Whale shark alert in Mahé
Trip Start
Mar 17, 2007
1
154
435
Trip End
Ongoing
Belle Ombre, Seychelles Islands
Monday, November 5, 2007
The dive center is to our taste, though, the owner a very nice lady.
The sailing to out destinations is a bit longer than we are used to. Today, we go to a wreck. Deepest point 35m, shallowest point: 20 m, 12m long. The wreck is nice, they are always surrounded by a lot of life. Towards the end of the dive, Liliane gives the shark sign to me and points. I look. Cannot see a shark. She insists. I look again. I give her the 'what are you talking about' sign. She signs back: shark and adds: whale shark. Yes, right, they left more than a week ago. And face it, if there would be a whale shark, I would SEE it, the things are tell 20m long. And then, then, instead of looking for a nurse shark in my vicinity, I look up and see ... a whale shark. I sign to Dr T: 'whale shark'. He answers: 'no way.' He is above me. That is one of those moments ne screws all rules. I ascent. The whale shark is almost at the surface! And it is small: a baby! All the divers saw it by now and the ones with the cameras are the lucky ones. The baby is playful and keeps swimming with us. She (he) is between 3 and 4 meters, which means 3 to 4 years. They are 1m when they are born and crow till they are 20 or 20 years old. And live till they are 100! Some divers are rude, approach her too close (max 4m is the rule) and one even touches her! This shark is a diver's orgasm and suddenly Liliane is our hero.
Nobody is really interested in the second dive. What can be better than playing with a whale shark? But, it turns out to be another perfect dive, 4 sharks, huge stingrays, leaf fishes and.
What we think is a dancing Spanish fish: very rare.
Our hero has a rest, sailing back, especially for Captain G: a picture: he likes diving mistresses!
The island is very pretty. We arrive back at our diving center to tell all the stories.
We walk back to our bungalow, where I find another 2 cockroaches. My brave man finds 4 more. By now, the kitchen has thousands of ants and the garbage we put out (to avoid the f... ants) has been attacked by dogs.
We play cards outside. I win of course, Broere.
And have a last read in bed. Tomorrow we go diving. Only 1 this time. There is only 1 morning dive and I do not dive in the afternoon.
Comments
Whale Shark
I saw one diving in Beauvallon in 1998. Still can remember it, what an experience.
Marc Loriau