2023.11 - Lotti's and Cowtails

Xander and Leanne kayak out to and snorkel at two of the Coral Bay Moorings

This is one of my many adventures on the Ningaloo Reef, subscribe to get future updates straight to your inbox.

By November of 2023 Leanne and I had become well acquainted with the offshore moorings at Coral Bay. When great weather coincided with a slow work week it was time to get back out and enjoy our backyard!

Bills Bay - Serenely Deserted

As Coral Bay is tapering down into the off-season I continue to be surprised by how often this usually bustling beach can be completely even empty when conditions are ideal! We set out at 9am, well past the time the beach usually fills up, with beautiful calm conditions, but barely a person in sight!

Cruising out of Bills Bay we had to avoid coral formations reaching to the surface and chuckled at the altered lettering on the glass bottom boat as we passed by.

Low Tide

The tide was so low that Ayers Rock, the paradise beach marker and Lotti’s coral bombie were all above the surface of the water.

Murky Depths

Lotti’s is one of, if not the deepest mooring in the Coral Bay area, with a depth of almost ten metres. It’s also positioned quite close to a break in the reef, and so with the incoming tide the swim from the kayak to the bombie was a murky disconcerting start. I definitely felt more comfortable once we were alongside the bombie, even though the murkiness continued around the western face.

Wildlife

As we rounded the bombie to the sheltered side the visibility improved and the depth lessened giving us better conditions for wildlife photography.

First we saw two turtles, then a blue spotted fantail ray that hid under the coral, followed by a large parrot fish, nudibranch egg sack, and a clam.

Corals

Scattered around the area were a diverse variety of coral species.

Mysteries of the deep

Returning to the kayak through the deep water I spotted a coral with an interesting pattern and bright colour. The coral also had a hole in it and diving down for a closer look provided a glimpse at it’s internal structure.

Elusive Creatures

Between Lotti’s and Cowtails we had two wildlife encounters that evaded the camera; a turtle taking breaths on the outer reef and a lemon shark next to the Cowtails mooring. The lemon shark sped away as we arrived, but swum past us again once we were in the water, unfortunately the camera was turned off then too.

Cowtails Snorkel

The area surrounding the Cowtails mooring is well within the damaged part of the reef. Almost all the coral here is dead and covered in algae, and so searching around for pockets of colour was the name of the game.

The third photo shows the tail of a juvenile spotted sweet lips.

In the centre we have a Moorish Idol aka Gil from Finding Nemo.

The last photo was taken shortly after we sighted the lemon shark, when all the parrot fish quickly started swimming in the opposite direction.

Return

With a favourable wind it took no time at all to paddle back to shore from Cowtails. We finished the morning with a swim and lunch on the beach before returning home for a nap.

Reflections

We visited these moorings earlier in the year. Back then Lotti’s was packed with over a dozen spotted sweet lips, by far the most we’ve seen in one place! I don’t know if this is seasonal, but I think I’ll try to make my next visit at a similar time, just in case.

I’ll also be giving Cowtails a miss for the time being. The reef has a lot of recovering to do there, and I suspect we would have seen a lot more by dropping anchor on the outer reef (in a sandy area) where we could see splashes of colour through the surface of the water.

Trail Tip

Linen clothing, such as the cover up dress Leanne is wearing in some of these photos, are great, cooling beachwear. However it’s good to remember that they are not UPF rated like high-end outdoor clothing, and you need to sunscreen accordingly.

Links

https://trailswa.com.au/trails/trail/coral-bay-kayak-trail

Next post: Monday 2023.12.04

I look back on one of my favourite kayak outings of the year; snorkelling and watching the sunset at the Maze.