WOW - it can't get much better than this.
We have just had one of the best day's of our lives. We took a day trip with Ningaloo Blue Charters to the Indian Ocean in anticipation of swimming with a whale shark (the biggest fish in the world). The only way to see this fish is to view it under the surface of the water.
The boat anchored above a reef 'the coral garden' and we had our first snorkel of the day surrounded by a multitude of tropical fish of all sizes and colours.
Resting between snorkel dives
Luck was with us when a whale shark was sighted. Everyone grabbed their gear and took up their position for the drop into the sea to swim with the whale shark.
Swimming around the whale shark.
We were split into two teams of ten. Only ten snorkelers are allowed in the water with the whale shark at any one time. Team A swam for ten minutes before changing places with Team B. The teams keep rotating whilst the whale shark is near the surface; when it dives to the sea bed everyone returns to the boat.
David returning to the boat
Whilst out at sea we saw lots of marine life. Ningaloo Blue have a spotter aircraft to direct the boat to interesting marine life. We were directed to a large pod of approx 200 dolphins. Some were spinners (they jump right out of the water and spin their bodies three times before landing back in the sea. The ones in the photo had a wonderful time racing beneath the bow of the boat like torpedoes until they dropped aside to be replaced by others. It was great to watch the speed at which they traveled.
There were lots of humpback whales, breaching, spyhopping and lobtailing. One whale came close to the boat with a baby whale asleep on its back. It awoke, slid off its mother and they swam off together.
An olive python sea snake, we saw three during the day. We also saw a rare 'flat backed turtle' a giant sea turtle and a number of flying fish; we were amazed to see them skim the water in a clockwork motion for a distance of 200m - 300m.
We saw an enormous dark circle ahead of us and as we approached we discovered it was thousands of Shearwaters just floating on the water in a large circle. As the boat sailed through the middle they flew off, another amazing sight.
