After our unbelievable day yesterday, expectations for today were tempered. However, it still had some amazing experiences. Karen and Kieran did their usual morning exercise and explore while the rest of us waited until later to greet the day.

We all met at 9am and walked to the Exmouth markets where purchases of local arts and crafts were made by all.

Then it was time for Bob and I to shop and pack for the next 8 nights camping on the Ningaloo coast. In January we set the alarm for 230am for a week to try and book some Ningaloo reef beachside camping and were successful after a few nights (campsites become available at midnight Perth time 180 days before the camp date). We ended up with a night earlier than planned based on our Exmouth booking so today we abandoned our prepaid site at Exmouth and headed 80km down the road to our home for the next 5 days. The others have bookings starting from tomorrow at various locations.

We arrived to our allocated site by lunchtime, unhitched and decided we couldn’t waste the gorgeous weather, given the forecast is very windy for the whole rest of the time that we are here. So out came the goggles, snorkels, flippers and wetsuits and we headed back out for the second day in a row. Literally 20m off shore we found ourselves snorkelling over a massive turtle feeding on the seagrass. We swam around it leaving a nice buffer for over half an hour in absolute awe. Another incredible experience.

We knew the weather was meant to deteriorate this afternoon so instead of wine and nibbles on the beach for sunset, we headed out for the later afternoon. By this stage the swimmers and fishermen had departed for the day and we had the place to ourselves. I even started reading my first book for this year!

A sunset walk rounded out the day as the wind started really picking up. Awnings are away and the rain has started while I write the blog. Nothing can make me disappointed though as we’ve already had such great experiences here.

Not sure how tomorrow will play out. Karen and Kieran have managed to get a night here before heading further south for another few nights. Jase and Sue will be camping a little further north.

** ADDENDUM ** For those not already sick of photos, this morning we received the professional photos from yesterday’s whale shark swim. I have included a few here for anyone inclined to scroll through.