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Swimming with Whale Sharks
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So after our first night in Manilla we were up at 4.00 to catch our flight to Donsal all in the name of swimming with the Whale sharks............praying they would make an appearance. As our flight approached the airport we could see the active volcano Mount Mayon's peak above the clouds and below the terraine of crators that the volcano had onced caused. The last eruption was in the late 90's. Once on the ground we were allowed to freely walk across the tarmac to the little bus shelter they call an airport. Our first thoughts were how tropical the island looked, so different from the islands we had been to in South East Asia. The hours journey to Donsal was full of lush paddy fields, straw huts and the view of a layed back island life style. Lots of cute things like somebody hanging out their washing using a road traffic sign as a pole.
Pulling up to the whale shark visitors centre we could not believe just how remote the place was. You always hear a place is basic, or read from the lonely planet that is is unspoilt but usually places become touristy over night. There was no ATM and no fixed land line, it was the most peaceful place I have ever been to !! There were 2 places of accomadation, we decided not to rough it too much and went for the hut with hot running water. Mufajel , being Mufajel wasted no time and managed to get us on a 11.00 am boat with a bunch of philpinians to go Whale Shark snorkeling.
We saw a video the following day of the people of Donsol hunting the Whale sharks and the video showed them cutting up the whale sharks in the local market, so sad. Now the Whale sharks are protected and due to controlled tourism ( only 7 people can swim with the whale shark at a time) the local people earn money taking people out on the boats, however 250 whale sharks were sold in Taiwan last year in the markets. It was not what you would call an organized affair the boat was a tiny wooden boat with pond skater wooden legs to balance it and the guide didn't speak any English which is unusual for the Philippines. We were lucky enough to be on the boat with 5 friendly Filipino's, they were all dentists and on a 3 day holiday. We ended up hanging out with them all afternoon , Ian entertained us with some impressive card tricks and they invited us for food, traditional home cooked Filipino food, it was yummy. Such a lovely bunch of people.
We were only out for half an hour when the B.I.O ( The Filipino word for Whaleshark is a Batunding, and a BIO is a Batuning Interaction Officer) spotted a dark shadow in the water. It was then adrenalin charged mayhem. In our tiny boat all 7 of us were frantically putting flippers on sorting out the snorkels and the masks, I then realized that they weren't actually going to stop the boat and put the ladder down for us to climb into the water, on the contrary I watched as the Filipino's jumped off the side of the moving boat and then the technique was not to bash your head on the skater wooden legs that protrude to the side of boat. Heart beating I jumped off the boat and put my flippers to work caught up with the group and put my head under the water and could not believe what I saw it was the head of a whale shark, I couldn't believe how lucky we were to see one already. It's head was massive they grow up to 18 meters this one was about 8, and then all of a sudden it was surfacing and I was on top of his head, so I frantically got out of it's way not wanting to alarm it. Back on the boat we were all on such a high, it was an amazing experience. I was rea lly fired up now, and I wanted to see the whole whale shark like I had seen on telly on Globe Trekker. In total we saw 5 Whale sharks, totally elated we went back to our huts and swaped stories with the other people who had been out Whale Shark swimming that day.
Obviously this is totally addictive so we booked to go out at 7.00 clock the next morning and this time shared the boat with an English guy and 4 french travelers. It was not looking so optimistic this time as it was pouring with rain the poor spotters were up on the masts with their waterproofs on we were huddled on the boat under freezing cold soggy wet towels, they rolled a piece of plastic down to protect us from the rain but it doesn't do much good when they change the direction of the boat and the wind blows the pelting rain in. The whale sharks basically go where the plankton is ( their food) and when it rains it stays on the bottom. For FIVE hours we were on this boat no sunshine cold in continual rain, looking back I do not know how we stuck it out !! (so funny) and we had had no breakfast, we got up with enough time to go to the restaurant a joined to our hut but they said " you did not order breakfast last night when we served you dinner" we said " oh we were meant to order our breakfast with you last night" they said "yes" and of course that was the end of that. Of course had this been England we would have been up in arms, asking to see the management, had been Rachel Preece she would have then probable nogatiated free dinner for all due to the over sight........................Anyway you get the point that I was cold and hungry.
People would give in at certain points and say shall we go back but luckily there was always a few remaining strong wanting to stay out. About 12.00 o clock the sun came out and they had finally spotted a shadow, we all eagerly jumped in the water ( believe it or not the water was really warm compaired to the out side atmosphere) I then felt so priviledged as the sun must have been very strong just on where the Whale shark gliding, there was pure visability I saw the whole shark from head to tail, and then caught up with the head and swam him.............a spine shivering moment. If I didn't see another whale shark all day it would not have bothered I had my perfect experience and was so glad that I didn't give up and go in.
As it happened we then saw one after another, we swam with 5 that day again though only seeing parts of the shark, it was a race to get your place in the water as everyone wanted to see the shark. I came away with four big bruises on my leg and head ache where the French boy jumped on my head but the biggest grin ever as I had just had the best experience of my travels so far. More thumbnails ...
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