After spending six days in Coral Bay, we said good-by to many newly made friends and made plans to meet up with others further on in our travels. We then jumped on a bus for the town of Exmouth. This is the Whale Shark Capital of Western Australia. As I said earlier, we are about a week early and won't get to see them:( I have done some diving here and it is world class!

The first day we did 3 dives right in a row and saw more life than in all my earlier diving on the trip. Lots of great photos! I saw at least 6 Wobbegong Sharks sleeping under ledges, 6 octopus, several turtles, dolphins (from the surface only) and assorted other marine life. The divemaster actually coaxed an octopus out of the coral and I got about a minute of video footage during which time it changed color and texture several times. I also got one of my best photos of an octopus ever.

The next day we went to the Muiron Islands, about an hour boat ride away. Unfortunately, during the night, the coral had spawned and the visibility was not very good. The coral however was amazing. Hundreds of varieties and it was all very healthy. We did see more sharks, octopus and other marine life, but not as plentiful as the first day. Afterwards we did some snorkeling and saw a 10 foot nurse shark swim about 5 feet from me. On the boat ride back, I happened to see a very amusing site. We must have been 10 miles from anything and there was a seagull standing on top of the water. Upon closer review, the bird was actually perched on the shell of a turtle that had surfaced for a breath of air. As we got closer, the turtle dove under water and the bird was forced to fly away. Very funny!

Today we were to dive a site called Navy Pier. It has the most marine life of any site in the area. However we woke up to howling winds this morning and when we got to the site, there were 6-8 foot swells and the dive was cancelled. We will try again tomorrow. I was willing to dive it, but the divemaster made it clear, it was everyone or no one. Since there were some newly certified divers, the choice was made for us. The site is an actual Navy pier that is only used a few times a year, but you still need permission from the Navy to use the pier and it is very tightly controlled. Apparently this was not always the case. Prior to 9/11 it was divable any time without any permits.

Saturday a.m. we will board the bus for a three day trip up to the town of Broome. That will be our final stop on the Easy Rider bus and we will part company with the rest of the friends we have made along the trip. We will be there for a few days before flying to Darwin and then on to Bali.

We will update the home page with a final set of thoughts on Australia.

We'll keep you posted,

Eric & Val