“GO, go, go!” It was the three words we were waiting for. As soon as the person in front of me jumped in the choppy waters of Ningaloo Reef from the boat, I followed, quickly swimming in line with the others. Through my facemask I began scouring the ocean looking for the great fish I had come all this way to swim with.
“Over there!”
That voice again. I followed the guide’s direction and suddenly out of the blue, maybe four metres from me and only a metre below the water’s surface the massive whale shark silently glided past.
“You have to swim if you want to keep up with it.”
Another instruction we had been given during an earlier briefing on the boat. Whale sharks don’t stop so you have to swim with them, but no closer than two metres and no duckdiving as this can startle them, then they’ll dive deep and that will be that.
Quickly catching up with the whale shark, I stared in awe at the sheer size (5-6 metres!) and magnificence of this marine creature. I had to remember to breathe through the snorkel, stay calm and appreciate this very special moment.
I swam
