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Published: April 20th 2009
Sunday, April 19th
After dragging our lazy butts out of bed we mounted our scooter and headed north once more, this time in search of "The Whale Skeleton". We took the wrong turn off, drove up some scary roads then walked till we were sure that we got it wrong.
We drove some more and found the right turn off. We had to battle up some more scary hills until it got too steep for our little scooter. We abandoned it and walked up, but soon realized that in our attempts not to crash we had missed the place. By this time we were drenched in sweat. Koh Tao might be diving and snorkeling heaven but as far as the temperature goes, it has a striking resemblance to hell (when you're not in the water). We turned around and found the skeleton lying in the courtyard of a resort. Not really what we had expected but cool nonetheless.
After a coke and some photos we headed south. We were told that the snorkeling on the south-east coast it awesome so we scouted the area. True to the rumour it looked spectacular. We'll definitely go there soon. We dropped off the
scooter, had a cold shower, then sat reading till we dozed off, read some more, then went to 7/11 to get supplies for dinner.
Today's highlights:
1. Finding the whale skeleton at last!
2. Scouted a great snorkel spot.
Monday, April 20th
The morning of our seven month wedding anniversary dawned windy and overcast. We were a little worried since we would be diving this morning and windy weather means possible currents and low visibility. We prayed for a good days diving, then set out for the dive shop.
We were scheduled to dive on the upper north-west coast but because of the wind and very choppy ocean the powers-that-be decided we'd be diving at Shark Island, a rock-formation in the shape of a shark fin off the south-east tip of the island. We were delighted! On the way there the ocean was very rough, but we managed not to get ill.
During the first dive the viz was about 10m (okay in other words) and we saw a Yellow Box-fish, Blue-spotted Stingrays, eels and all the usual. We were near the back of our group when Talita suddenly screamed. She was being attacked... by a
big and very territorial Titan Trigger-fish! They eat the hard coral so they've got big rat-like teeth, and he had bitten Talita's right foot through the rubber of her fin. He would swim away only to turn around and attack again. He was very aggressive and when Ferdi got between him and Talita he went after Peter, another diver in our group. After about three minutes he finally got tired of harassing us and left us alone. Nobody was hurt but it was a little unnerving to realize that a fish of no more than a meter can still scare the crap out of you.
Later a friendly Bat-fish swam with us for a while, as if he was showing us around his neighborhood. We went up for our safety stop at 5 meters and just then, out of the blue (literally), came swimming a four meter long female Whale shark! It was unbelievable! She swam right up to us, real slow, then passed no more than two meters from us. We slowly followed her, unable to believe that it was really happening. She was gorgeous! After a few minutes she disappeared into the gloom and we surfaced, everybody
all excited and babbling.
The Whale shark stayed in the area and everyone decided to do our second dive as soon as possible. By this time word has gotten out and a lot off divers were in the water. As we were drifting in the water, waiting for the rest of our group to join us, she swam right at us again. We went down and swam with her for about ten minutes, never getting that close to her again. Then she decided that she'd had enough and left the area. We were thrilled to have spent so much time with her.
The rest of the dive was great too. We saw two Porcupine fish, a school of Butterfly-fish, Bat-fish, eels, stingrays and more. The Titan Trigger-fish was around but didn't bother us again.
The return trip was a wild roller-coaster as our boat slammed over the big swells. Nobody seemed to care. Everyone was thrilled to have seen the Whale shark. One of the instructors have been here for more then seven months and this had been her first sighting. It was also one of the very few sightings in the Shark Island area. The Whale
Naughty kitty
joined us for breakfastsharks are usually seen to the north of the island.
Even though the start of the day had looked gloomy, we were blessed once again with a very special experience. God just loves to come through for His children!
After a shower we set out to buy our own masks and snorkels. We had decided to spend the money and get proper diving masks since it's fair to say that we're hooked on diving for life! We got really nice ones with a very wide field of view and luckily it wasn't too expensive.
After lunch we read a bit but the excitement of the day was too much for us and we ended up sleeping heavily for a couple of hours. Dinner was at a nice restaurant with free wi-fi so that we could catch up with our blog.
Today's highlights:
1. Our first Whale shark sighting!
2. Got our own masks and snorkels.
We'd like to apologize to Melinda for seeing a Whale shark before her ;-) It was very inconsiderate of us.
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Melinda
non-member comment
aarghhhhh...
julle: 3 kitties en 1 whale shark ek: geen kitties n geen whale shark ...my lewe suck