I really don’t have any expectations for the cruise today. It’s never occurred to me to swim with any animal marine animal, the whole thing is an adventure with no risk – if we don’t find a whale shark, I’ll have a boat ride on these beautiful waters.
The boat ramp is quite close to our campsite. While we wait for the bus of people from Exmouth we get chatting to some other people who are on the cruise too. And as usual they’re from the east coast, this time it’s a family from Nelson Bay! So we compare notes on our trip so far, and escaping from the lockdown at home in NSW. The bus arrives and we board the boat.
On board, the water is clear to the sand below and sparkling with shafts of sunlight. We’re given a safety briefing and fitted for snorkels and fins.
We head into deeper water for a practice in the gear. Getting back onto the boat is a trick of timing, and I’m glad to watch others before jumping back aboard. As we’re getting back in, the captain says that the light aeroplane has spotted a whale shark, and we set off to intercept it.
The instructors explained how we’d be swimming with the whale sharks: our photographer would enter the water first and swim alongside the shark, signalling its direction; then half the swimmers would be dropped into the water ahead of the shark and one instructor would get them to form a line; as the shark swam by the group would begin swimming parallel to the path of the shark. As the group tired they would re-form. Meanwhile the boat would drive the other half of the swimmers further ahead of the shark and they would form a line in the water; then the boat would continuously leap-frog one group ahead of the other. Some aspects of this were easier said than done, others were the converse!
As we approached the whale group 1 was sitting on the back of the boat while we (in group 2) waited and watched. In an excited confusion the group disappeared into the water and the boat set off further in front. And quickly we were in the water too, about 100 metres ahead of the whale. The first group stopped swimming and formed a group.
The water was colder here and the instructor was urgently trying to form us into a line so we weren’t directly in front of the shark. I was nervously shivering as the instructor told us to look under the surface to see the approaching whale shark. It was hard to see at first, but a distant shadow rapidly became a giant animal gliding and flexing towards us! As its eye came alongside we started swimming, and I was suddenly surrounded by a mass of flippers, bubbles and arms – and somewhere a whale!
After a minute I took up a position directly behind the whale, feeling the huge surge of water thrown back by its sweeping tail. That alone we great fun to appreciate. The wide, dotted body cut an effortless path through the ocean, casting a long dark shadow far below.
Our instructor called us to stop swimming, we reformed the group and clambered back on to the boat. So (a) following instructions: easier done that said (or explained, at least); and (b) swimming alongside whale shark: easier said than done!
But our second and the third swims became far easier. The group knew what to expect and how to arrange ourselves. The instructor also told Anna and me to swim onto the other side of the whale shark because we were fast enough swimmers, and that would get us away from the group. This proved very good advice.
Just like the snorkelling in Coral Bay, the subsequent swims became more peaceful and gave me time to appreciate what I was witnessing first-hand: the mesmerising gentleness of this great animal.
I cooked a steak for dinner. Some fat collected on the stove and caught fire (the steak was done cooking by then anyway). As I was taking the steak off the stove and serving, one of the other other campers ran in with his fire extinguisher at the ready, pin pulled and nozzle pointing at dinner! I was really shocked by his sudden appearance and asked him to kindly not spray foam on my food. He grew rapidly embarrassed and quite defensively told me he was the safety officer at an industrial site so he was right to make sure no fire took hold of the camp (I suppose the fact it was mostly sand and rock hadn’t occurred to him…). When he got back to his camp and we started eating we heard his wife say, “You didn’t run over with a fire extinguisher did you? Not again!?”
