The Whale Shark Dive That Wasn't

Today we did a whale shark tour, something that we have been looking forward to even before we left. The day was a little cloudy, but we were still optimistic that we would find a whale shark, as were the staff, as they still continued on with the tour, complete with the details of what to do when we get in the water and swim around them! Building our hopes up or what!!  

We started with a snorkel in the outer reef, more so to test everyone's ability but the visibility was awesome and we saw heaps of fish, including trumpet fish and tusk fish, we even saw a shark, and much to my surprise, I swam toward it, not away! Talk about overcoming some fears!! It was a reef shark and it was nestled under some of the reef, looking very content, so I figured it was pretty safe!! Plus there were heaps of us, so I figured I'd be able to out swim at least one other person if it did strike!! Stella and I then found a turtle coming out from under the reef and followed it as it leisurely swam along, right into the path of another shark, this one though was swimming around and we were not with a big group, so we high tailed it out of there quick smart!! It didn't follow us thankfully!!

We then cruised along a little more, when a group of dolphins came and swam along in front of the boat, bough riding I believe it is called! They swam with us for ages!

We then sailed around aimlessly looking for the elusive whale shark, the spotter plane trying to find one from the sky, but sadly neither had any luck. We headed back to Coral Bay, having another snorkel in the outer reef near some waves, so that was a little hard as the current pulled you along, but was funny watching the fish get swept along with the current too!! We also stopped at another part of the reef where there was what they called a shark cleaning station. This sounded fun! NOT!! But it actually was great. There was about five sharks all swimming around some cabbage coral and having their teeth cleaned by the fish that lived in the coral.  It was amazing to watch. The sharks didn't seem to mind us being there either. We then swam around the coral and found some more turtles, which were quite friendly and let us get up quite close. There were more amazing fish around this part of the reef as well. 

Sadly that was the end of our day. No whale sharks to be found, much to all of our disappointment, but unfortunately that is what happens when dealing with wild animals!!