Wednesday 22nd May – Exmouth

Up early and on the bus at 7:30am with 3 Islands Whale Shark Dive – Ningaloo.  Jill isn’t diving (just along to observe) but the rest of us are going to swim with whale sharks.  Bus driver Alex and Meg told us about the local area on the way to the boat (Harold E Hold Communications Base, Aboriginal History etc).  At Tantabiddi Jetty we were transferred to our boat for the day where we also met the rest of the crew (Josh, the skipper, Tod and Nat).

Our boat for the day

There are only 15 of us on the boat so it’s not too crowded.  We are divided up into two groups and then each group is divided into half again.  The two groups take it in turn to enter the water and then the group divides into two with small groups of 4 swimming each side the whale shark.

Are we ready?

We are issued with our wetsuit (or stinger suit) and snorkel and flippers and head for a piece of reef where we have a dive to check out the gear.  The fish are very colourful but the coral is pretty dead at this spot.

As we head for a break in the reef and deeper water we learn about the whale shark (the biggest fish in the sea but fortunately for us only a plankton eater so not dangerous to humans) and how to approach them (3m from the side, 4m from the tale).  We also have morning tea and cakes/fruit.  Three Islands has a spotter plane up and no sooner have we cleared then reef then we’re next to the shark.

What happens is a group enters the water some distance in front of the whale shark and spreads out leaving a corridor.  The whale shark swims through the corridor and then you swim along beside the whale shark.  The first time you see this huge shape appear from the gloom swimming towards you is just amazing.  They truly are beautiful animals.  It’s also amazing at the amount of other fish swimming with them – lots of sucker fish (forget their names) and smaller fish swimming around the whale shark’s mouth.  I wonder whether the animal gets sick of the hanger-oners.  They’re a bit like flies buzzing around.

What amazing creatures

For the next couple of hours it was full on.  Jump in the water, watch the whale shark, get picked up, move forward, jump back in the water etc etc.  Regulations allow the boats to watch a whale for an hour but in our case we watched 8 different whale sharks in the time we were in the water.  At one stage when we jumped in to observe a whale shark another one appeared swimming up under us.  That was pretty freaky – but pretty amazing as well.  I lost track of time but it wasn’t until 2 o’clock that we stopped for lunch.

That's Alex at the front of the Whale Shark

Jill was watching most of the time from the captain’s cabin and while the whale shark does not usually break the surface she could see the huge shape in the water with all of us trying to keep up beside it.

They fed us well for lunch, even giving us a pack of gluten free stuff.

On our way back to the lagoon we saw a dugong but unfortunately didn’t get very close.  During the day we also saw dolphin and a tiger shark.

Another quick snorkel inside the reef before heading back to the caravan park for a gelati and snacks at the chalet.  We were so exhausted that we were then off to bed without any dinner.