Australia Ningaloo Reef Dive

Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia · Australia

Moderate7 daysOceania~£1,800 est.

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Overview

Ningaloo does what the Great Barrier Reef cannot: it starts at the beach. Australia's longest fringing reef runs 260 kilometres down the North West Cape, close enough at Turquoise Bay that you drift-snorkel over coral gardens straight off the sand. The headline act is reliable to the point of near-guarantee: whale sharks aggregate here every year from March to July after the coral spawn, and licensed operators use spotter planes to place you in the water metres from a cruising eight-metre fish - one of wildlife tourism's genuinely great moments, and open to snorkellers, no dive card required. Divers get the Navy Pier (routinely ranked among the world's best shore-accessible dives) and manta cleaning stations off Coral Bay year-round; humpbacks stream past from July to October and turtles nest on Jurabi's beaches in summer. The variable is simply remoteness: Exmouth is 1,200 kilometres from Perth, so fly to Learmonth and book whale shark boats and accommodation well ahead in season. Water runs 24-28C - a 3mm suit does it. Around £1,800 covers a week with a whale shark trip (about £250), two-tank dives and a self-catering base in Exmouth.