In November, Djibouti hosts pods of whale sharks, which populate the coastline in a number of very accessible locations. It is easy to rent a fishing boat to take you out to see them, but better if you have Abdou, a clever boatman that will stop, backup, and then pick you up when you get too exhausted to swim back to the boat. What, you say? YES! We went out last week, not only to see the whale sharks from the boat, but to dive into the open sea beside them and swim along. Me, I took a life jacket, because I failed my swimming lessons as a child, but I took my googles and snorkle tube for certain. Whale sharks are vegetarian, and their grey-green mottled skin feels like the rough rubber running tracks that most high schools use. When we first jumped into the water next to the 18-foot fish, we were a little nervous about their massive mouth coming straight on toward us. But, it is toothless, and they are social animals. Although they are able to swim incredibly fast and have massive weight, they were gentle and aware with us and kept coming back to be near us. As we drove away from their favored spot on the coastline - not more than 10 paces from the rocky shore - they followed along beside our boat for a good distance, as if sorry to see the play ending.
Just inside the port, as we were heading out in the morning, we spotted a large group of dolphins, who came out of the water for us, and along the way back, we passed several long sea turtles, paddling along. We stopped for lunch at a nice, inaccessible coastline for some of the best snorkeling yet. Viewed: stingrays, sea turtles, schools of yellow and purple fish and loads of giant sea clams.
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