July 19, 2022
Day 53: Rest day
I had to ride 10 minutes to my bus pick up point for a whaleshark adventure.
We then drove for 40 minutes to the beach. Hopped into a small tender and then onto a large boat for the day. It was called latitude 22.
I think there were 20 of us on the boat. The boat had ample room for everyone to sit down. It had an upper deck for greater viewing. I'm sorry for not taking a photo. I was too excited and forgot.
My coordination skills failed me and I almost fell in the water from the tender to the boat.
On the way out into the ocean we saw a large manta ray flapping its wings out of the water. It was pretty cool.
The boat company uses an ultralight aircraft to spot the whalesharks.
It spotted one in 60 metres of water.
Everyone had to wear wet suits to prevent us dying from irukandji stings.
We separated into two groups of 10 and took turns to swim with the whaleshark.
The boat would drop us into the water in front of the whaleshark. We would then swim alongside him (it was an 8m male) for a little while and then the boat would pick us up again.
We repeated this 5 times. It was a little intense with lots of swimming. The whaleshark was doing about 5km/hr.
It was amazing to be in the open ocean swimming with such a large fish.
Here's a few pics I took:
We only saw the one whaleshark all day.
We saw several humpback whales during the day. I saw them from the boat and whilst in the water.
At one time, a humpback whale swam underneath us and the whaleshark. It was unbelievable. The guide said it had never happened before.
Once the humpback whales had departed, I could still hear them under the water. Magical stuff.
They fed us breakfast and lunch on the boat. We had a snorkel on the reef closer to the shore after the whaleshark swim. It was maybe 5m deep so I didn't get any good pics.
It was a great day. One of the highlights of my trip. Well worth the 100+ kms off the highway to get here.
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Tomorrow my goal is to eat salad and vegetables.
Today's ride: 6 km (4 miles)
Total: 3,193 km (1,983 miles)
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