I'm sitting in a beach front pub in Coral Bay enjoying a glass of wine and an ice cold bottle of water along with my view of the long long semi circle beach all around me.

The peninsula Exmouth and Coral Bay are on is known as the Ningaloo Reef. Yes yes I know Ningaloo sounds likes something you would order at the local Indian Takeaway but is just about the only remnant of Aboriginal presence.

Ningaloo Reef tours include glass bottom boats, sunset and sunrise cruises, Whale watch trips, and of course scuba and snorkel diving. All are worth doing as the Ocean is clear clean and an incredible shade of blue/green I've ever seen. exotic coral and the unique fish that inhabit the reef are all accessible from the cruise boats.

I took a taxi from the my hotel to the sunset whale watch tour boat I did yesterday. there is a hotel in Exmouth called 'The Pot-shot' which I thought a strange name for a hotel so I asked the cabbie about it as we drove by. Unfortunately he had only lived here 16 years so was not familiar with the area yet (!!!!!) or so he said.

I did get out of him that during WWII there were USA and UK Airbases here that were of particular interest to the Japanese. Apparently Operation 'Pot-shot' was the name of a special initiative by the Allies against the Japanese. I'll research some more and get back to you.

In the mean time here's some pics from this leg of the trip