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Since Cape Range I’ve been snorkelling at Coral Bay and Point Quobba. I’ve discovered a whole new world but one that I’m struggling to take in as there is so much happening in any one moment. To draw a parallel with bird watching: when I’m bird watching, I’m lucky if I can remember the identifying features of two birds at any one time but on Ningaloo Reef there are many different corals and 20 plus fish in any one snorkelling session. My eyes are constantly darting around trying to remember what I can. The following are a few reflections on the snorkelling and the photos are of the extras above the water line. One of the most amazing experiences was watching an octopus transform itself into a piece of coral at Coral Bay. I kid you not. If it hadn’t generously repeated the exercise twice I would have doubted my eyes. First, the octopus was moving lazily along the sea bed in an ordinary cream-brown ‘coat’, then it draped itself on a piece of coral in a conical shape with tentacles wrapped out of sight and finally it changed colour in a nanosecond. The resulting effect was like a 3-D piece of coral and you wouldn’t have known it was there if you hadn’t watched it settle. Absolutely astonishing. This is the luck you have when you snorkel at 6:30am when everyone else is still in bed. The colours of the coral at Coral Bay, as with Cape Range, are mostly creams, fawns and various shades of brown. But the shapes, including immense unfurling, many-petalled flowers up to 3m x 3m x 3m, are breathtaking. There are fish with bright yellow jubey lips, like they’ve just put their lipstick on and they’re pouting to check that it all looks OK. Fish with large eyes that make them look cute and trusting and yet others with yellow smudges for eyebrows that give them a bemused and quizical appearance. Let’s not forget the sharks, striped sea snakes, rainbow coloured fish breaking off coral, long skinny fish that disappear down holes in the sand – there’s stripes, dots, whorls and all the colours under the sun. Unfortunately, Point Quobba is at the southern end of Ningaloo Reef so I will be leaving the coral behind as I travel further south. I will miss the experience of drifting around in huge aquarium with the life of the reef taking place all around.