As I mentioned in my previous post, Western Australia wasn’t hit badly by Covid. Though we were not allowed to go out of the state, travel within the state was possible during the period of jeopardy. In fact, I planned a couple of solo excursions away from Perth.
In October 2020, I jumped into a Qantas flight and headed to Exmouth, a small coastal town located 1300 km North of Perth. Actually, there is no airport at Exmouth, so flights are landing in nearby military base at Learmouth. Jewel of Exmouth is the Ningaloo reef, which is one of the famous places for Whale Sharks. Just like Udawalawe or Minneriya is all about Elephants, Exmouth is boasting about Whale Sharks.
This town has been established in 1967 to support nearby US naval communications station, though this area itself is having a big history around World War II. Specially, Exmouth area was used as the base for iconic Operation Jaywick, which was deployed to destroy Japanese ships in Singapore harbor in 1943.
Interestingly, Exmouth still holds the remnants of US occupation. I heard Exmouth retailers accepted both US and AUS dollars during that period.
People met at Exmouth; Rheel, Renuka and Ema
I liked the township of Exmouth and its inhabitants who are stress free and sun loving. I just wandered around the city and ended-up in the Pub called Froth. There I met a matured person, called Rheel, who was spending half of the year in Exmouth with his wife after the retirement. He was spending his dream life fishing and enjoying the slow country life.
One day he was coming to the pub later than usual. Therefore, I said, “You are late Rheel”. He replied “Its Broom time!” That day I learned the meaning of Broom time. Broom is located further up, probably the last town up north, before starting the vast uninhabited land mass until Darwin. They say, in Broom, there is no value for time. People would do anything in their own phase. I like it! Pretty Sri Lankan too!
One morning, I got up and went to the shared kitchen of the lodge in my batik sarong on. I noticed one lady was looking at me with interest. When I got my morning tea prepared, this lady had already come closer to me and said;
“This looks a nice Sri Lankan sarong”
“Thanks, In deed. I am a Sri Lankan” I replied.
“කොහොමද? ආයුබෝවන්..” She said and made me surprised.
Meeting Two Sri Lankans means a chat, a lot of it! Then we introduced ourselves. She, Dr.Renuka Ranasinghe, had come to Exmouth in search of opportunity to swim with whale sharks as many others. In addition, I learned, she had left Sri Lanka during the dark age of 88-89 to pursue higher studies in UK, eventually ended up in Perth. She had been in Sri Lankan National Swimming squad, prior to famous Julian Bowling’s era. Anyway, it was her last day in the lodge and we greeted each other and move on with our own plans.
One of the attendants at the hotel, Ema showed some interest when I was preparing my camera in the lobby and asked, are you hear for diving. I said that’s right. Then we started chatting about diving and etc. I was told she is an experienced dive master yet working in the hotel since she was advised to stay away from diving for a while after a surgery. It was good to have someone to talk about what you like most. She gave me some tips before heading for diving. When she got some free time, we played a game of pool.
The day I left Exmouth she said, I wish you get a chance to fly back to Sri Lanka and see your family soon. I said, I wish you recover soon and start diving again. She also promised me to take diving in world famous Navy Pier, if I return.
I am sure; Ema should be diving within the cold waters of Ningaloo Reef by now.
Whale calling at Ningaloo Reef
Well, I loved diving in the Ningaloo Reef. Actually, most of the diving crew were back packers who were learning to be dive masters and they were so friendly. One assignment given to me was to dive with a trainee and make her life hard by doing all the nonsense, to evaluate how she handle the situation. I was thinking, I am your client and now I am giving your crew a training! :-) Anyway, they were some of the generous and friendly crew I ever came across Australia. (Sorry, Sydney you are way behind!)
I was expecting a small version of Great Barrier Reef in the Nigaloo Reef, which proved to be wrong soon. Ningaloo Reef is not tropical as I expected, but sub-tropical with much colder waters. It got its own unique style. Anyway, I was having a love-hate relationship with cold waters. So I managed to dive after wearing an extra layer to cover my head and ears. I was wondering how Indian Ocean is taking different forms in different ends. It was like meeting a friend in faraway place, yet behaves strangely.
I don’t say my photography in Ningaloo reef was great in quantity, yet I managed to shoot a couple of great photos admired by viewers, including Resting Turtle which is my favorite. Most interestingly, I heard whale calling during my dives and that was an outstanding experience. (I should be trying this in Mirissa one day).
Diving under the historic Busselton Jetty
When 2020 December was around the corner, it was evident that I am not going back to Sri Lanka soon and going to be alone during Xmas shutdown. One day, I read about the Busselton jetty and its marine life, which sparked my photography gene. During the Xmas time, I rented a car and drew about 200km south to reach Busselton. It is a touristic place.
The famous Jetty of Busselton was built in 1865 and it is still the longest timber jetty in southern hemisphere. It is 1,841m long. In fact, it is being preserved and attracts many tourists. One of the iconic things in the Jetty is submerged observatory where people can look at the marine life through the glasses of its chamber.
Well, I don’t see marine life without getting wet, so I contacted nearest diving center and hired diving gear. Water was very cold and I actually wore three layers of wetsuits to keep me warm. Actually, it was one of the most different dives I have ever done. Since structure of jetty obstruct the sunlight, you feel like you are going through a tunnel. Good thing is, they got abundance of marine life. Especially, the pillars of the jetty were heavily populated with soft corals so they look like X’mas trees.
Once we saw a Port Jackson shark resting on the seabed. Sadly, it had a fishing hook and a thread still attached to its mouth. We tried to remove it but it wasn’t easy with the available tools. My buddy, Jordan said he would return with needed tools. I know, a good hunter don’t leave injured animals. Not sure how that can be applied for fishing.
I stayed two days in nearest coastal caravan park at Capel. While there were many campers, I stayed in a room made of converted container. There I enjoyed a wonderful sunset. Actually, I didn’t enjoy sunsets when I was young, but now Sunsets are healers. Sunsets makes me sad and emotional. Is it because Sunset remind us of our ending?
Eventually, some of my photos were used by Busselton dive center to promote themselves.
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