6. Sharks, no sharks, a human clown and recovery time!

It’s been a couple of days of combinations between high adrenaline and absolute relaxation! Two days of dive trips - the first was to Gato Island, which had been recommended as a place to visit, so I did! The boat there picked us up directly from the beach at 11.30 and we had an hour’s sail there, a couple of dives and an hour on the boat in between with a full hot lunch of noodles, chicken stew, rice and pork kebabs served up! I probably was a bit unlucky with the visibility in as it was slightly ‘pea soupy’ but some pretty things close up. Annoyingly, some water got in my camera on the first dive - not enough to cause any damage but enough to steam up inside and mean it couldn’t take clear, focused photos. We swam through a little tunnel cave and explored boulders and rocks and little bits of reef for the day.

I made friends with an English family, who live in HongKong. They have 3 kids who are absolutely delightful, really nice kids. The 10yr old and 13yr old are both qualified to dive,up to the limits of their age (depth limits for different age groups - 12m for 10yr old and up to 18m for the 13 yr old). The 13 year old was a genuine pleasure to talk to - about the diving he’s done, what he’s seen, where he wants to go (he’s desperate to go to Egypt so quizzed me on what it was like and all he’d researched about it!). He told me what he wants to be when he’s older - a diplomat! I didn’t tell him that I didn’t really understand what that is! Incredible kids. They were all born in and have been brought up in HK with only infrequent tris back to the UK to see wider family, which probably explains why they’re so nice! The Mum and Dad were also really great and we chatted a lot about places we’d travelled. In the evening, they invited me to go to pizza dinner with them and I had a really nice time. More travel and diving chat. When the bill came, they insisted on paying and said thank you for my company and they were happy to pay as a thank you for the diving stories! I’ve become ‘that’ person. To be fair, the vast majority of chat I have with others divers would be baffling - or entirety boring - to most land people. We talk about dives, encounters, deco, benefits of diving on nitrox and the limits it places on the depth you can safely dive to, bloody bastard trigger fish, sharks, bottom time, air consumption and good diving practices - what makes a good buddy. See, I told you it was mostly boring to you land beings!

Day 2 of diving demanded an actual middle of the night get up with meeting time of 4.45am. Off we sailed into the dark, arriving at sunrise and into the water just as the sun came up, the first boats to do so. I was meant to be a group with a lovely old a Japanese couple called Yoshi and Toshi but was told we’d have two dive masters with us as there may be a difference in air consumption. I went into the water first, first onto the dive site, with my guide Harvey. As we descended down the line, Harvey tapped me and pointed … and there was a shark already floating by! Yoshi and Toshi followed along with Rico and I soon realised why we’d been split. Although lovely, and quite experienced divers, they have not actually mastered the art of it yet. They both have more of a cycling an imaginary bicycle ‘kick’ where they bend their knees, bring them up to bellies then straighten their legs out behind them. Presumably it’s fairly good exercise although doesn’t actually propel them in the water at all. I’m not sure it they get through air quickly (I’d be surprised because they’re both fairly tiny Japanese people) but they finished and surfaced within half and hour whereas I got a full hour of floating and watching the sharks.

The sharks here are thresher sharks - not huge, with bodies only around 1.5m but a tail that’s at least the same length again and often longer. When hunting, they use the tail to ‘whip’ and stun prey. They come up from the depths and from the blue to visit the site we went to every morning because it’s what’s called their cleaning station. This is where, in this case, the threshers comes to swim around at a leisurely pace and shallower depth while the little cleaner fish busily suck and eat away at their parasites and old skin and give them a good clean. This keeps the sharks healthy - and the little fish fed!

I floated and watched for the hour as many sharks cruised along and went by. They must be used to the humans and if you stay still and low to the reef, they don’t seem to mind - as you’re no threat to them when below them - so they will swim really close. They have funny faces, I think, with very bulbous eyes - which definitely follow you and they give you the ‘side eye’ as they swim by and they keep their mouths a little open too. It makes them look slightly gormless I think. I didn’t mention that to them though as are still sharks! At one point, one must have spotted a tasty looking fish as he absolutely whipped round and darted towards him. So quick! Reminds you what they’re capable of!

As we turned to leave, I realise quite the wall of people behind who’s arrived and were watching the sharks - one of whom was so busily trying to to take phones, he was feet down on the reef, stamping all over the coral to stay upright then got push by current so just sat down, tank on to the coral but wasn’t distracted by his photo taken! I was astonished and appalled by it. I was ready to go and move him but fortunately once of his guides was on him quickly, yanked him up and off the coral and clearly gave him a telling off - which he absolutely deserved. Totally unacceptable. I had also been enjoying watching a lovely little octopus near where the clown sat down - he was flashing and changing his colours with his head sticking out the hole he was in. He definitely knew when the sharks were closer as he went full rock camouflage and texture when they were near but back to brown and smooth as they swim away again. That stupid twatty diver wouldn’t have seen him and he’s have recoiled right into his rock hole after that behaviour. Shame he wasn’t capable of some poison or a bite!

On our second dive today, we went along to another site where we were apparently hoping to spot tiger sharks. I was not hoping for this. Tigers are massive, human eating, potentially aggressive sharks (not during the time of day we visited and in fact they’re more likely to be spooked and scared away by humans than cause any trouble). Nonetheless, I was very much happy just looking at the little corals and bommies while the others kept an eye out for the tiger sharks. We did not encounter any …. I partly would have liked to see one but partly also thought I might have died of fright if it had happened so, on balance, it’s probably best we didn’t! I did see a nice moray eel who came out and swam with me for a little while, which was nice. He perhaps, mistakenly, thought I could offer protection from the tiger sharks he’d heard we were looking for. Whereas, in fact, I’ve had plans to immediately sacrifice him if needed as my best ploy for distraction and escape!

Thanks to our early start, we were back to our beach just after 10am. I realise how much productivity these early risers must be capable of when I’m usually luxuriating in bed in the morning. Mind you, after that morning, I spent the rest of the day needing to recover …. I had a read on the beach, an afternoon nap, a walk around some of the island and lunch along the beach and then a massage! They’re a bit pricier here (£9) compared to Moalboal last week (£7) for an hour but I treated myself. I decided I should try to not ask for ‘extremely gentle-stroke pressure’ and to try and relax and enjoy it like everyone else manages. However, she started on my legs and when it became clear that she was busily attempting to detach my calf muscle and push it up into my thigh, I had to ask for slightly less pressure! After that, it was lush!

I’m now back on our beach, having a Coke Zero, and I’ll order dinner shortly, while I write this. Tomorrow is another day trip to another island with lunch and two dives included and which my friends the English family are going on too so should be nice day. We have to meet at 9am for that - much better!