Whaleshark Capital of the World!

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Two full days of brutal travel with puking kids on jeepneys and eardrum-piercing karaoke on ferries brought us to the small fishing village of Donsol. Up until about five years ago, tourists rarely visited Donsol. Then, whalesharks were found and everything changed. Now, sleepy Donsol is host to visitors from all over the world who want the chance to swim with these gentle giants.

Our jeepney dropped us off on a dark street corner and we chacked into the first hotel we saw. After a quick shower, we ordered spaghetti for dinner (such a welcome break from our diet of pot noodles and crisps/potato chips while in transit) and got talking to a Canadian traveller, Curtis. It turned out he'd just arrived and was going to do the whaleshark trip the next day, too.

Bright and early at 6:15am the next morning, the three of us jumped into a tricycle to the information centre and signed up, paying our $25. We were soon joined by a couple from Finland and the five of us boarded the boat, the traditional wooden pangka with bamboo stabilizers.

After an hour of cruising up and down the coast and gazing at the perfectly conical Mt. Mayon , we began to doubt if Donsol actually had any whale sharks. Then, right on cue, they spotted one. We all rushed to put on mask and fins and then jumped into the water together. We were carried away quickly by the false current created by the slowing boat, but soon regrouped by the guide. He pointed and shouted, "Swim that way and look down!" We eagerly did as we were told and almost instantly saw a huge mouth coming directly towards us. Quickly moving out of its way, we all swam after it for a few minutes until it disappeared downwards into the blue.

Within just a couple of minutes of being back on the boat, another was spotted and we got a very similar experience to the first sighting. This time, we didn't even have chance to get back onto the boat when a third was spotted. After our initial hour of bad luck, it seemed that the buntanding were suddenly out in force!

It was our forth encounter, however, that was the most memorable. Again, we jumped in and saw the huge mouth approaching. This time, instead of descending into the depths after a few minutes, it stayed with us for more than 30 minutes. At times it seemed as if it was going to descend but then it would rise back up, its huge tail almost breaking the surface. Other times, it banked over to one side like an aircraft coming into land. We had so much time with it that we could explore it all over - its tiny unblinking eyes, its big fins with their resident fish, the huge powerful tail, and the unmistakable white markings on its grey skin. As fish go, this really is king!

Then came the finale. All of a sudden, its buddy emerged from the depths with a powerful tail swish that broke the surface by a good couple of feet, and we were sandwiched between two whalesharks! At that point, the first one decided that it was finally tired of us and they both descended together and disappeared below us. Amazing!

After another 20 minutes, our guide announced that it was time to go back. Right on cue, another whaleshark was spotted. We all jumped in for a final goodbye. As quickly as he had appeared, he sunk into the depths and was gone, signalling the end of the trip.

Next, we had one half day of travel, one full day of travel, and then another half day of travel. It was much the same: puking kids, pot noodles, delayed ferries, and worst of all, dire karaoke! We were glad to finally arrive at Padre Burgos, sandwiched like sardines in a particularly small jeepney with particularly loud and bossy people. The first two hotels we asked at were fully booked. Carrying our backpacks along in the hot sun, we walked up the hill to a third place. Bingo! They had rooms. It turned out, in fact, that we were the only guests as they were too disorganized to maintain working websites or phone numbers, so no-one could make a booking. It worked out great for us as we had a reasonably priced room. The only problem was that we had to go elsewhere for any food and drinks we wanted as the restaurant was completely unstocked! We spent most of our mealtimes eating at the "Moose and Squirrel Karaoke Bar" down the road. Thankfully, no-one did karaoke! Despite the dodgy name, it actually served up a mean veggie curry, much to my delight.

It rained for a lot of the afternoon so we didn't do much. The next day it was still grey skies and heavy showers so we decided to get really wet and signed up for two dives. The reef was beautiful with lots of coral and fish, but it lacked the "big stuff" that we like, instead focusing on tiny things such as nudibranches and transparent shrimp. Having said that, we did get super-lucky and saw four small white-tip reef sharks resting under an overhang at the end of our first dive. Scott's mask broke before the second dive so I had to dive without my buddy!

It continued to rain for much of the afternoon so we ate lunch at the "Moose and Squirrel" and then went back to our room to do some errands: read our guide book, floss our teeth, rearrange our backpacks...exciting stuff for this one-horse town! Then it was time to go back to, where else, the "Moose and Squirrel" for an evening San Miguel.

I'm going to end this blog with a depressing statistic: we worked out today that of the 25 days we have been in The Philippines, we have spent 13 of them travelling for a substantial part of the day. In other words, 52% of our days here have been travel days. Yikes!!!

*** Please note that I have absolutely no photos from either Donsol or Padre Burgos as the action was all underwater. Therefore, the photos for this blog were downloaded from the internet...maybe a copyright infringement in there somewhere, but it is all for a good cause! 😊 ***

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Comments

[Andi and Paul]

Pictures
I was looking at your pictures thinking wow, your underwater camera is amazing!