Donsol with Eltjo

Wednesday & Thursday, 8-9 February, 2006

WHALE SHARKS!!!

It's hard to describe our experience in Donsol in words. I think these were the most magical 2 days in my life. At an ungodly early hour (especially with our lifestyles) Eltjo, Marieke and I arrived on a typical small Filipino airport with only 1 runway and no automation to speak of. Outside heaps of taxi drivers trying to get us into their little van to drive the hour and a half to Donsol. After initially ignoring the hawkers we ended up in the van of Winston, a distinguished gentleman-driver, together with an Italian-German guy also called Daniel. We took shelter in our luxurious nipa houses at Woodland resort and after a nice breakfast with grilled fish, our boatman came to pick us up for what we came for all this way: swimming with the whale sharks.

We were lying on the deck for about an hour and we had well settled down, enjoying the sun, chatting, lazing, you know. Then all of a sudden commotion. The spotter - a guy sitting in the top of the 3 meter high mast peering out over the open sea like a pirate looking for land - saw 'something' and we all had to get ready in like 3 seconds. We were scrambling all over but sure enough within a few seconds we were all balancing our flippers over the left side of the boat, goggles on our noses and snorkels in our mouths. Then - panic. We were moving in a huge circle around an enormous black shadow in the water, about 30 meters out. No time to let the panic turn into fear though, because as soon as the realization started to sink in that we're going to swim towards this black shadow we were told to jump jump jump, and so we did. Those swimming seconds were terrifying. I looked up twice, back at the boat, to ask which direction to go to. Twice they pointed straight at the direction I was swimming in. The third time I looked up at them, they still pointed in the same direction but when I put my goggles back into the water... GASP!!! It was right in front of me: 15 meters of pure whale shark! And don't forget, we were swimming full speed ahead with our fins so you can't stop right away, and by the time I did it was right underneath me! My heart must have been doing 200 bpm! But then you just turn and swim along with the giant. And it is magical. It's hard to describe, but being in the water with such a huge animal, in its territory where you are a visitor, and to swim along with it within reaching distance... it's amazing. All in all we saw 7 whale sharks that day, and one even looked at me as I swam alongside its head - brrr!!

Read the full story at the entry for February 2006 (either in recent or in the archives...)