Perth to Exmouth - WA Trip Planning

Whale Sharks!  Yep...that is what I wanted for my first big adventure in OZ (after the moving fun).  I wanted to go to Western Australia (WA) and see the largest fish in the ocean...again.  I did this trip 10 years ago (wow...can not believe I am that old) when I was living in Townsville, North Queensland, Australia and doing my masters work in Marine Biology.  When I was in school, I took my fall break and went to WA to go swim with the "Big Spotty Fish".  It was an incredible trip and….well…it is the largest fish in the sea.

The planning process was painful as I had limited time to coordinate lots of parts BEFORE the end of whale shark season (May-July).  There are limited ways to get up to Exmouth.  WA is a LARGE area and not super accessible.  Greyhound was unreliable and may cancel even if you have a ticket according to my research and the flight was almost the same price as my flight from Sydney to Perth.  Traveling with a tour company seemed to be the most reliable way to get up the coast. I did talk to a couple of people who booked with a tour with Western Xposure Tours who canceled the trip…the tour company rebooked them on a different tour (different day but unlike the people I spoke with who were stranded by Greyhound, at least they tried to help those who had booked). In 2001, I heard great things about the trip up to Broome but I had to get back to school so I was also working on how to get up to the Kimberleys from Exmouth.   It is REALLY difficult to get to Broome from Exmouth.  I could get there IF I did not stop in Exmouth BUT I wanted several days in Exmouth including an extra day in case the sharks did not show on the day of my trip. Luckily for me, my work sorted it out by asking me to work on a project at the end of June in Melbourne…so I needed to leave right away.  This made the decision easy.  No Kimberleys.  Next time J

I chose the same company I traveled with 10 years ago.  Red Earth Safari tour takes 6 days up to travel up the coast to Exmouth with an optional 1.5 days to travel back down to Perth.  Other companies were traveling the same distance in 5 days.  I figured that they might spend a bit longer in the good spots with the extra day.  I was concerned that the itinerary would be the same but…maybe my memory would enjoy being jogged or maybe they had changed things in the last 10 years.

I did find a great post listing all of the Whale Shark companies in Coral Bay and Exmouth that helped tons.  It was nice to see it all on one page.  Another good tip was to call and ask for a discount if you do multiple bookings at one dive shop...this was a great recommendation.  I called around to see about a Live-Aboard Dive Trip and about the Navy Pier (one of the top dive spots in the world).  I was lucky and found one dive shop, Whale Shark –N- Dive that had both a live-aboard and the contract for the Navy Pier.  The other thing I would recommend but did not know at the time was that there are discounts through other means.  Discounts are also offered through YHA or other places that have one of the dive shops on the premises.


One more recommendation was to get a YHA membership for travel discounts.  I thought it paid for itself .

Less than one week after booking tickets, I was on the train to the airport in Sydney.  Unbelievable…I was off!  WA here I come :)