Mafia Island and the Whale Sharks

Almost half way up the Tanzanian coast is Mafia Island, and it was here that I met the whale sharks.

We set off on a snorkeling trip to find them, across the sea which was so calm it was almost perfectly flat and the clouds reflected beautifully on its surface. After about an hour in the boat we spotted one and once close enough were allowed to jump in and swim. We’d found of group of about six, all either a spotted lighter or darker shade of gray. They swam up to the surface with their huge mouths wide open to catch the plankton, and then swam along the surface for a while before diving back down into the darkness. Often they had any number of cleaner fish around them and even in their mouths. If you swam above them you could watch their gills expand and ripple as they swam, and if you chose to swim next to them then you could look into their eyes. Well, one eye anyway as the other would always be around the other side. At times they swam really fast and it was exhausting trying to keep up, but a lot of the time they slowed down a bit and you could happily swim at their speed.

There were two particular moments that I don’t think I’ll ever forget. One was when a friend and I were swimming along next to one of the whale sharks and we realised that another was swimming right next to us on our other side. So we swam along for ages in between them, almost able to reach out and touch them. It felt like we were just two of their friends and was very special indeed.

The other moment I was alone. I was swimming along above one looking straight down onto it when I looked up to see another swimming directly towards me and perhaps only three or four metres away. We were about to have a head on collision! I think we saw each other at the same time and so took immediate avoidance action. I swerved to my left and the whale shark fortunately swerved to my right with the hugest swish of it’s incredibly powerful tail. They are such graceful creatures which don’t normally seem to make any sudden movements and although we were in the middle of the ocean with the hugest fish in the sea, there was something so calming about the whale sharks that I hadn’t felt scared at all. I have to say though that after this experience I did feel extremely tiny and vulnerable. I’m certain that if one of them wanted to it could just casually swoosh it’s tail and take you out without any effort at all.

Aside from the calm sea and the huge whale sharks I was also lucky enough to spot a very cool little squid. He caught my attention by squirting out a cloud of black ink, which filled a space far bigger than itself. I followed him as he bobbed up and down below the surface, although he didn’t squirt any more ink at me.

On another day I did a couple of dives although these weren’t where the whale sharks are as they didn’t hang out by the reefs. One of the dives was a completely new experience to me in that there was such a strong current – something I’ve discovered I’m not particularly keen on. As you descended if you looked down at the bottom you saw it rushing past you, which I found extremely disconcerting. There was no way you could swim against the current and so if you spotted anything you wanted to have a look at you had about half a second to do so before you were swept well and truly past it. I love diving but I do feel a little anxious about the possibility of getting separated from whoever I’m diving with. This was a constant worry as there really wasn’t much you could do about it, what with having very little control over your position in the sea. However at times our dive guide would cling onto rocks on the bottom to try and get everyone together. Normally I’d completely avoid touching the bottom for fear of damaging the coral but I felt that I could either risk hurting them or risk killing me so I also clung on when I saw other people doing the same. This was very hard though as you’d be horizontally clinging onto the rocks whilst the sea was doing all it could to pull you off and drag you away. I was not that sad when this dive was over.

The rest of my time on the island I spent exploring. I found some lovely beaches and forests, met lots of fishermen and ladies and saw a lot fish either drying on the beach or being prepared to sell. I’ve discovered that if you see lots of little pretty shiny things lying in the sand then often these are the scales of fish which have been scraped off, usually by women after the men have caught them.

I also discovered a very effective way of being able to walk on my own without numerous people coming to chat to me – walk with a dog! Being a predominantly Muslim population, the people of Mafia Island are not particularly keen on dogs and in a lot of cases seem to be quite afraid of them. After befriending a lovely dog whilst out walking, he decide he wanted to walk my way. I did try and persuade him not to follow me but he would not listen and so we walked together all the way back to my guesthouse which was about an hour away. Not one single person came up to me when normally I most likely would have had very little time on my own. In fact most people crossed the road to get as far away from me and the dog as possible.