Today was THE most exciting and bestest day we had. I guess it was the climax of such an epic trip. Today, we swam with Whale Sharks.
We chose Ocean Eco Adventures, they seemed more eco friendly and onboard they had reusable everything and reef friendly sunscreen, They also used a flylite plane to ‘spot the whale sharks and this was handy in being able to have multiple swims with them.
The morning started off with a nice continental breakfast and real coffee, followed by a safety and expectation brief. We were then taken out to a coral reef called Nudi Reef, known not for naked swimming but for the tiny nudibranches that hid amongst the corals. Due to the potential of stinging jelly fish, stinger suits or long sleeve rashies and leggings needed t be worn while in the water and the water was surprisingly warm. I explored the reff in one of my mermaid tails and saw all manner of colourful fishies everywhere. Although we were quite off shore, it was less than 5 metres to the bottom and for those who were not confident in snorkeling, they provided pool noodles to keep you
Our real journey started out into deeper water and we were briefed on how the swims would go. The water looked choppy and the wind had a chill that ran through you. Broken into two groups, we waiting on deck, snorkels and fins at the ready and when one was spotted, moved to sit on a deck in the water before given ‘go, go, go. Without hesitating we all slid into the water and lined up, occasionally needing to move direction depending on the Whale Sharks movements. Our guide then all told us to look down. You could not see the ocean bottom and I have no idea how deep the ocean was. It was a little murky in the water, a muted deep blue with the occasional light ray streaming in from the sun and then it came into view. The expanse of this beautiful creature was magnificent and we felt dwarfed by its size. We swam with it for a few minutes before it sank into the depths below.
The boat circled round, picking us up and not being the graceful type, I rolled onto the wooden platform like a dugong. Kym made
it look effortless..damn him..Everything was so quick as we needed to get out of the way for others getting back up.
This continued on and off throughout the morning, sometimes we saw a whale for 45 seconds, other times it was a few minutes, sometimes they were near the surface and other times they were a fair way below us. Each time was still amazing, seeing their large gills open and close, the way that their tail moved so effortlessly, the calm nature of them. The crew got photos with each person on the tour with the whale sharks, mine was with the last one, this one was a big one, and stayed with us for well over five minutes as we swam 3 metres behind or to the side of it, just marvelling at this majestic experience. This was made even more spectacular as we could hear the whales that were off in the distance singing. On the boat we were even treated to seeing a giant humpback whale breach the surface and dive back in the ocean, a truly magnificent thing to watch. It was all the tingles.
and fresh prawns and we headed back to another snorkelling spot, again seeing colourful fish, some barracuda and a turtle. Getting changed, we listened to information and had a Q &A session about the whale sharks on the rooftop of the boat, while drinking champagne and watching turtles go by.
It was such a great day and we were both equally still buzzing from excitement and exhausted from swimming in the swell all day.
