Swimming with a 6m whale shark!!!

---

We were up early and made our way to the hostel entrance where the bus from our boat came to pick us up. After picking everyone up we made our way out to where the boat was tied up. We climbed into the small boat that took us out to our big boat for the day. We were doing an eco-tour as the whale shark season officially ended on August 1st. But we were told a spotter plane would still fly out looking for them and if we saw one we could jump in with them for some extra money.

We went a little ways out and had our first snorkel trip off the boat. Lots of coral around and lots of big parrotfish. The waves were quite strong as well and it was a good way for our tour operators to see how we all were able to manage with the swimming.

We all hopped back on the boat and had some morning tea as the boat took off down the ningaloo reef. Along the way we spotted heaps of humpback whales in the water. We were able to get quite close to a few of them but they are hard to capture on your camera! We also saw a duguong in the water and a sea snake. One whale came right up to our boat and flashed us his whale tail but it happened too fast for me to get a picture of it.

We got word that the spotter plane found a whale shark so our boat headed in that direction. There were 2 other boats out on the water as well. As a rule you can only have 10 snorkelers in the water with the whale shark at a time. Our guide put us in groups and then my group jumped off the back of the boat into the open water and our guide would tell us where to look and I stuck my head under the water and saw this HUGE whale shark swimming right next to me.

SO AMAZING! We swam with it for a bit but it's really fast! Then we stop and the next group swims with it while the boat comes to get us. We got to hop into the water with it 3 times. Every time was soooo amazing! It was about 6 meters long. I can honestly say that it was one of the most amazing things I have ever done!

After our swim we had lunch and then headed over to another spot to snorkel. Saw heaps more fish including a small ray. On our way back we spotted 5 or 6 dolphins swimming next to the boat. Such a GREAT day!

---

Comments

[jess]

re: swimming around with a whale shark THREE times. SO. EFFING. COOL. I only wish I could have been there too, with an underwater camera to record it! Seriously jealous of you for that experience. Did the tour group have anybody in the water with a camera? I'd pay for pictures!!

[Laurene]

one girl had an underwater camera but me and my friends split the cost and bought a dvd from the tour company. It's not pictures but video of all the animals and more that we saw which is pretty cool.