Swimming with Whalesharks - Australia

‘Are whalesharks a whale or a shark?' our guide asked the passengers of the boat. I answered whale, which is incorrect. They are a shark and the biggest fish in the ocean, they get the name from their shape and size. It showed how little I knew about whalesharks. The Ningaloo Reef off Exmouth is one of the few places in the world where you are allowed to swim with whale sharks and there are a number of different companies which offer pretty much the same trip so Campbell spent a few hours visiting each to get the best offer. I wasn't real keen as I had been told it cost $400 but when Campbell found a trip for just $160 we both reserved a spot.
The advertise swims with the whale sharks from April till July and we arrived in August thinking they would be gone. We paid our money without a guarantee to see one but a strong likelihood. The boat was full at twenty people and we spent a bit of time snorkeling to get comfortable in the water which was a warm 26 degrees before getting back on board the boat after having word a whaleshark had been spotted. We raced toward the whaleshark while getting the run down on not to swim above, below or in front of the sharks. Then 'go, go, go' and the first lot of ten people were in the water. The rest of us had to wait and hope they had not scared it away.
When it was our chance we all dived in and swam up beside the six metre spotted creature which looked almost too perfect to be real. Not a scratch or scar on it. Whale will often just swim slowly about a metre below the surface never going up for air and it did exactly that. For almost an hour we followed it rotating between being in the water and in the boat. Many of the other swimmers climbed back on the boat once they had swam enough. Campbell and I though stayed in the water as we followed two other whale sharks lasting almost an hour and a half in the water. By the end I was all by myself on one side of the whale shark and it felt like it was just me and it in the water. It was an incredible experience and not the only excitement for the day.
Once everyone was back on the boat the driver spotted some humpback whales and put the boat at full power to catch up to them. For the next couple of hours we watched humpback whales swimming along, jumping out of the water and putting on quite a show.
We made our way back into the inner part of the reef ate some lunch and were given one last chance to snorkel. Returning to camp a sunburnt back, a few photos and some great memories were what I had taken out of the day. Well worth the $160.