Wow! Amazing! Jackie & Paul have just been swimming with massive Manta Rays in a narrow passage between two islands. A truly fantastic experience. We anchored near this shallow passage and first Michael & Jackie went looking for rays in their kayaks, without much success, although they thought they did see some in the distance. However, a beating of drums from the Manta Ray resort resulting in a long boat full of young tourists dashing across to the pass indicated that Manta Rays had been sighted. Michael gamely followed the long boat in our dingy, battling against wave, wind and very strong currents until we came up behind the snorkelling tourists and their boat. Jackie promptly jumped into the water, but found it impossible to make any headway against the current, so she swam across to the long boat to ask if there were rays around. The local guy very kindly suggested she got in the boat and he would drive her to them. Getting Paul to join her, while Michael had to keep the dingy in position, she was then driven further into the pass. The first indications were what seemed to be lots of dolphin fins right in front of the boat, except sometimes these fins were dark brown and sometimes white. Jump, jump said the boat driver, they are Mantas. So Jackie threw herself over the side, forgetting her flippers in the excitement, to find herself surrounded by massive rays - there must have been at least six of them. What had appeared to be fins were the tips of their wings. Paul followed Jackie into the water, sensibly remembering his flippers. The rays glided slowly around, sometimes appearing directly underneath them, their mouths, bordered by large blue lips, wide open to catch the plankton that were so plentiful in the pass. Very scary, but a truly wonderful experience. The plankton-rich water was also full of really dense packs of unknown fish, doing similar straining things with their gills. Poor Michael did not get to swim with the rays, but he did see them clearly in the water. Sadly, as always with Jackie's camera, in all the excitement and the frantic swimming to keep up with the rays, she didn't manage to get a decent picture. The pictures here are a poor representation of a wonderful sighting.

Jackie returned to the long boat and put on her flippers prior to swimming back to the dingy. She was very pleased to get a cheer from the young tourists on the long boat when she managed to haul herself successfully back into the dingy, doing a Kerry twist at the end. Paul followed with equal aplomb.