ Ningaloo Reef it is a turtle paradise in the right season. We thought the season had passed with the nesting season happening from around November to February and the baby turtles hatching approx. 6 weeks after. When we booked into the Yardi Creek Homestead Caravan park the lady told us that they had seen some baby turtles only recently on the beach so we all got a bit excited. Especially me!
Just before sunset we set off with our head torches onto the beach. We had no idea really what we were looking for, where they would be, how big they were or if they would be easy to be spot. So we just wandered around, astounded at the number of sandy craters where the mum turtles had nested previously. It looked like the craters on the moon, as far as the eye could see up the beach. We searched high and low with no success, but saw lots of baby turtle prints and even some big mummy turtle prints that looked like big tyres marks, so we knew there had been action previously. We gave up and hoped maybe next time we'd be lucky.
The next day we went for a snorkel at the renowned Turquoise Bay. We went to the Drift Snorkel where you hop in to the right of the reef and float down on the current (although swimming against the current proved quite tough!) This is one of Ningaloo's most popular snorkel sites, and we now know why. Apparently there used to be an ad on TV where Elle McPherson strolled along a beach promoting (I think) Qantas Airways, and that was filmed here at Turquoise Bay. The water is amazingly clear, it sparkles like millions of diamonds and is the most magnificent turquoise colour, not suprisingly hey! And the reef is only about 50m from the shore so access is super easy and it was absolutely stunning. There was a huge array of fish of every size, color and shape. Mark and I got to swim in a school of fish called 'Black Spotted Dart', there was about 100 of them all around us, above, to the left , right and below. We felt like we were a part of their family, they didn't mind us being there at all. That is one thing about Ningaloo, the fish don't batter an eyelid about you being there, you feel like you a part of a giant aquarium. While we were out on the reef, the kids who were a bit puffed out were playing in the shallows. Even in water 1m from shore, the kids had these lovely little white fish playing around their fingers as they dug the sand up. They had the best time. And Marks highlight was seeing a Black Tip Reef Shark. He caught a glimpse of it and quickly swam over to drag me back to the spot. Initially I thought he wanted to show me a big school of fish feeding on the coral but Mark kept swimming around looking for something else. Then he pointed to something and I saw it, it made my hair stand on end and I felt relief as I watched it swim away, awesome to see but bit too close for my comfort!
The next night we tried the turtle beach again. This time it was after sunset and already dark and we were in luck. There were crabs on the sand near the shore everywhere and we saw them even up in the turtle nesting craters so we had the feeling they knew something was up. The next thing Emshia cries out "that crab has got a baby turtle!" Here was this decent size crab with his big pinchers around this little shell. We chased after it , it dropped the turtle and scuttled off. Our first view of a baby turtle! Its whole body would fit in the palm of a female adult hand, its front flippers so long and back legs so short. This little guy we called 'Lucky' because if we hadn't come along it was crab food for sure. We tried to guide him down the sand towards the water. His left flipper had been damaged by the crab so was slower than his other and kept getting stuck in the sand, but eventually he made it to the water and the waves washed him into the ocean, ready to start his challenging life ahead. Only 1 in a 1000 baby turtles actually make it to maturity…not great odds but 'Lucky' was now at least in with a fighting chance. After we saw Lucky, we came across 'Speedy' (she was twice as quick as Lucky and hadn't been injured by a nasty crab), 'Sandy' (covered in sand), 'Super Sandy' (really covered in sand), 'Hyper Sandy' ( I think you can guess why!), 'Getaway' (he was super quick getting to the ocean), 'Boxer' (Mark guided him to the ocean), 'Flippy' ( she had big front flippers), 'Slippery', 'Slimey', 'Squirt' (after Finding Nemo) and 'Tough' (found him turned over on his back by a crab ready to eat him). Every time we spotted a baby the adrenalin would be pumping, and we felt like real 'Wildlife Warriors' protecting these innocent little turtles and ensuring their safe entry into the water. On our way back up the beach , I suddenly spotted a mum turtle coming onto the beach and got so excited trying to call the others, I think I scared her away into the water! Then Mark spotted another mum only metres away from us at the shoreline that we hadn't even noticed. We had been too busy scouring the sand for babies we hadn't dreamed the mums would still be coming in to nest. (We thought they had finished last month ). We sat still and tried to keep quiet but she saw us too and headed back into the ocean. Apparently the mums are very sensitive when coming in to lay and very easily scared. But all the same it was a huge buzz seeing the big mums as well as the babies! So we all headed back to camp on a huge high and spent the rest of the night talking turtle!!!
Next day we had our second snorkel at a place called 'Oyster Stacks'. This site was full of fish only metres from the shore. And unlike Turquoise Bay, there was no current so you could snorkel as you liked without much effort. It was here we saw a magnificent green turtle resting down in the rocks on the ocean floor. Mark spotted him first and swam down to where he was and the turtle started to swim. Oh it was like magic watching this turtle swim only centimetres away from us. He came so close and we could've all swam for miles watching his big flippers move gracefully in the water. To be swimming with a turtle was only ever a distant dream and here we were living it! Such an amazing experience.
Our next snorkel was at Lakeside. This was a bit of a walk around the beach to the reef but definitely worth it. This snorkelling site was a lot deeper than the others we'd been at, which meant we saw a wider variety of fish. We saw false clownfish (just like Nemo), Fish like Gill (yellow and black stripes) from Nemo too, a blue spotted stingray, a big school of Long Toms (skinny silver fish with a long nose), a white-tipped reef shark and a Leopard Shark. And many, many other beautiful big and little tropical fish. This site was Mark's overall favourite for the variety of different fish. The kids and I loved Oyster Stacks due to our magic swim with the turtle.
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