A wonderful day to remember

  Maratua, East Kalimantan, Indonesia Wednesday, February 25, 2015

We were all up early and ready for the boat at 9am. There were 8 of us on the boat altogether; us two, Kiki & Per, Kayla & Kevin, Eric & Bea. A nice group of nice people and we were all looking forward to the day ahead. We had been promised snorkelling with manta rays, snorkelling with jelly fish and snorkelling with turtles. Just how much of this was going to happen was to be seen but once again, with our track record of spotting tigers, we were a bit sceptical about seeing everything. First stop was about an hour's ride out to Samama Island where the Manta rays are. We could see them in the water and their fins sticking up like dolphin fins. Bryan, Bea and Eric jumped straight in to swim with them Kayla, Kevin and Per were not far behind. Jody & Kiki decided to let everyone else get out of the way before carefully sliding off the boat into the deep water as neither are strong swimmers. The first group in were very lucky and managed to get a few minutes with the manta rays but probably it was their excited squealing that caused them to swim off as the rest of the group didn’t get to see anything. Everyone snorkelled around for a while though as visibility was good and you could see fish and corals below. Climbing back onto the boat was a bit of an effort though. They didn’t have a ladder and hung an old tyre over the side for us to stand on before hauling us up onto the boat. Not very dignified at all! Our next destination was Jelly Fish Island or Kakaban to give it it’s proper name. It looked beautiful as we pulled up to the jetty but we were guided towards a ticket office and a steep set of wooden steps leading up the hillside. We paid our £1 entrance fee each and set off the short trek to what turned out to be a massive lake. This lake had been created when sea levels fell millions of years ago and the water and it’s inhabitants were left behind in a giant crater. Since then the jelly fish that live here have lost their stings as they have no predators and so are harmless. It was a beautiful location. All around was lush and green and the jellyfish were very easy to spot in the water. A small jetty had been built to help you get in the water and so in we all went to snorkel with them. It was an incredibly alien experience. All these jelly fish floating around, puffing their little chests up and down to move through the water. Quite beautiful and serene to watch them. And quite jumpy too! There were thousands of them and even though we knew they didn’t sting, when they bumped into you it still made you jump a mile. They really did feel like jelly. Weird! We spent ages here as we knew it was something we were unlikely to ever see again but then hunger took us back to the boat where our packed lunch was waiting for us.We sat on the jetty looking down at the water what a beautiful spot to have lunch. After lunch it was time for yet more snorkelling. This time in the beautiful waters of the Celebes Sea. it is so warm and as so few tourists ever come here that it is completely unspoilt. The sheer numbers of corals and fish and other inhabitants is just breathtaking. Just snorkelling around we saw a large group of beautiful batfish, so elegant they appear to just hang in the water like a giant fish mobile. We could have spent all week there but no - it was time to move on again. Heading off towards where the turtles hang out this time. Would we see any? Our luck had been good so far. We all jumped in the water which was incredibly deep. There was a huge drop off of the the reef which was like looking down a precipice and at first made your heart stop. But once you had got over the shock of that, we snorkelled around for a bit and then suddenly, out of the depths of the dark blue sea, these shadowy shapes appeared, then another than another. The shadows developed into turtles. Lots of turtles and they were everywhere. It was amazing! We were able to swim above them and follow them as they went about their business below. And there were so many of them too. We spent about half an hour with the turtles before clambering back into the boat and heading off for home. And then nature revealed it’s grand finale for us…. Dolphins! A small pod of about 10 dolphins were slicing their way through the water just ahead of us. Again, Bea, Eric & Bryan were first in the water and armed with their underwater cameras. Some of us stayed on the boat as we were not good enough swimmers to keep up with the dolphins but then the dolphins turned back to come and get a good look at the swimmers. Bryan managed to get it all on camera and you can hear the dolphins clicking away to each other which makes us wonder what they were saying. Maybe they were just trying to identify what species the swimmers were and then, having decided the swimmers were not very interesting after all, they swam off on their route to wherever they were heading. Just magical! It’s fair to say we had had an amazing day. This was our first full day on the island and it had really welcomed us with full force today. A day we will never forget…. And here is Bryan's video of it too if you would like to watch it [gallery columns="4" ids="6083,6085,6086,6087,6088,6089,6090,6091,6092,6093,6094,6095,6096,6097,6098,6099,6100,6101,6102,6103,6105,6107,6109,6111,6113,6115,6116,6118"]