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19th - 24th january

Overlanding across Afica in our Land Rover Defender: Mozambique

Andy Lees
2006-05-16 13:45:58

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to agree.

after ten minutes motoring along the coast, the skipper turned the boat and cut the engines. we were well beyond the breakers now, rolling gently in the huge but flattened swells. in the water ahead a large grey shadow moved slowly towards us. the time had finally come; that was the shark, and we were going in. as we quickly tugged on our snorkelling gear, its profile became clearer. it glided just inches below the surface. how big? four metres? six? i honestly don't know. it was massive.

being gentle plankon eaters whale sharks have no teeth and there's no reason to fear them. i had no hesitation getting into the water but the size of thing! even from the boat it looked intimidating.

rolling backwards over the side of the boat, i cleared my snorkel and turned to orient myself. behind me through the grainy gloom of the plankton rich water, a three foot wide, oval mouth loomed steadily but directly towards me. kicking backwards with my fins i got myself narrowly out of its path; it had showed no signs of moving out of mine.

we encountered four more that morning. jumping from the boat to swim with each. they usually trawled for plankton just below the surface, gliding slowly enough that, with fins, it's possible to keep up, briefly sharing their view of the world. if you stop and let them pass, it takes a while for their length to go by. from below it's like the opening scene of star wars, when the ship passes over head. it's easy to gaze in wonder and forget about the tail, a couple of times it swung just a little too close. the experience was as exciting and breathtaking as we'd always hoped.

encouraged by the prospect of more whale sharks, we did something we'd been putting off for a long time. we booked ourselves onto a padi advanced diving course. we wanted to dive manta reef, and we were fed-up being told we couldn't dive the best sites because we didn't have ...