Coral Bay is the other town right at the Ningaloo Reef. But maybe the name town overstates it a bit, as by the 2006 census it only had 160 inhabitants. But this number skyrockets during the Australian holiday season as it is a real tourist magnet with its perfect beaches and a reef so close you basically stumble over it.
Dive the Ningaloo Reef
This recommendation is not new but it is for sure the best thing you can do in this town. The reef is said to be better than the Great Barrier Reef and from what we’ve seen we can confirm that.
Our first dive was at a site called Blue Maze and offered some of the most beautiful hard corral formations we had ever seen. There are more than 160 different species of hard corrals to be found here and some build towers that reach right up to the surface. Diving here felt like diving in a perfectly designed aquarium, it was simply breathtaking.
Our second dive was at a site called Ashon Gap. Here as well the corrals were tremendously beautiful and approximately in the middle of our dive we arrived at a cleaner station on top of a huge corral where some pretty big grey reef sharks received their cleaning.
Snorkel with Manta Rays
Unfortunately they don’t offer diving with Manta Rays but snorkeling is kind of the next best thing.
We were able to do this snorkel in between our two dives as part of the tour. If you don’t want to spend money on a tour you can also try to find the mantas by yourself at Batman’s Bay.
On the tour we had the advantage that the spotter plane directed our boat right to the Mantas. We got into the water and there she was. Big black and beautiful. It was great to see a manta again after more than a year. Those creatures are so elegant and beautiful it was difficult to let go when the guide asked us to stop. Luckily we got into the water two more times and therefore had plenty of manta time. We also had the luck to see a leopard shark as our manta ray was swimming right over it.
Sunbath and Snorkel at Paradise Beach and Bill’s Bay
The beaches in Coral Bay are so breathtakingly beautiful that they can easily compete with any Caribbean beach. The sand is so white it hurts your eyes and the water so perfectly turquoise it looks like pool water. And to top it all, within 10m from the shore the reef starts and you can directly walk in and snorkel.
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