Day 5 Monkey Mia
Originally, I planned to stay here in Monkey Mia for 2 days, but at the last minute, I asked in one of the Facebook Australia communities, "Do you recommend any stops between Monkey Mia and Exmouth?" A lot of people responded and said "Coral Bay," so I changed the plan. I'm staying in Monkey Mia for a night and heading to Coral Bay the next day.
I didn't spend any time in Monkey Mia at all, but I don't regret it. Monkey Mia is popular for "feeding wild dolphins." Wild bottlenose dolphins come to the beach and are fed by the resort. I'm not interested in that at all. Plus, even as a paid guest of the hotel, you have to pay to see the dolphin feeding. I definitely passed on that.
I went to the beach in the morning and saw a few dolphins already there, waiting to be fed. It just made me feel sad. The beach isn't beautiful, and the water isn't even blue. I'm glad I changed my plan to leave after just one night.
I stopped by Whalebone Lookout and Shell Beach on the way to Coral Bay.
The drive from Monkey Mia to Coral Bay was only 4 hours, so it wasn't too bad. I stopped by a gas station and bought a homemade sausage roll, which is a must-eat when you're in Australia. Unlike in the USA, Australian snacks are great. They don't just sell sugary pink or blue donuts. There’s a variety of snacks like meat pies (get one with mashed potato on top!), sausage rolls, and spinach and feta pies. Yum! Don't forget to get tomato sauce with it (don't call it ketchup in Australia!! lol).
Day 6: Coral Bay - Manta Ray Swim
Such a tiny, tiny village—actually, it's not even a village. I stayed at a backpacker place, but in a private room. By the time I was looking for accommodation, this was the only choice available. It's the one place I don't recommend on this trip. It was okay, but I wish I had found a better place to stay, even for just one night.
The reason I stayed in Coral Bay was for the manta ray swim, which turned out to be a total disappointment. I know I can't really complain about visibility, but it was bad, and they said that was average visibility. Also, the rule was you can't dive with them, which I totally understand. BUT if you have a rule like that, don't use images on your website taken from underneath or show pictures of guests diving with manta rays. I hate when tour companies use images that customers can't actually experience, like drone shots or underwater shots for a scenic boat tour.
The worst brochure I saw was in Auckland, New Zealand. It had a large image of an orca on the front, so I called the tour company and asked, "How often do you see orcas?" Guess what they said: "Ahhhh, once a year."
Anyway, I was so excited to see black manta rays, but I couldn't dive to see their underside. Oh well. All the pictures I took during the Coral Bay manta swim aren't even worth editing. I don't want to publish them, but here's one. You can see a black manta on the left. Black mantas are very rare. Normal manta rays have a white underside, but these have black undersides too. A boat guide said that about 30% of the manta rays in Coral Bay are black mantas and not all places have black manta rays.
Now I am heading to Exmouth. This is why I came to Australia this time! Swim with whale sharks!
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To be continued
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