On Monday the 30th of June it was time for Charlotte, Bastian and me to go for a swim with these guys:
WHALESHARKS! The biggest fish in the sea and on visit in the Ningaloo Reef every winter.
But first we got picked up by our chosen tour operator to be driven to the jetty.
On board the small ship we got all our snorkel and wetsuit gear and were pretty happy about the perfect weather and we saw some dolphins while we set out to the first swimming spot in the reef.
In order to be sure that all the gear fits alright we did a fairly nice swim around the reef. These pictures have been taken by the tour operator photographer on that day. Although the reef itself wasn't the nicest we have seen there were lots of fish.
And Charlotte and me!
Then it was time for some nice morning tea and a puppet show! The crew explained how the swim with the whaleshark would work and what to do in this or that case.
Finally the spotter plane has found a suitable whaleshark for us and we got ready. Charlotte took her underwatercamera with her and I cannot tell you how excited I was! And scared! And then we saw it!!! AMAZING! CRAZY! ABGEFAHREN!
Before lunch we had two interactions while the first one only lasted a few minutes with a fairly slow whaleshark the second interaction lasted about 15 minutes but you had to swim a bit faster to keep up with it. I stayed mainly at the rear and watching the tail of the whaleshark. Although I am not the best swimmer and thanks to the awesome crew to pull me forward sometimes I managed to keep up. Whereas Charlotte stayed behind each time and got picked up by the safety tender that followed each interaction. It was time for lunch eventually.
And then I got really seasick. YEAH, I know! How terrible but I was not the only one. The boat was rocking up a lot in the aim to stay in front of a whaleshark. So after lunch I passed on the next two interactions and sympathised with a 60-year old lady who got sea-sick as well.
Anyway, here some more impressions of that day.
Charlotte and Bastian joined two more short interactions before we made our way back to the jetty. One whaleshark swam very close around our boat so in the end we also saw one really close from outside the water.
But the day was not over. We saw Humpback Whales! And lots of them! I counted ten. Not unusal for this time of year and the passage they take along the coast is also known as Humpback Highway.
We saw a Manta Ray as well and luckily my sea-sickness was almost completely over by the time they handed us afternoon tea. We got back to the caravan park and Laura at about 5pm and had leftover salad from the boat for dinner. It was an exciting, fantastic and truly memorable day! I swam with the biggest fish in the sea!!!
Our next stop: Tom Price!
Yours whaleshark-swimming Stefanie
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Have your say now! Would you do the same thing or would you do it differently? Do you have any travel tipps for me for my onwards travels? let me know!