After 5 weeks on Koh Tao, we decided it was time to move on. We’ve had a great month relaxing, diving, and catching up with a few friends (Becca, Jacob and Patrick who we met in the Philippines, as well as Kenny and Ben, friends from Vancouver).
The highlight for this week was undoubtedly the Whale Shark. We had heard one had been spotted a couple of times over the last few weeks, and we’d been trying to arrange a trip to Sail Rock, almost since we arrived, but for some reason none of the dive shops could make it happen. Until last Friday…
We set out with Golden Divers, bright and early Friday morning for the 2 hour ride to Sail Rock. We were a little disappointed when we arrived to find that there were already 6 other dive boats there, but, that disappointment quickly faded on hearing the news that there was a whale shark.
We geared up, jumped in and made our way around Sail Rock (which even without the whale shark is a good dive). After swimming most of the way around the rock we headed out into the blue in the direction we were told the whale shark had been seen. Patrick was the first one to see it as it came swimming towards us out of the blue. Over the next 10 minutes it swam around us, getting closer and then swimming away, getting closer and then swimming away again. Just as we started to head up for our safety stop it made on last pass and then swam off into the blue again.
The boat was buzzing with excitement when we climbed back on board and I could have gone home right then and been a happy camper! But, the second dive was even better. We went down through the chimney this time and once again swam around the rock before heading out into the blue. We’d been sitting at about 13 meters for almost 5 minutes with still no sign of the whale shark. We were just about to give up when we saw it.
Again it came swimming towards us, but this time got much closer. Mike, Patrick and I were the only ones there, and for a good 15-20 minutes we just hung out while the whale shark swam around. It was truly amazing. I must have taken about 60 pictures in that time, most of which aren’t so great (whale sharks are really big!) but managed to get a few keepers.
All in all it was an amazing day, and we were all smiles when we arrived back at the pier in Koh Tao. This definitely ranks as one of my best dives ever.
Posted by: Shim
