Ningaloo Reef, Sal Salis, swimming with sharks and the most amazing sunsets

From Perth, we would fly to the northwest of Australia to visit Ningaloo Reef. This reef, unlike the Great Barrier Reef is accessible in the Indian Ocean directly off of the coast. We flew into a small airport in the town of Exmouth, situated in the outback along the northwest coast. Once landed, the resort (Sal Salis) picked us up and transported us along a gorgeous scenic drive to our destination for the next three nights.

Upon arriving at Sal Salis, we checked into our tent. This place gave glamping a whole new definition as the resort is completely based in tents along the coast of the Indian Ocean. The view of the dunes, ocean and sunsets from our front "porch" was breathtaking.

Saturday morning brought on the main event. We boarded a bus with a few dozen other guests and made our way to the north to embark upon a "Swimming with whale sharks" adventure. The excursion company had about 10 boats with 20 people each that went out into the Ocean, with a plane overhead to look for whale sharks. This morning was busy as we spotted several whale sharks and spent most of the morning and early afternoon snorkeling and trying to keep up with the sharks!

A few shots of the snorkeling action. We don't have an underwater camera, so all of these photos are courtesy of the excursion company.

And here are the shots of the whale shark encounters!

And a little more snorkeling footage:

After all that swimming, we were spent. Time to head back to the resort and enjoy the evening. And what a sunset it was as usual over the Indian Ocean.

On Sunday, we made the most of our location again by hiking to Oyster Bay near our resort and snorkeling offshore. A much less intensive swim but the scenery was just as gorgeous.

This afternoon was slightly cloudier than our other days in Sal Salis. This set up conditions for a dramatic sunset on Sunday evening.

Sunday's awesome sunset was followed up perfectly by a sunrise hike on Monday morning in Cape Range National Park.

And finally, a little video of rock wallabies that we encountered that morning:

A Monday morning hike with rock wallabies.

Ningaloo Reef gave us such an awesome experience! So many adventures in an absolutely stunning part of the world! Enjoy!