The single overriding objective of this trip for the non-geriatrics is to snorkel the reefs of Western Australia. There’s a hard core of us and actually to be fair some of the older passengers are giving it a good nudge and snorkel with us. But they can’t really be that old then, right? We salute them. 

Today we pulled up at Exmouth and drove down the road a bit for our first snorkel in Turquoise Bay, a lagoon off the beach at Ningaloo. Conditions were perfect weather-wise although a strong current runs down the beach so the plan for most was to start at one end and drift over the coral then walk back and repeat. I used the opportunity to swim out and against the current to get some much-needed exercise. And I got it! 

The water was crystal clear and we saw lots of multicoloured fish, a couple of small turtles and others in our group saw an eel and a ray. We’d been told to expect mostly brown corals so were delighted to find a large bommie of purple coral. It was idyllic and our faces ached from so much happiness. 

Exmouth itself is an interesting place. It’s an attractive enough town, definitely worthy of a revisit, and for those of you who like big things, there’s a big fibreglass prawn that gets dismantled and stored ahead of the cyclone season. It’s not the biggest big prawn in Australia, but it’s close.

The coastal range is stunning as well, with gullies that run right down to the shore and continue way out to sea, for the gollywogs (geologists) reading. 

Exmouth was established to support the US Naval Communication Station (ironically named) Harold E Holt. For the non-Aussies, Harold Holt was an Australian prime minister who disappeared while swimming in rough conditions off Cheviot beach in 1967. Such is the Aussie sense of humour, there’s even a swimming pool in Melbourne named after him.  

The Vlamingh Head Lighthouse provided us with an excellent view of the area, and the 13 comms towers we’d driven past on the way here, but you can’t get close enough for high-definition photos. It’s a shame because as we hurled down the highway, we could see a spiders web of wires supporting the structure - it’s certainly an engineering feat. More recently, a space surveillance telescope and radar have been installed. There was also a stunning surf break below us, and two lucky surfers were being supported by a jet ski, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

Other passengers did walks or stayed on the ship, but the snorkel crowd were deliriously happy with our first reef. You’ll notice that Paul and I were quite colour-coordinated that day, it was unplanned but certainly helped us to find each other!

The afternoon was blown in and around the pool. There’s a bunch of travel agents here on “famils” and they insist on trying every cocktail of the day, often they do that all afternoon. I don’t usually day drink, but rules are made for breaking and I decided it was a margarita afternoon for me. Paul tended to stick to rosè in the early days of the cruise before he discovered the pernod.

Later that day the captain called a special briefing to warn us of a huge low pressure system heading our way, not a problem for now but 8-metre swells forecast for later in the week. Sadly this meant our second day at Ningaloo was cancelled, as he was anxious to get us closer to Fremantle in case the worst eventuated, but what can you do? Is there a hidden agenda that we don’t know about? I mean, just a few months ago we lost three days in Japan - on this ship - to a typhoon and a false-alarm tsunami warning. Hmmm. Or maybe someone’s been saying “rabbit” too often?

That night in the fine dining restaurant the pièce de résistance was Beef Wellington. Don’t they realise? It looked amazing, I had a taste, but couldn’t do it. That crazy murderer has changed our appetite forever. 

So we brought out own lifeguard. Meet Dailus from the Seychelles…

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