Australia - West Coast - Swimming with Manta Rays

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Hello!

As we found yesterday so exciting we booked to swim with Manta Rays today. I’m getting really into this snorkelling business!

Friday 4 June - Coral Bay - Swimming with Manta Rays
We were welcomed back to Coral Bay Adventures; they already had our stuff ready from the day before, and went out on the boat. I’m still so impressed with them; when I accepted Natalya's offer of a cup of tea she said "milk and one sugar"; she’d remembered what I had from the day before! We were soon in the water having another snorkel and within 5 minutes Lya is shouting "Rachel, come here, there's a turtle". I swam over with my noodle, expecting to see a small or baby one but got a shock when I saw a huge turtle swimming round under us!! It was amazing. It was bigger in the body than all of us. We called Amber over to take photos and she told us it was a Loggerhead and that we were lucky to see one as she's only seen 4 in 6 1/2 years of working here. We stayed with it for ages (well, it stayed with us) and tried calling for Lauren whose mission for the day was to see a Turtle but we couldn’t find her so she missed it which was a shame. Andrea, John, Lya and I loved it though. It was grand, looked so old and wise. Then we heard someone talking about a big Reef Shark so we swam over (it was Lya's mission to see a Reef Shark) and we saw it hiding in the coral. It was about 1 1/2 to 2 metres long. It swam off after a while and we followed after it; I never thought I'd see the day where I was chasing after a shark in the water!! We saw lots of other really good fish, a Big Groper and something with a huge mouth (Lya found it in a book later, we think it was a Harlequin Sweetlip). It was the best snorkelling we'd done yet and after yesterday I didn't think it could get any better. We'd taken on board the tips we'd been given by the girls to swim a bit on your side, makes the flippers work better, and it really helped a lot, we swam faster and it was less effort. As soon as we were out of the water we saw a Dolphin, that we were a bit worried about as it seemed to be sitting on the coral. Another boat stopped nearby so we were even more worried then it swam off so we knew it was OK. We then had some excitement when a Dugong started swimming by us. We were lucky (we're been so lucky on this trip with the sea life we've seen) as they are shy and usually keep away from boats but it stayed really close for quite a while. I got some really clear photos. After 10 minutes or so Stu moved us on (they're really good about not staying too long with one animal, to give them their space) and we saw a big cluster of Starfish on the sea bed.

Then, 5 minutes after the spotter plane had taken off and about a minute after Amber had finished giving us our talk on Manta Rays we got a call to say a Manta Ray had been spotted. It only took us 10 minutes to get there and this time we could see them from the surface, there were 2 or 3. Amber went in first, with her arm up in the air (if you remember from the Whale Sharks, that means she can see the Manta Ray so we know it's there) and started swimming with it. It took a while until Group 1 got in and there was a bit of a delay until we got in as a guy in Group 1 (lovely chap from London) got stung by a jellyfish across the face, within seconds of spotting the Manta Ray under the water. But Group 2 (my group) got in as soon as possible. I went without my noodle (didn't want it slowing me down again) and would have been OK I expect had I not made a huge error and jumped in without putting my goggles on. That meant I had to try and sort it out in the water. I got them on OK and had a good few minutes swimming with the Manta Ray; it was a bit of a shock again on seeing it as was bigger than I expected (3-4 metres wide) and although John had explained it last night I still wasn't 100% sure what a Manta Ray was. You'll have to look at the pictures, can't explain it. It was so cool watching it, at one point it came up under me and I had to remember what Amber told us about lying still if that happens. Then it started barrel rolling (it does this as it's feeding) which was so amazing to watch and then my goggles filled with water so I had to try and sort that. At the same time I started coughing and then I was in a whole world of trouble as I couldn't breathe; I was gasping for air in the sea and it was a bit scary. I'd put my fist up in the air (signal to get picked up by the boat) as soon as my goggles had filled as I'd never had caught up again but as soon as I couldn't breathe I had to started the frantic waving which means I'm in real trouble. I didn't think the boat had seemed me and it seemed a long way away so I remember forcing myself to calm down as that was the only way I was going to be able to breathe again and I did calm down as soon as I saw the boat turning so my frantic waving turned back into a fist. I think I couldn't breathe for about a minute, was quite scary. Natalya got me back into the boat and I took some puffs of my inhaler. I was really not sure what was wrong, my asthma has never been that bad! I was a bit scared to go back in but after 10 minutes or so when I knew my medicine had worked I thought I'd give it ago. The Manta Ray had stopped moving around so quickly so I wouldn't have had to swim so much. Natalya called Anna (the swimmer on the boat that day) over who then stayed with me the whole time, towing me around on my noodle so I didn't have to work so hard. I did paddle, didn't want her doing all the towing, already felt like an invalid! We just sat and watched the Manta Ray for ages, it was beautiful. It wasn't the same mad scramble as the Whale Shark swimming had been and we could just chill out. Anna was amazing, she looked after me the whole time and when the Manta Ray started moving off again asked if I wanted to stay with it which of course I did, didn't want to miss anymore, so she towed me around some more!!! It would go off for a little while so we'd start after it and then come back right underneath me, so I never had to swim far which was nice. At one point another Manta Ray was swimming with us as well, this one was a bit darker and it didn't stay with us for long. It might have been male, apparently they are not so friendly (!) Another boat was swimming with the third Manta Ray; that got a bit confusing for a minute when we saw another arm up in the air!!! As we were swimming with it Amber was telling us information about the Manta Rays (she knows a lot of them by name), like how they roll the flaps around their nose up and down depending on whether they are feeding. And how they go to cleaning stations, where little cleaner fish clean them. It was an amazing experience, very calming and peaceful although not as emotive as the Whale Sharks.

After about 1/2 an hour in the water we were back on the boat, where we could see the Manta Ray's really clearly from the surface. One kept tipping it's wings out of the water; looked a bit like an arm pointing up in the air, maybe it was thinking, "hang on, an arm needs to be up so you know I'm here"! We then saw more Bottlenose Dolphins, they played really close to the boat which was cool to watch. Then lunch which was just as nice as yesterday. Then Dolphins, again (see what I said about us being lucky!). Then it was time for another snorkel but I sat that one out, thought I'd best quit whilst I was ahead. Lauren said I didn't miss anything. We spent a nice time sailing back, I got lots of tips from the London couple for South East Asia. We saw another Dugong, and a Big Turtle from the surface and a Stingray. We had lovely cake again (which John had been waiting all day for!) and saw more Dolphins and another Turtle before arriving back at the jetty. Coral Bay Adventures were as amazing as ever. John thinks Amber is the coolest person he’s ever met - I think we all love Amber a little bit 😊 !!!

Another great day in Coral Bay! I really wish you all could have been there.

Xx

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