After an hour´s drive down a very long, red dusty road from the airstrip at Learmonth, I arrived in Coral Bay not really knowing what to expect. My trip had been booked on the spur of the moment, with very little planning involved. I had never stayed in a hostel before and had never been snorkeling in my life, so this was going to be a real adventure!

Coral Bay is set on the edge of the Ningaloo Reef - Australia´s only fringing reef, meaning that the coral starts only a few metres from the beach. It may be a cliché, but when I saw the bay for the first time, I felt like I had arrived in paradise. The beautiful, calm waters of the Indian Ocean lap the fine white sand of the shore. The scenery and views are simply stunning and the tranquility is out of this world. If you time it right, i.e don´t go during school holidays, you can have the beach to yourself.

Waking up bright and early the following day, I chose to go on a coral viewing tour and snorkeling trip, which took us out into the deeper waters of the bay in a glass bottomed boat. As the boat drifted slowly away from the shore, I noticed that the coral was greenish in colour, not the bright colours I was expecting, but there were plenty of very colourful sea creatures to see!

Hopping off the boat and into the water, I put my mask on and looked down into the ocean. I was quite alarmed by how many fish are actually swimming around down there and felt a little nervous as I swam out into open water! As I got used to breathing through the snorkel, I began to explore. It felt like I was in another world.

Just a few metres below the surface, I saw Nemo and his clown fish friends, exotically coloured parrot fish, huge sea clams that look like they could swallow you whole and I was pursued by a school of curious Snappers. But nothing will beat the fleeting glimpse I saw of a turtle gliding gracefully through the water, as if it were flying: Just magical!

The rest of my time in Coral Bay was spent sunbathing, snorkeling everyday and enjoying the peace of being cut off from the outside world – mobile phone signal here is very limited!

At night a group of us from the hostel would make our way down to the beach to watch the stars. As Coral bay is so remote, you can see the Milky Way very clearly and so many shooting stars that you can almost run out of wishes!

I even ended up cleaning the hostel in the mornings in return for free accommodation – a great way to stay on in a place if you are strapped for cash!