24th September 2011

Guess what we saw this morning?   A Whaleshark   YAY!!!!!!    ....and it's only because Sylvain, a french guy who's been doing an eco internship here, asked us to join him for his last couple of dives on Koh Tao.

Still half asleep on the boat, there was a shout over the radio that a whaleshark had been spotted at Chumphon Pinnacle, the deep dive site that we were on our way to.  The excitement that spread around the dozen or so people on the boat was unbelievable, so much so that everyone kitted up 5 mins before we'd even got the dive site :-)

When the boat finally stopped, everyone jumped in, we had our camera's passed down and began our hunt for the whaleshark.  The visibility was pretty good, 20m+ and accompanied by a mild current.   We all went off in our separate groups.  Sylvain, Si and I stayed around 15 meters and looked up, down, around into the blue  ... we were becoming quite disheartened then suddenley all you could hear was this 'tap tap tap tap tap ......which could only mean WHALESHARK!!  ..but unable to determine the direction of sound and not being able to see who was tapping was so so frustrating. Then in the distance we saw a barrage of bubbles, it had to be over there! So finning frantically, to catch a glimpse, a large object headed towards us.  We hit the record button and started filming.   Oh my goodness, seeing one so close takes your breath away.   

I was so glad that it stayed around so that Si could see it.  A few months ago he pulled out of a morning dive due to a sore throat and what did we see  ..you've got it, a whaleshark!  He was devastated to say the least. ..The only ever time Simon has seen a whaleshark was 2 years ago!

Feeling very happy at the moment, we've both signed up for tomorrows morning dive.  I doubt if it'll still be there but we're going just in case ;-D

Si's put together a clip of Sylvain, with the whaleshark at the end... here you go! 

Tonight we're going out for dinner with Alan & Heidi, the couple we first stayed with on Koh Tao, so that should be fun.

Thank you so much everyone for my mails, cards and prezzies ...It's lovely getting post ;-)

xxx

Jen