11/09/2013 - An amazing encounter

 

I had a feeling it was going to be a good day when I woke up to see a beautifully blue and calm sea surrounding Curieuse island.  Due to the ideal weather conditions we decided to seize the opportunity to go to a new snorkeling site called Booby Island around two miles west from Curieuse.  Already excited about going to a new site we got all our snorkeling gear ready and hopped on Dexter (our trusty boat) and headed across the still and ridiculously clear waters. 

A few minutes into the journey we spotted a Hawksbill turtle come up for air a few metres away from Dexter, which is already a good start to your day.  As we approached the small island we were elated to see a small pod of dolphins.  It is fair to say I don’t think we have ever put our snorkel gear on so quickly.  We were in the water within seconds and swimming as fast as we could towards the bottlenose dolphins.  Not sure if I have said, but we were swimming with DOLPHINS, swimming with six to be precise, six stunning dolphins totally in their element swimming effortlessly as we were putting in all our energy just to keep up.   

 

It’s no wonder why the dolphins were there, the sizes of the shoals of fish were incredible, so so many, a perfect feeding ground for them.  The dolphins moved on after a while leaving us stunned by what we had just experienced, but the excitement certainly didn’t end here, it got better.  Having worked on similar projects  previously I have seen many turtles on land but apart from seeing them from the boat since being in the Seychelles I had yet to experience seeing them whilst snorkeling.  That was to change on this snorkel. 

Before my turtle encounter I was lucky enough to see a huge marble ray on the ocean floor and a beautiful spotted eagle ray effortlessly flying under the water.  Amongst the underwater wildlife was a young white tipped reef shark, my first shark sighting.  Already in a state of shear happiness I then spotted the turtle swimming amongst the fish and coral.  I swam watching her for at least fifteen minutes and then something wonderful happened, she came up to say hello.  We were less than a metre away from each other and it was all on her terms, she came to me.  I pretty much got a kiss off a Hawksbill turtle…………it was indescribably amazing.  Two other staff members were lucky enough to also encounter this, and not one of us could believe what had just happened.

 

While we were still processing what had just happened we heard Pascal shout ‘dolphins’ from aboard Dexter.   They were back.  Using the last of our energy we again swam as fast as we could towards the pod.  We got closer to them this time and watched them again in astonishment around the huge shoals of fish. 

All in an extremely good mood and in high spirits after a spectacular snorkel we swam back towards Dexter ready to go back to our island.  My morning feeling was spot on, it was an amazing day.

11/09/2013 - An amazing encounter