Tag: Manta Ray

Finding Fiji Time

On By exploringthelongwhitecloudIn FijiLeave a comment

Waking up with the daylight is a lovely way to start the morning. I enjoy connecting with the earth’s natural patterns, something that is lost in the city. I throw on a dress and walk barefoot down to Sunrise Beach to welcome in the day. I’m surprised to be the only one here. I dig my toes into the deliciously soft, golden sand and let the waves roll in over my feet.

The day is still and quiet, the morning colours soft. The clouds are painted in golds and pink from the sun rays casting out from behind the distant islands. Little silver fish dart about in the clear water. And I am the only one here to see it.

When the sun is fully up, I head back towards the dive shop and bump into Filo (the marine biologist I met yesterday) She has the drone out and is heading to Manta Beach to see how many manta there are and to try and ID them. Each manta has its own unique marking, like how zebras and giraffes each have their own unique stripes and spots.

I sit on the beach with Filo, watching the drone screen, trying to spot the manta. They are little black dots on a screen, but Filo has a great eye for spotting them. From the air, they look a bit like the batman symbol. Filo is able to fly the drone close and zoom in. This enables her to see the markings and ID the manta. The two manta we saw yesterday are back again. Champs, a black and white chevron manta and Ember, a fully black, melanism manta. Both are females.

Champs has the most beautiful markings. I saw her yesterday in the water, but seeing her from above, I can really appreciate her colouring. Filo shows me some drone footage from yesterday of Champs doing somersaults, turning in the water to feed. What spectacular creatures.

When the guests arrive out on the water for their swim, Filo is able to use the drone to signal to the drivers where the mantas are. It is a very well run operation that respects and cares for the manta and gives guests an amazing opportunity to get up close to these beautiful creatures.

My stomach tells me it’s breakfast time so I head over to the dining room. Just as I arrive, Daniel appears too. Over another delicious tropical breakfast, we talk about our plans for the day. Yesterday was very active, so we decide to take it easy today.

After a leisurely breakfast, we head out for a kayak. They have several kayaks at the resort, but with 3 beaches, the tricky part is finding them, of course they were on the last beach we visited! We launch the kayaks and head out. Initially we head towards the left, but the waves are quite strong so we head to the right where it’s a bit more sheltered. This takes us right through manta passage and around to Sunrise Beach. One of the great things about having 3 beaches on the island is if it’s a bit windy on one side, it’s usually a lot calmer on the other, so you are able to escape the wind.

It’s a pretty overcast day, warm, but grey. It’s nice kayaking weather. The water is so incredibly clear. It’s deep and a bit choppy, but I can still see so much colour below. We are paddling around the island, but out past the point, it gets really choppy, so we decide to head back to shore. I manage to stay pretty dry but right at the end, a wave comes up and over the kayak and I am soaked. Such fun though.

After a trip to the bar, it’s time to relax in the hammock with a book and find Fiji Time. The birds are chirping, the soothing sound of the ocean is right by me, bliss.

Then Cookie appears, she is the resident parrot that was rescued from the black market. We have seen her around, but not up close. She wanders around and Daniel and I quietly follow her. Next minute, Daniel is lying in the sand right next to her, taking photos. She is quite interested in the camera strap and goes up close to have a look.

Now I have the camera, I find a place to sit quietly in the grass and Cookie comes running over. I put out a finger and she jumps on, running up my arm to my shoulder so she can check out the camera again. It’s a special moment.

Most of the afternoon is spent in the hammock, it’s a holiday after all! I usually plan quiet full itineraries, but today is wonderfully slow and it feels indulgent.

After a long stint in the hammock, I have a wander on the beach and look for crabs. It’s low tide, so the rocks are quite exposed. All around me I hear scuttling sounds and see quick movements out of the corner of my eyes. I want to have a crab race so I find my first competitor, Caesar. He is brave, curious and ready to race. But I can’t find an equally matched competitor. The others just hide in their shell. So I settle with taking some photos of Caesar and then return him to the rocks.

Late afternoon, we decide to head out for a snorkel. As it’s low tide, we can’t go out at Sunset Beach. However, on Sunrise Beach, there is a channel through the coral so you can snorkel there at any time of the day. The water is noticeably colder today, but once we are in, it’s OK. The reef edge is much closer to shore at Sunrise Beach and once again we are in foreign lands, exploring the underwater gardens. On this snorkel we see some quite large butterfish and a school of parrot fish.

