Plankton rules!
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Well it has been another week of plankton feeders! Not always for me, but the whole of Sharm has been whale shark crazy at the moment. I had another open water course so was quite limited with the sites that I could dive, with Pinky Wall sadly not being very suitable for Open Water students, certainly not on their actual course dives, with no places where skills can be done. So, we did 2 dives before lunch giving us the option to snorkel whilst the experienced divers dived the wall. Sadly we weren’t really very successful on this one. Never mind. Then we discovered a little sandy alcove with a plateau of shallow water perfect in which to perform the skills of Open Water dive #4 (I wouldn’t really take anyone to this site at any stage before that, as there is quite a slope once you get to swimming around. It is also a drift dive, so fine with a single student, or an advanced course, not so fun for a group of novice students). Again, sadly, whilst divers in the water before and after us got the pleasure of the company of whale sharks and massive manta rays, we were blessed with plenty of plankton. Mandy and I even jumped in again, whilst our now certified divers snorkelled the site, and the two of us sat in the blue, surrounded by plankton for 40 mins, with no joy. Then yesterday, having thought I might have made the wrong choice of going on a Tiran boat (the weather was bad) we were graced with another sighting, literally as we pulled out of the jetty! This wasn’t really close enough to warrant jumping in, as all we could make out was a light green smudge quite deep down. However five minutes later the boat stopped, and I could hear shouts of “whale shark!” again. Fins on, mask in hand, all I needed was the nod that it was safe to jump in, and in I went! I was alone with the shark for quite a while whilst the rest of the team got their stuff together and joined me. It was awesome!!!! We swam with this giant for 25 whole minutes until it decided to drop down too deep for us to duck dive. At one point I had over taken and could see right into the mouth, just before realising I was really right in the way and at risk of being bumped into!!! So scurried out of its way, and again realising I was a little close to the tail which could have whopped me a whopper. What a start to the day! I didn’t need to get in the water again really. I did do the last dive, as we had Jackson Reef to ourselves, which is always a rare thing. And again had a lovely dive, it is soooo pretty there. And we saw a couple of turtles which was great. What a day. |