Hi everybody!
After jumping on a plane twice and travelling about 5000km to the northwest of Australia I arrived in Exmouth on Good Friday where Katja and Micha picked me up from the airport.
We spent the easter-weekend snorkeling and swimming in the Indian Ocean and it's absolutely great up here! The Ninaloo Reef is a big coral reef reaching from Exmouth all along the west coast pass Coral Bay.
There are heaps of reef fish like angelfishes, butterflyfishes, parrotfishes, reef sharks (white tip, black tip, wobbegong, some nurse sharks, ...), anemonefishes, nudibranches, turtles .... You don't have to go diving to see all these animals, the reef reaches quite near to the shore so it's easy to go for a snorkel and watch turtles feeding at the corals...!!
After some days living in a hostel I found a room to rend last week. I stay in a house with my housemate Brett now and it's really great to have my own bedroom and bathroom. Furthermore Brett is building a swimmingpool which will be ready to jump in in about 4 weeks, very nice!
I'm living a bit outside Exmouth so I bought a bike which is quite a good one (much better than mine in Germany...)for 120$ from two other backpackers including helmet which is almost nothing! I think I can sell it for more afterwards so it was quite a good deal for me. My funny dress on that picture is not a new trend of mine but it's my uniform for the restaurant. To reduce my big 'diving-hole' in my purse I'm working in the Tavern (one of two bars in town) behind the bar/in the restaurant. It's fun and there is as well some nice benefit like free drinks, free overleft food... =)
And then of course the diving: It's really great here! I startet with my divemaster program a week ago and it's good fun, especially the practice for the rescuediver when your acting panicked diver and stuff like that! I've already seen 4 or 5 manta-rays what was really amazing! I didn't manage to grab a nice picture so far but I will post another one as soon as I get a good shot!!
The biggest attraction here at the moment are the whalesharks! It's definitely a breath-taking experience to see one of this huge fishes. It's the biggest fish on earth and this is the only spot in the world where you can see them nearly every day between april and july. The ones coming to the Ningaloo reef are between 4 and 12 meters long and it's a stunning view when you first see the head and then the body is coming and coming and it seems as if it doesn't end!!!
My plan is to stay here in Exmouth for a while so I will post more pictures when I get some more nice ones. It's not that easy to take good pictures underwater because it's very seldom that a whaleshark is in the mood to pose for you...
Cheers, Tini
