I know, I know
I lied, I was going to keep away from the internet for at least a week, but then a life defining moment happened and all that.
On my penultimate dive for my Advanced Open Water certificate we went to a place called Champorn Pinnacle. Rumors were abound that a whale shark had been spotted there and yesterday the teams came back punching the air and slapping each others back with the joy of seeing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. My dive for that day had been cancelled due to illness in my dive group so I was near seething with rage when my dive buddies from other courses recalled with glee the magisty of the animal.
Thankfully, seeing the whale that day meant that the dive school would be returning the following day for a chance to see it again. Somewhat predicatbly, when we arrived at around 7:30am to Chumporn Pinnacle every dive school on Koh Tao was there in their boats.
Before anyone from Asia Divers had set foot or fin in the water, the whale made itself known. It swam directly underneath our boat. Even from above the suface it looked massive. Ranging in at approximately 4 and a half meters.
When we actually got in to dive the hundred + divers that were there were desperate for a glimpse. My group had some exercises to complete, diving to 30m for example and so on and as soon as we had finished those we rose to around 20m- the known depth for the shark to swim at.
In a huge fluffy of underwater alarm signals and frantic hand guestures, the beast came from out of the blue, it really was phenominal. It’s size far outgrew anything I have yet seen underwater. It’s huge mouth was roughly the size of my body laying down. IT made three complete circles of the divesite, indeed, at one point passing to within 5 meters of me.
From what I’ve gathered, this really was a one in a lifetime, with instructors with 20 years + diving experience having never seen one before.
Good day indeed!
Sorry it looks a bit messy with the picture being where it is, but this site was playing silly buggers and not letting me position it properly.
Tags: Diving, Koh Tao, Thailand, Travel
mikeloken
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