Swimming with the Whale Sharks
I woke up at 7am. Feeling good, I'd got away without a hangover again and I still had 20 minutes before my alarm went off and an hour before I had to be at the dive shop. As I lay there thinking about a combination of G's leaving do and beach party last night and how awesome the whale sharks were going to be today I realised I couldn't be more comfy than I was there, under the duvet. Its funny how time acts when you're not fully awake, I swear I'd been laying there for more than 20 minutes, but couldn't have been as I still hadn't heard my alarm. Probably a good time to check my watch just in case...
7.52
Shit
In the frantic next 8 minutes I managed to get up, changed, I even managed to grab a breakfast bar and a glass of orange as I ran towards the dive shop. I also managed to diagnose I'd hit the 12/24hr clock button on my watch then drunkenly set my alarm for 7.20 that night. Oh and the world still looked a little bit too bright and was moving slightly sideways, even when I wasn't??
Bugger.
Still Pissed.
Luckily I wasn't the only one, I walked in the dive shop and Mel and Nic behind the counter were both looking a bit groggy, apparently Justin had to be forcibly dragged out of bed too. I knew my wetsuit and fin size from the PADI course so I was pretty much up to speed by the time we left the dive shop.
We hopped on the Manta Magic, things seemed a lot easier this morning as we didn't have to carry about 50 air tanks like we had to on the PADI. As we headed out on our twisty course through the reef and out to sea, Jeff the skipper took us through a safety briefing about swimming with the whale sharks. "Whale Sharks are filter feeders, they feed on plankton and other tiny organisms in the ocean. They won't attack you. Though if you get too close, they may roll towards you as a natural form of defense against predators." I got the first twinges of a hangover as he was talking. Jeff took us through what would happen today. The spotter plan would take off in about half an hour as we got further out into the Indian Ocean, they would then radio us and one other boat the position of the whale shark, and we would speed towards it.
The Whale Sharks had been appearing in a similar place the last few days so it wasn't long before we had the call and were bouncing across the waves towards it. The Manta Magic was actually faster than the other boat even though the other company owned the plane.
We suited up (into 2 groups of 10) as we circled the shark, we saw a tail fin appear to the right of the boat. The Whale Song by Mr Scruff started playing in my head.
Alex, the 'spotter' jumped in first as we all sat waiting on the back of the boat, staring at the huge black outline just below the surface. Alex gave the OK and behind us Jeff shouted "OK group 1 GO, GO, GO!"
There was a mass of fins and bubbles and snorkels and limbs as we all hit the water at the same time and tried to swim towards Alex. The confusion added to the feeling at the back of my head that was saying to me 'what the hell are you doing in the middle of the ocean with a fucking great shark you dumb bastard?' I put the vertigo I was getting from the dark blue abyss below me out of my mind and kept swimming. I passed a couple of little colourful stringy jellyfish, and suddenly there it was. The total opposite to our frantic splashing, graceful and serene, the whale shark.
In whale shark terms he was a tiddler. A minnow at five meters. He was swimming pretty slowly and I found it quite easy to swim right along side him. You can't touch them or get in front of them for safety reasons and the fact they might dive. I realised I was the only one out the front swimming with it (probably because I'd been SCUBA diving all week) every now and then it would change direction and I'd realise it was getting closer (and bigger) and that was a tad scary.
After 10 mins the whistle blew and we had to head back to the boat so group 2 could swim with it. After that, it was groups 1 and 2 on the 2nd boat. This left me standing on the Manta Magic, in the middle of the ocean as it rolled and bobbed on the swell, waiting my turn. The sudden burst of exercise had aggravated my hangover too.
It was dive 2 and Jeff was saying, keep an eye out when you jump in its heading straight for us! Splash! Bubbles. Fins. Arms. 5ft gaping mouth. The Whale Shark swam right through the middle of our group, splitting us in two. As everyone franticly kicked and paddled to get out the way it rolled slightly and passed straight through as if we weren't even there. After about 5 minutes, the shark started to dive down, not too deep, but enough that I was swimming above it, looking down on the world's largest species of fish.
By dive 3, I was really starting to feel rough. I was glad to be swimming after the whale shark just to be off the rolling boat. On the boat, I'd been staring constantly at the horizon to try to cure the overpowering hangover/seasickness combo I'd brought upon myself. Once I was in the water, I wanted to make the best of my time so I was swimming as quickly and as powerfully as I could to keep up with it. A the end of the dive, as I took off my snorkel and mask and unzipped my wetsuit to try and cool myself off a bit, I couldn't hold it any more. It became time for Breakfast 2:The Return of the Orangey Breakfast Bar.
