Wednesday 29 October – looking for Manta rays

We were at the home stay at 7am to go on the hunt for Manta rays. The couple staying there who we met last night, South African Stephen and Julie joined us on the tour. Edith the German lady from the Homestay came with us too, which was great for translating, what a character she lived with her Senegalese boyfriend in Senegal for 7 years. The owner drove the boat which started with a slight hiatus when a little fire started in the engine before we had even left the jetty, he fixed it easily enough, all while smoking a cigarette! There was one other guy on the boat, he sat up front and directed the driver around the endless logs and debris floating about, it is quite unbelievable the huge number of enormous logs floating about. The current seems to channel all the rubbish into a corridor full of plastic and polystyrene, so sad in this remote pristine place. After about an hour passing endless little islands, we finally got into the water. The spotter had seen some bubbles, he jumped in with us and sure enough we saw a manta cruising around. We just saw one, it did a couple of laps and then departed but still lovely to see. The water was full of tiny bits of plankton life, and some slightly stingy stuff, not the nicest to swim through but this is apparently the food the Mantas love. We diverted to a gorgeous little island nearby for morning coffee with pisang goreng a staple here, banana fritters.

We had three more snorkel stops, the water was much clearer, the coral and fish were fantastic, we were so impressed. So much colour and abundance of life even on a cloudy day. We had lunch at another stunning little island, and ate delicious cold curried fish with vegetables and tempeh. Our last snorkel was from the beach and was equally good, the highlight was Stephen spotting a seahorse. I thought I didn’t see it but realise now that I did, it was just the fact that it was stretched out in a long line like a Pipe fish, when you see the photo you can spot the seahorse head. Such an amazing variety of fish and coral, loads we have not seen before. We had a couple of sharks patrolling up and down, thankfully they kept to the deep water. We saw a few turtles and loads of exotically colourful clams.

We were ready for a relaxing evening after that.