6.45am – up make coffee and breakfast before we meet the eco adventures team next to Fins cafe.
7.50am – signing and suit up. Shuttle bus down to jetty in 2 groups and board the ship.
9am – snorkelling with reef sharks at a cleaning station. I held Leo with pool noodle and swam him all the way out to a round bommie full of reef sharks. So proud of Leo.
10am – snorkelling around scattered coral. Absolutely beautiful. Tan and Jett joined me this time.
11am – start the hunt for a big manta ray. A small sesna plane above does the spotting and radios in. Our captain decides to hang back as the sightings are in rough water with low visibility. We see a hump back dolphin and turtles while we circle around.
11.30am – our captain spots a Manta without the plane and we start the chase. When we get close a driver slides in quietly and finds the Manta and starts to follow. Then we split into 3 groups of 10 and take it in turns. When we get in the Manta takes off and we cant keep up. These thinhs dont have barbs on there tail for denfence as they can swim at 50kms per hour. 2nd time lucky and we swim straight over the top of it and it starts doing barrel roll feeding. A rare show we are told. Amazing.
Tan and Jett have 2 swims with the Manta and we take it in turns while Leo sleeps. Hes wrecked from the 1st swim.
This was extra special and a major highlight for me. Next time we’ll make sure we’re back for whale shark season.
Thank you eco tours. Absolutely loved the day and experience.