Dinner is quite the event tonight, there was a group celebrating a milestone birthday. When the music starts, they get up and dance. Everyone is joining in with the singing and clapping. The dining room gets very loud and festive. A great end to a great day.

Swimming with Mantas

On By exploringthelongwhitecloudIn FijiLeave a comment

I wake up early, around 6am, to a spectacular view from our bure. I lie in bed for a while, listening to the ocean. Since I am awake so early, I decide to get up and head to Sunrise Beach and welcome in the day. In bare feet, I head along the path towards the restaurant, to cross over to the other side of the island. Just as I am passing the dining room though, a woman starts beating the Lali (Fijian drum) and calling ‘manta! manta!’ I literally start jumping up and down in excitement, I feel like a kid in the candy store.

I quickly head back to our bure to find Daniel up and rushing to get his swimsuit on. The playing of the ceremonial drum is used to communicate to guests that manta have been spotted in the channel and tours will be run. Within a couple of minutes we are ready to go and head to the dive shop to get fitted with masks, snorkels, flippers and await the briefing.

After the orientation, we are split into groups and taken out to Drawaqa Passage in boats. Barefoot Manta Island is right next to the passage so we don’t have to travel far. It also means that we get there before guests from the other islands arrive. Within minutes, we are in the water, it can’t even be 7am yet, but the water is warm and the visibility is amazing. It’s deep, but I can easily see the bottom. I thought I would feel scared, but I feel safe here.

In our groups of 6-8, we form a line and drift down the channel behind our guide, letting the current take us. And then we see it, our first manta! A dark shadow that appears from within the deep blue. It’s not scary at all. It is graceful and gentle, gliding through the water. A second one appears. They come sailing past us and then just like that, they are gone.

I can hear all these strange popping sounds in the water, later I find out that the sound is coming from fish eating. While we are here to see the manta, there are also lots of fish about. We swim through schools of silver fish, their little bodies flashing as they catch the light. We also float through cloudy patches with little white flecks. This is plankton, manta food. This passage is very rich in plankton and the reason why the manta’s love this spot so much.

We continue floating in the current to the end of the channel and get picked up by the boat. It takes us back to the start so we can get in and do it again. We drift through more schools of fish and plankton and then see the beautiful manta again. They are much closer this time and moving slower, so we get to have a really good look. One turns towards me and I see her front on. She is huge, but graceful, her fins effortlessly moving through the water.

Animal encounters like this are so incredible. It’s such a humbling experience to see a wild animal up close in their natural habitat. I watch her as she turns, opens her mouth and swims through a school of fish, although it’s not what she is hunting. We get a couple of sightings like this, they aren’t passing us so quickly. And then we see what we think is a third manta but later find out one had circled back and come past again.

There are 2 types of manta, oceanic manta and reef manta. The oceanic can grow up to 7m! They can travel long distances and are found around the world in tropical and subtropical waters. The reef manta, which are the ones that travel through Drawaqa Passage, are smaller, growing up to 5 meters. They do not travel between countries, these ones will stay around the Yasawa Islands.

Each manta has its own distinctive markings. The team of biologists at Barefoot Manta study these beautiful creatures. Each manta has a name and there is a board in the Marine Biology hut that lists them, along with the number of times they have been spotted this season. Today we are seeing Champs and Ember. These two have made regular appearances this season. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see Lady Grey. She is one of the largest manta’s in the Yasawa region. From memory she is about 4.2 meters, I think Champs and Ember are around 2.5 meters. They still seem pretty large when you are in the water next to them!

We climb back on board the boat to do a third and final swim. I am so pumped and excited. That was amazing and I can’t wait to get back into the water and do it again. Unfortunately though, the boats have arrived with guests from the other islands. There are so many people in the water, all over the place, splashing about. Barefoot Manta runs a really professional tour that first protects the manta, but also allows the guests great viewing opportunities. Sadly, the other islands don’t follow the same structure. None of them are staying in a line and this means when the manta do swim past, I only see a glimpse as there are so many people in the way.

It was a disappointing way to end, but our second viewing was so amazing that I can’t complain. Rob, the head biologist, said the visibility today was amazing and the best sighting of 2023, even though there were 4 manta yesterday, today’s sightings were better. I feel incredibly lucky to have been a part of that.

We head back to shore, it’s only just gone 8am and already our day has been action packed! We head to breakfast which is a gorgeous array of breads, cooked food, pastries and tropical fruits. I absolutely love breakfast, and today’s morning snorkel has made me rather hungry. As I eat my way through breakfast & second breakfast, I can’t help but wonder what other incredible surprises today will have in store for us.