Ningaloo Whale Shark Dive

We got picked up at 7.50am by Ningaloo Whale Shark and Dive (highly recommended)! And headed South down the coast to the pier to get on the boat. The weather was perfect, we couldn't have asked for it to be better.

We had to take a dingy out to get on the main boat! There is a choice of 8 different tours you can go on, but I'd say ours definitely had the best boat. 

After arriving on the boat, we were fitted out with flippers, snorkels and masks before being given a briefing on the whale sharks and the days activities. 

Basically a spotter plane heads out and looks for the whale sharks before sending down radio messages to the boats on their whereabouts so the crews can then spot them and they can take us out. 

Firstly we headed to a sight to test out of gear in preparation for the whale shark swimming. The water was a lot warmer than I expected (thank goodness) and it was the most turquoise colour I have seen. 

It was so nice and clear in the water so you could see relatively far away and there was lots of coral and little fish. We did this for around 45minutes before getting on the boat to head to our whale shark spot. 

I was becoming increasingly nervous in all honesty. I mean, I have a right to be when Whale Sharks are the biggest fish in the Ocean. We were the first group to go in and when we looked under water it was pretty clear again but we couldn't see the bottom or anything it was just deep dark sea. I always find it scarier when you can't see the bottom, like a shark might come up and surprise me. Thankfully they said it would be highly unlikely for us to see one, but still there is always that chance that plays on your mind. 

The guide got us all to 'stand' in a line and then once we had put our heads under water he would point in the direction we needed to look. However even when the whale shark arrived you didn't expect it and it was huge, around 8 metres we were told. It swam right past us and about a metre away and there were loads of smaller fish swimming underneath it in order to protect them from predators. It was beautiful but very surreal and when we go out of the water 10 minutes later it was like we had dreamed it. 

We did this again around 4 more times and each time was slightly different, sometimes it was closer and sometimes it was slower so we could swim a lot with it but each time was awesome. 

Unfortunately after the second time Nathan started to feel very sea sick which wasn't helped when it swallowed a load of sea water. But luckily he still saw the whale shark before this happened. 

We had a photographer taking pictures of the whale shark the whole time which we got given on a CD.

We spent the rest of the day in shallower water snorkelling and on the hunt for turtles but unfortunately we didn't manage to see any.

It was an incredible day and definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity. Apologies for no underwater pictures I will have to post them separately some other time when we can get free wifi on the laptop.

Xoxo