Before I stride straight into my experience diving the Navy Pier, here's a quick update: In my last blog I wrote to you from Newcastle, on the East Coast of Australia. A lot has developed in my life since then! Asa and I accepted a job in Exmouth, a coastal town in Western Australia, approximately a 15 hour drive north of Perth - AKA, pretty remote.
We decided that we would drive across the country with all our belongings instead of flying, so we began planning our month-long road trip. Once we kitted ourselves out with a trusty 4x4, rooftop tent and camping gear, we hit the road. From Sydney we headed inland, following the 'Barry Way' along the Snowy Mountain River, across the Great Ocean Road, dipping down into the Fleurieu Peninsula then the Eyre Peninsula, along the unforgiving Nullarbor, down to South Western Australia and up the coastline, watching the landscape become drier, hotter and redder. In total we racked up over 9,000kms, covering 4 states.
[Road trip from Newcastle to Exmouth, 9,000kms+ following the coastline.]
Fast forward to now, we are currently settling into our new workplace and getting acquainted with our office on the Ningaloo Reef. Visiting the Ningaloo has always peaked high on my bucket list, so I am beyond thrilled to be living here and working on the reef every day. The reason why this fringing reef is so sought after by ocean lover's worldwide, is simply because of the rich, abundant, healthy marine life that resides here year-round, and the migrating megafauna that passes by seasonally.
Whale shark and humpback whale tours are responsible for the majority of tourism here in Exmouth, but another driving force is scuba diving. Although the Ningaloo is renowned for being fairly shallow and the deepest dive sites often max out at 20m depth, there are still plenty of reasons to come and explore.
[Photo by Jasmin O'Brien @jazseaimagery, on tour with Ningaloo Whale Shark Swim]
One of the main dive attractions, being the world famous Exmouth Navy Pier, a site that up until this year only one dive company in town had a license to operate on; however, this year there have been two additional licenses obtained, one of which being the company we work for, Ningaloo Dive Exmouth. The pier provides shelter for countless marine species, which is why this dive site is thriving with life. The 300m-long pier is situated on an active navy base and fully operational military facility - already a pretty unique experience before you even get in the water! For this reason there are strict national security measures in place for anyone wishing to gain access to the pier, and a contributing factor to the overall price. Which leads me on to mentioning the cost...
[View from on Exmouth Navy Pier, facing the base.]
Asa and I booked onto these dives not only for the personal experience, but to also become familiar with the site before leading divers ourselves. The dive company we went with charged $300 per diver for the double dive, as well as $50 per person for diving on a defence base, totalling $350 AUD. This really put the $64 USD price we charged for a 2-tank dive at our previous workplace in Utila into perspective! Though of course, very different examples.
Once we accessed the naval base by bus, we drove down the pier onto a T-shaped concrete area. From there, you can access the dive site by walking down a narrow stairway in your gear to the lower platform where you giant stride into the water. To exit the water, there is a steep 20 degree ladder which you must be able to climb in full scuba gear (though I recommend to remove your fins first!) and back up the staircase to the concrete area. The reason I'm sharing these specific details is to give you an idea of the physical requirements needed to dive this site.
In saying that, any lack of previous diving experience is no limitation at this site, considering that Discover Scuba Dive programs are often carried out here. Due to the shallow topography, most of the site reaches a maximum depth of 12m which is ideal for brand new divers. Though for context, on the day of our tour diving abilities ranged from absolute beginner divers to experienced instructors amongst customers, so the site really is appealing for all levels.
Whenever we have the opportunity to dive in a new location, we prefer having a guide to share their local knowledge of the area with us, pointing out resident marine life and revealing their secret discoveries. For this reason, we opted to go with a guide for the first dive, though the dive company offers a self-guided option to any buddy team who has more than 30 logged dives. We were split into two groups, and in our group we were two of seven divers following our guide, then there was a third instructor leading a DSD. Despite there being a total of 19 divers underwater, the site is spacious enough that we didn't feel cramped.
[Sleepy loggerhead turtle napping under a beam of the structure]
From the perspective of a dive guide who has often felt the pressure of finding cool marine life to show to my divers, here I think these guides didn't have to stress at all! From the moment we descended and for the full 50 minutes following, my attention was constantly divided. I tried to absorb every available detail, soaking in the overall structure, looking above and below me, peering under beams and examining corners; it was intense.
We saw flatworms, nudibranchs, wobbegong sharks, a loggerhead turtle, eels, stingrays, white tip reef sharks, octopus, lionfish, countless tropical fish, dozens of baracuda, groupers and tornadoes of schooling fish! The celebrity of this site is the resident Queensland grouper, 'BFG' - Big Friendly Grouper, who is clearly in charge of the show. For the duration of our dives he remained above us, hanging out at 3m to keep an eye on things, but we were formally introduced on our safety stops when we would come face to face.
[Link to my 'Navy Pier' reel here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cp9vWcHjY5L/]
After 50 minutes, it was time to surface from our first dive. All divers were under strict instructions to quickly remove their gear, switch their tanks, and get ready for the second dive. The reason being is that the Navy Pier is a tidal dive site, meaning that we had a tight schedule to follow. This allowed us 30 minutes from our heads breaking the surface after our first dive, to our heads descending on the second dive. Sounds like enough time, but I could empathise with the staff rushing to hurry all 19 divers along to avoid any tidal disasters.
For the second dive, we opted to go self-guided, and I enjoyed the freedom of exploring more of the site at our own pace, choosing to focus on areas that captured our attention the most. My head was on a swivel for the entirety of both dives, and I feel as though I barely scratched the surface on what there is to see. I would hazard a guess that this site would have a hundred hours to fully explore, and even then it could change on any given day depending on what marine life decides to swing by. This site truly is a photographer's dream, considering the depth, structure, vibrant sponges growing on the beams and schooling fish posing as the perfect models. The visibility ranges from 3m - 8m, so we were grateful to experience the site on a 'good day'.
Overall these dives rank very high on my list of 'favourite ever' dives. We were incredibly impressed with the abundant marine life, which explains why dive operators go to so much effort to makes these tours happen. I can't wait to be leading divers here myself, and learning more secrets that the site has to offer! I'm working at Ningaloo Dive Exmouth, so if you're visiting, be sure to check us out! Dive tours begin May 1st.
More Ningaloo stories to come soon!
Thanks for reading,
A.
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