The expedition crew has been busy trying to hype us up and not jinx themselves. The hype is for a creature that is an extremely rare sight, and we will be going to find it today. The jinx, they say if they name it, we won’t see it. Not Voldemort, just getting that out of the way.
The “rubbish” about not letting me go first has been sorted, it is actually our turn, and I am first in the boat for the trip across one of the largest marine parks in the world to where fishermen are feeding WHALE SHARKS!!! We get our briefing, get in the water and swim toward the fishing boat ahead of us. The water is beautifully warm, there are a lot of small fish floating around, and visibility is not that great. Face down in the water, with only the sound of my breathing, I swim slowly forward. And THERE! In the distance, slowly, a huge grey fish with an intricate pattern of white spots swims majestically into view. A great gaping mouth fills up on the tiny fish as the shark comes fully into view. With remoras hanging off the underside and the tail fin sweeping from side to side the whale shark looks slow but it flies by in a second and is gone into the murky water. There! It comes again, and another follows behind. Twenty minutes of this spectacle and time has evaporated to nothing. The water is magnificent and it is difficult to come out of the sea so others can have their turn. We motor back to the ship on the zodiac to swap photos, video and tall tales, and get ready for the next cool thing.
Which is….
A “sing-sing” in Kwatisore village. The ship repositions deeper into the bay and we are off-loaded by zodiac onto the beach. As we come to shore, a group of men carrying spears, bows and machetes comes screaming into the water attempting to “scare us off” It didn’t work and we are greeted by a group of people singing and dancing and ends in a tour of the village. Three hours later it is time to return to the ship to continue our voyage.
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