Britton still LOVES sharks, so I arranged to take him with me to Mafia Island, an island off the coast of Tanzania. There are 3 main islands, the biggest is Zanzibar, the next is Pemba, and the third is Mafia. Mafia is the farthest away and the smallest and we had never been there before. The reason that we wanted to go there is that every year, whale sharks migrate past the island during the winter months (well, summer months for us people living below the equator). We flew over in a little 12-seater aircraft and as we approached the island, Britton saw 2 whale sharks from his window seat. The runway was just a dirt strip, so that was really interesting, and there were no p
aved roads on the island. We went to our hotel and hung out, and then the next day we went on our whale shark expedition. We found them within 10 minutes of being on the boat and it was great. They were really huge, with some being at least 30 feet long. They are very docile creatures and only eat plankton, so one can swim with them and not have to worry about getting eaten by the whale sharks. While they are called whale sharks, they are sharks, and not whales. So, while Britton took pictures from the boat, I put on my snorkeling gear and jumped into the water and swam with the sharks. They were pretty fast swimmers, but I got close enough to touch them. In fact, I grabbed one by its dorsal fin and let it pull me around for a minute. That was fun, but I got chewed out by the locals who told me not to touch them. Haha, it was worth it. A good friend of mine owns an underwater camera and he let me borrow it, so I took a lot of underwater pictures and videos. We ended up going twice and finding the sharks both times. The first time we found 6 sharks and the second time we found 5 sharks. It was a great time. We flew home from Mafia Island very happy.
Britton still LOVES sharks, so I arranged to take him with me to Mafia Island, an island off the coast of Tanzania. There are 3 main islands, the biggest is Zanzibar, the next is Pemba, and the third is Mafia. Mafia is the farthest away and the smallest and we had never been there before. The reason that we wanted to go there is that every year, whale sharks migrate past the island during the winter months (well, summer months for us people living below the equator). We flew over in a little 12-seater aircraft and as we approached the island, Britton saw 2 whale sharks from his window seat. The runway was just a dirt strip, so that was really interesting, and there were no p
aved roads on the island. We went to our hotel and hung out, and then the next day we went on our whale shark expedition. We found them within 10 minutes of being on the boat and it was great. They were really huge, with some being at least 30 feet long. They are very docile creatures and only eat plankton, so one can swim with them and not have to worry about getting eaten by the whale sharks. While they are called whale sharks, they are sharks, and not whales. So, while Britton took pictures from the boat, I put on my snorkeling gear and jumped into the water and swam with the sharks. They were pretty fast swimmers, but I got close enough to touch them. In fact, I grabbed one by its dorsal fin and let it pull me around for a minute. That was fun, but I got chewed out by the locals who told me not to touch them. Haha, it was worth it. A good friend of mine owns an underwater camera and he let me borrow it, so I took a lot of underwater pictures and videos. We ended up going twice and finding the sharks both times. The first time we found 6 sharks and the second time we found 5 sharks. It was a great time. We flew home from Mafia Island very happy.
No comments:
Post a Comment