“Look down now!” yells our guide as we pile off the boat into the deep blue. Still adjusting my snorkel, I peer down, straight into the face of an enormous shark, incoming like a slow-moving bus. It’s a harmless whale shark, and I stare goggle-eyed at the 10-metre-long behemoth. The toothless mouth gapes as its spotted body glides by. Adrenaline courses through me as I gaze after the disappearing tail, and I’m exhilarated by its wild beauty.
I’m offshore from Exmouth, Western Australia, some 1200 kilometres north of Perth. It’s a wild, red-dirt outpost, perched on the edge of North West Cape, a finger of land pointing into the Indian Ocean. On its eastern side is sheltered Exmouth Gulf, while the western cape is flanked by vibrant Ningaloo Reef. Whale sharks visit every year between March and July (often until September), and like most human visitors, it’s Ningaloo Reef that brings them here.
But it wasn’t tourism that started the town. Exmouth began as a US Navy listening base in 1967, during the Cold War. Today, the base still has antennas up to 387 metres tall that communicate with submarines around the world. It was a tiny town on a wild frontier then, and although Exmouth now offers every creature comfort, it’s the astounding natural wonders of this place that still generate that untamed vibe.
On a visit to the Ningaloo Aquarium and Discovery Centre, I find out more about this American-born town, complete with Chevrolets that cruised the right-hand side of the road. Stepping inside a cyclone chamber, I feel the extraordinary force of Cyclone Vance, which battered Exmouth in 1999, and I get an underwater introduction with displays of colourful reef life.
Denne historien er fra March 2021-utgaven av The Australian Women's Weekly.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Denne historien er fra March 2021-utgaven av The Australian Women's Weekly.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Hitting a nerve
Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes - could aid physical and mental wellbeing.
Take me to the river
With a slew of new schedules and excursions to explore, the latest river cruises promise to give you experiences and sights you won’t see on the ocean.
The last act
When family patriarch Tom Edwards passes away, his children must come together to build his coffin in four days, otherwise they will lose their inheritance. Can they put their sibling rivalry aside?
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.
The wines and lines mums
Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.
Jenny Liddle-Bob.Lucy McDonald.Sasha Green - Why don't you know their names?
Indigenous women are being murdered at frightening rates, their deaths often left uninvestigated and widely unreported. Here The Weekly meets families who are battling grief and desperate for solutions.
Growing happiness
Through drought flood and heartbreak, Jenny Jennr's sunflowers bloom with hope, sunshine and joy
"Thank God we make each other laugh"
A shared sense of humour has seen Aussie comedy couple Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall conquer the world. But what does life look like when the cameras go down:
Winter baking with apples and pears
Celebrate the season of Australian apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the midwinter blues away.
Budget dinner winners
Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of low-cost recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.
