Ningaloo vs. GBR/Coral Sea liveaboard

I need some help.

I'm a Canadian who will be visiting Australia this June with my wife. We will only have 1 week's time to do some diving while we are there and we're still trying to figure out where the best place to go would be. The two front-running ideas right now are either to do a liveaboard on the outer Great Barrier Reef / Coral Sea or to travel all the way out west to spend some time on the Ningaloo reef.

For background purposes, we are cold water divers (Great Lakes and St. Lawrence river - shipwrecks) primarily interested in seeing some interesting wildlife while in Australia. Manta Rays and other large animals would be of particular interest. It would also be nice to experience some variety (ie different kinds of wildlife/terrain/ecoenvironment) rather than to spend the week doing a bunch of similar dives.

Our salt-water diving experience thus far is limited to 2 dives in Costa Rica (Pacific side) and about 20 or so dives in the Caribbean Sea.

I would appreciate hearing different people's opinions on what I should choose. Feel free to suggest other options if you think I'm leaving out something really good.

Thanks.

Kyle

Contributed by canuckdiver added 2004-04-21

Replies of 1

Wandy Hochgrebe added 2004-05-12: There is interesting wild marine life everywhere you go in Australia! Temperate AND tropical diving.

When going to the GBR make sure you are going out to the Coral Sea. Fantastic drop offs. Humphead Parrotfish, loads of different corals, nudibranchs, Reef Sharks and loads of colourful fish. Sometimes it can be dissappointing if you stay too close to shore, where you generally have lower visibility.

Ningaloo is fantastic too. It is closer to shore, but if you do shore based diving it can still be a bit of a drive to get to where the boat leaves. Apparently the Navy Pier in Exmouth is supposed to be very impressive (when we were there 5 years ago it was closed). Whaleshark season ends end of May, but some might still be around beginning of June. The Manta Rays should be around. The only 'disadvantage' would be the distance to anything else from Coral Bay/Shark Bay/Exmouth. Loads of Kangaroos in the National Park though.

Basically, I wouldn't be able to choose because I think they are both awesome places to go. You'll have to start saving for a next trip and go diving all around. Personally I love temperate water diving a lot and it so underappreciated, but if you only have a week......Life is tough.

Enjoy!
Wandy

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