‘Yesterdays history tomorrows a mystery’
Life for the moment baby!
Friday, February 24, 2012 :
‘Shark bay Koh Tao, Thailand’
8 am got up early today and went for a swim at shark bay, koh tao. I arrived at new haven restaurant around 7:45 am. My aim for the day was to swim 2 lengths of shark bay and hopefully see some black tip reef sharks on the way. I slipped into the ocean at 8 am (ish) and started to make my way across the bay. The visibility was excellent but in some places because of the early morning sun the water looked a bit milky which made it interesting when trying to spot some predators. About 100m from my entry point I got my first sighting, after which I started to see a lot more of these beautiful animals. At one point five sharks glided underneath me in a precession, one after another nose to tail like some shark superhighway through the ocean. I continued on my swim and made it almost all the way across the bay with little or no sight of the sharks. As I made my way back I came across what I consider to be a ‘hot spot’ for shark action and proceeded to float on the surface and keep an eye out for any passers bye. It was not long before the sharks started picking off small reef fish for breakfast. The variety in size of the sharks were any thing from 1-3 m long, I was very surprised at how muscular and ‘thick’ the larger grey and white bullets were.
A couple of interesting events happened whilst I was in the water. Firstly, when I was floating about on the surface looking at several sharks swimming around underneath and around me, for some reason I decided to look behind me to be confronted by what I’d call a heart stopping moment!! All I could see was the round pointy nose of a 3m reef shark swimming directly towards me! I will never forget that image it was burned in my cornea, small jet black eyes on each side of the silvery smooth pointed head with the unmistakable rigid dorsal fin, whilst at the rear I could see the swishing of the large tail moving from side to side in a fluid motion propelling this beast straight for little old me ‘aaarrrgghh’. I’m not going to lie it was uber scary for that split second before it broke of its pursuit!! My heart was pounding a hundred miles an hour. But I also have to say it was exhilarating, eye opening and an incredible experience. The second event was ‘looking back on it’ quite funny but at the time yet again uber scary!! As I made my way back to my entry point, lazily I kicked my way through the surf when all of a sudden I felt a nip on the back of my calf when I looked round to evaluate the situation I noticed a tiny swimmer crab no more then 2 ‘in’ long attacking me, this little chap was buzzing me like a ww2 spitfire pilot coming in for the kill. It would not leave me alone, I panicked slightly and started thrashing out at the little boy and tried to flick him away with my fins. This went on for about 20-30 secs max. Then the big light bulb in my head started flashing and telling me that I should not be doing this, all my thrashing in the water had attracted allot!!! Of sharks to my location, once I composed myself and had a look around under water I noticed That there were 10 ‘yes I did count them’ reef sharks circling around me incredible!!!!. I was amazed at how fast I had went from swimming alone to having a pack of hungry sharks by my side and all it took was a few thrashes on the surface to attract these amazing animals.
Great morning! there’s nothing quite like swimming with sharks to get your adrenaline pumping in the morning
