Exmouth Divers, April 1997, Jeff and Anne Boswell, Woodinville WA. "3 weeks, from The Kimberly down to Perth, diving in Exmouth and Coral Bay. Exmouth Divers is the best dive operation we've been with. Low key, professional, extremely helpful. Dozen dives over 6 days and they always did everything to make a dive good. . . . Navy pier has such a concentration of fish and invertebrates that we dove it twice, seeing Wobegong sharks and an immense Queensland grouper. Access is difficult, especially coming up the little ladder, then up the LONG ladder. All with full gear. Australian government, in its wisdom, has determined that Exmouth divers can use the pier for diving, but no changes may be made to the pier to make dives safer or easier. Go figure. . . . Whale sharking is all it's cracked up to be. Watching one of these enormous fish materialize out of the blue, heading directly for you, is a lifetime event. They're seemingly oblivious of divers and you do need to get out of the way, but can swim with them for a while. Then the boat picks you up, rushes you ahead, and it starts all over. . . . Balance of dives were on Ningaloo reef ­- excellent bommie diving, swimming through clouds of fish, and over on the North and East Coast (Bay side). One drift dive was spectacular (2.5-3 knots drift at 50'). Lots of hard coral in big colonies, sea fans and fish. Imagine drifting by angels the size of garbage can lids as they regard you. Lots of dolphins on the surface and once saw a solitary dugong. . . . Diving very good (imagine seeing the world's largest shark - whaleshark - and the world's smallest shark - ribbon catfish shark - all on one trip.) Not many pelagics, but lots of fish of all imaginable kinds, lots of hard coral and invertebrates. Close to zero soft coral. . . . Misplaced my wrist computer on the next to last day. Told them that I thought I'd left it on the boat and if they found it, please mail. a couple of weeks later it shows up. . . . Coral Bay: basically an aglomeration of caravan parks and average motels around a beautiful beach. One dive operation with only 4 dives and only a couple are accessible at any given time depending on wind/tides. They pack their boats to the gills with snorkelers, but there are a couple of very nice dives: intense fish life, lots of eels, beautiful hard coral. Book for a night or two, no more. Not far from Exmouth. . . . If you're come this far, go to the Broome/Kimberly area. Beautiful beaches, nice little town, lots of prevailing Aussie "swagmate" attitude. Great little resort ­­ Eco Beach ­­ south of Broome. laid back, nice accomodations near the shore in the bush, overlooking the ocean (huts are on stilts for nice view and away from critters). Plenty of cold beer and rum/tonic at the bar. Like summer camp. Food plentiful and good, station food as they call it. The Kimberly is fantastic. Pretty rivers and gorges, lots of birdlife, crocs, emus, roos, goannas. Rent a Land Cruiser and go camping, see what the "real outback is like. Spectacular. . . . genuinely nice Aussie hospitality. . . . thanks for honoring the lifetime subscription deal after the purchase. You're a standup guy."

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