Swimming with wild Whale Sharks in Exmouth, Western Australia (May, 2012)

Cody surprised his Dad, Scott at the back end of their trip to Australia with a whale shark diving trip in Exmouth, Western Australia, which is one of the most remote places on the planet.  Perth is already a world away from everything and Exmouth is at the far northwest corner of Australia (a 15 hour drive from Perth).  Luckily Qantas has a flight from Perth to Exmouth, which we took on a Sunday afternoon.

We stayed in a small dorm room for 2 nights for $25/person per night (just a bunk bed and a bathroom, but more than adequate).

We got there on Sunday afternoon and drove our rental car up to a gorge up some windy dirt roads and explored the thriving metropolis of Exmouth and had some dinner before heading to bed early.

Monday morning we had a full day Whale Shark Snorkeling tour that we had booked with 3 Islands.  I'd highly recommend this company.  They have their own spotter plane, give you plenty of food while onboard (included), and, in addition to snorkeling with the whale sharks, we were able to do 3 separate snorkel dives.  We saw stingrays and tons of fish.  By the end of the day, we were exhausted.

The next morning we got up at dawn and drove out to Turquoise Bay and Oyster Stacks (amazing places to snorkel) before catching a plane back to Perth.

 We had plenty of very close encounters like this with 3 separate whale sharks during the day.  It was an unforgettable experience.  So glad I got to do this with my Dad.

 Scott (orange shirt) and Cody (shirtless) checking out the first whale shark of the day.

 Seeing the whale shark for the first time.

 Cody, swimming alongside the whale shark…trying to keep up.

 Frontal view of the whale shark.

 A few of us snorkeling in front of the whale shark.

 This one kept turning around in circles and allowed us to get very close.  A couple times we thought he might swim right into us.

 We found this guy trying to disguise himself in the sand while we were snorkeling at one of the reefs.

 Amazing variety of coral and very colorful fish.

 It was like swimming around in an aquarium with all kinds of exotic fish.

 We made it to the end of the earth!  Seriously, I dare anybody to find me a more remote place on this planet.

 Chillin' on the boat between dives while we wait for the spotter plane to find the whale sharks for us.

 Turquoise Bay early morning…had the entire bay and beach to ourselves for more than 3 hours.

 We got up at the crack of dawn to get some snorkeling in at Oyster Stacks and Turquoise Bay before our flight back to Perth.

 Huge termite mounds all over the place, but no elephants to be found anywhere.