I said to Japanese girl clinging to the back of the boat who was obviously feeling as rough as I was but didn't want to embarrass herself. "Its OK to be sick. Look, just watch me..." Alex stood next to me, disapprovingly. "We need to have words when we get back..." As I walked from the back of the boat wiping my mouth with everyone looking at me. I managed a final "Thankyou, thankyou. I'll be here all week."
I sat out the next dive.
Having spent our quota of time with the Whale Shark, we headed back towards the calmer waters of the reef. As I sat there feeling sorry for myself, wishing I hadn't started that second 6-pack of Strongbow on the beach, Alex sat down and said "What did I say to you at about 7 o'clock last night?"
The boat stopped after a while inside the reef. The words 'Manta Rays' excitedly bounced all around the boat. Apart from the one I saw on my trip south to Albany etc, I've only ever seen manta rays in aquariums before. As far as I was concerned they were just like big sting rays (3-6ft wide) with wings. I swam towards Alex who was saying he'd got 3 below him.
I've never sworn through a snorkel before. The Whale Shark was big, but not as big or humbling as I was expecting it to be. I'd spent 2 weeks in Coral Bay watching people euphorically tell me they were huge and amazing. I had so much expectation about them, it probably would've taken something the size of a Trident Nuclear Submarine to give me that 'wow' factor. As Serendipity has it, I got the humbling 'wow' factor from the Manta Rays. As I looked down for something a quarter of its actual size, there were three, 4 meter wide Manta Rays below me. I reflexively screamed 'SSHHIIIITT' through the little plastic tube, amazed and in awe of such immense creatures.
Again, being filter feeders, they wouldn't attack a human (though I'm sure it could swallow anyone whole if it wanted to experiment.) As they moved in the relatively shallow waters of the reef they really were and amazing site to see. I'd say, (even on the initial shock value alone) they were more impressive than the whale sharks.
We had lunch, probably the best quality and most varied buffet lunch I've seen since i've been away. I only managed a plain chicken sandwich as my stomach still wasn't talking to me. The quad bike guy's words echoed through my head... "You can always tell when you've got backpackers on the trip, they always bloody eat everything..." I had another sip of water and carried on looking at the horizon.
After lunch, we went to a turtle sanctuary on the reef and saw some big old (1 meter wide = roughly 100 years old) green turtles popping their heads out the water. I had a little sleep on the front of the boat to try to get my body back into equilibrium.
Last stop for the day was Asho's Gap, the shark cleaning station. Having not seen any during the SCUBA diving I was dead chuffed when , after swimming around for about 10 minutes we finally found some reef sharks! Between 1-2 meters long and with distinctive black or white tips on their dorsal fins, reef sharks won't attack humans but are still thrilling to swim with as, at the end of the day, they're sharks!! It was all good fun until I found myself away from the rest of the group, having followed a couple of white tips, when something bigger swam by underneath...
'Stay calm, let it swim by.' Thats what the PADI manual said about dangerous creatures underwater. I stopped and waited, half wanting to see it again. Half not. I remembered what Alex said before we got in the water, "Its all reef sharks here pretty much, but if you do see a shark with stripes on its back, its a tiger shark. Do please tell me and then we'll see if you can beat me back to the boat."
There it was again. Easily twice the size of the other reef sharks with a more rounded head, and no black or white tip. I stopped dead still as it swam about 4 meters below me. No Stripes. Phew. It started circling round me, darting after and eating small fish. Looking back, now I recognise it was adrenalin that must have hit my brain, as, instead of swimming calmly away I stared waving frantically at everyone going "Wheres Alex! Theres a really big shark below me eating loads of fish!! Everyone come and have a look!" I also figured if there was more people there and it did attack, my chances would be better. (Justin told us he carries a knife in case a shark starts eyeing him or his students up. He said the best way to survive is to stab the slowest moving student so everyone else can escape...)
I got one picture of it as it was swimming away. I was gonna try and get a closer shot but, still not knowing what it was, I didn't want to trigger a feeding frenzy or something if the flash went off.
I think it turned out to be a grey tip reef shark. They're a lot bigger than the black and white tips, and the tip is grey so to the average Romford bloke, completely out of his depth, they're tough to identify.
I just liked this shot. I must've hit the tit as I came out the water and it got this crazy motion blurry photo of Alex.
Yet another fantastic, once in a lifetime day.
(Obviously because of the fish not the hangover)