A few months ago, I travelled to Cebu, Philippines, on another one of my scuba diving adventures. One of the highlights of my trip was when I finally managed to swim with the beautiful Whale Sharks.
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In order to get to the whale sharks, I had to travel all the way to south-western tip of Cebu, to a place called Moalboal. Moalboal, to me, is a diver's paradise; the area is filled dive shops and has a stunning marine life. It's not a very lively area, like your typical city; Moalboal is a place you'd go to relax in a small cabin or cottage by the water.
I reached Moalboal after a 4 hour drive from Mactan Island. The trip to the Whale Sharks began the next day at 7 in the morning. I thought that the location for the dive would be like a 15 minute boat ride from the beach I stayed near to. Turns out, the Whale Sharks are found in Oslob, a further 2 hour drive from Moalboal. Damn!
In case you were wondering, fishermen at Oslob feed the Whale Shakrs from their tiny canoes, and that's what draws the Whale Sharks. Also, I should mention that although they are called Whale Sharks, these sharks are not aggressive or harmful. They are very gentle and calm.
Once we reached Oslob, I slipped on my dive gear and equipment and waded my way into the sea. Once my dive computer read a depth of 20 metres, I stopped going deeper and waited patiently for the giants to appear. I prepared myself to wait for almost 20-30 minutes for it to show up; you need to be patient about such things.. the Whale Sharks aren't waiting around for divers like me to show up of course!
However, fortunately, in within 2 minutes, not one, but two 40 feet long Whale Sharks gently made their swam by right in front of me! Curious by nature, one of them even swam right towards me! Words or pictures can't capture the beauty and grace of these majestic creatures.
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I spent around an hour underwater, swimming and circling around them. We aren't allowed to ride or touch the Whale Sharks; several bacteria on our skin are harmful to these sharks, not to mention the parasites and bacteria on them!
It was quite hard to literally swim 'with' them! You see, it's really hard to keep up with their speed sometimes!
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This dive is probably one of the best dives of my life! Words can't describe the emotions I felt swimming with the Whale Sharks. All I can say is that it was truly magical to able to have swam with these grand and beautiful beings!
