Tag: Adventure

Whale Sharks & Welcomes

On By cockneykiwi15Leave a comment

Indonesia, July 2026

Today we stopped off the coast of the town of Gorontalo, further south on the island of Sulawesi.  It is famous for scuba diving, and more importantly, whale shark encounters.  This was the reason we were here and it is clear it is a big source of income for the town.

I had signed up for the first zodiac of the day, so it was a very early start and we were in the water a little after 6am!  As with my experience in Cenderawasih Bay in Western Papua 4 years ago, they were feeding the sharks and to be honest I was not 100% certain it was an experience I wanted to do again (but of course I did – and lived to regret it… read on).  This time the feeding was from small boats, in much shallower water, as we were less than 100m from the shore.

Initially, there were way less people in the water (20 in total) and 3 juvenile sharks around 4.5-5.5m long.  From experience, I decided to hang back and enjoy seeing them as they circled around the area.  You really had to keep an eye out in every direction, as you never knew where they might appear from and did not seem to care if we were in the way!  Despite their size, they were thankfully very calm and graceful so did not induce any fear in me.

When our 12 minutes was over, we swim the short distance to the shore, where we could relax until it was time for our second swim (if we wanted to do one).  I took the opportunity to wander around this part of the town.  Clearly the waterfront was set up for the Whale Shark tourists, with small shops and cafes (most of which were not open as it was still only 6.30am)!

But just one street back from the waterfront, normal life appeared.  We are now in a predominately Muslim area and that was apparent within the architecture and clothing of those people we saw.  We had also been advised go cover shoulders and knees when going ashore to be respectful of the culture.

Back in the water for my second session and this time there were less but, but only 2 sharks. Again I hung back and enjoyed seeing them swim around me and to be honest, I was pretty happy with the experience, until ….

I was swimming back to shore when I saw that they basically had people riding the sharks! Someone (my guess was a local tourist who perhaps could not swim) sat in a clear kayak which a ‘guide’ pulled along whilst throwing food directly in to the sharks mouth to keep them at the surface so the kayak is basically on their backs!!  What a circus – I was fuming and sadly it tainted my whole experience.  Apparently it is a social media crazy to get photos of this from drones (and yes there were lots flying around)!

It as such a shame as it is amazing to see these beautiful animals in their own habit but then to see them being treated like circus animals was so sad.  Fair to say I will not be participating in any similar events in the future!

As we had started at 6am we were back on board  by 8.30am and we had an interesting presentation on the conflict between conservation and over tourism (apt after the morning’s experience).   This was given by Abam, our Indonesian guide, who is one of the founders of the Elasmobranch Insitute Indonesia, an NGO focusing on shark and ray conservation.  He acknowledged this mornings events and noted that changes in mindset around wildlife takes time and is one of their biggest challenges.

As we continued to sail south, we crossed the equator, which of course meant an initiation ceremony for those pollywogs amongst us i.e those who have never crossed the equator at sea.  The crew always put on a fun event, where those being initiated must kiss a fish to appease Neptune.  I enjoyed the spectical (and the rum punch that accompanied it lol).

We stopped off at Malenge, in the Togean Islands (and part of Kepulauan Togean National Park) in the afternoon in the hope of spotting yet another animal I had never heard of – the Barbirusa deer-pig!  They are members of the swine family, found only in a handful of Indonesian islands.  There are species (unique to individual islands) and all are listed as threatened.  They are sometimes referred to as ‘prehistoric pigs’ as they can be seen in cave drawings 35,000 years old!

They are most notable for their long upper canines (in males) which can sometime grow around and penetrate the pig’s skull! Females only have the lower canines.

 We landed in yet another picture perfect resort where they put out food for them (it seems to be a day for feeding wildlife), but as they are wild they don’t always come to eat and unfortunately today was one of those days.  However, there was a smaller spot in the next bay where one was, so we jumped back in the Zodiac and headed around.

The one here appeared to be more like a pet and was very tame, but at least I got to see one.  It was more of a photo opportunity then a true wildlife experience – conservation may not have won today!

Dinner tonight was a BBQ on the deck as the sunset.  A perfect end to an another day of exploration.

After such an early start the day before, the next day was a bit more relaxed as we did not arrive at our destination for the day until around 10am, which was of course followed by the usual formalities before we could start our day with a zodiac cruise around the beautiful Seho Island.  As with previous days, the water was an incredible turquoise blue, and the lush, dense green forest cascaded down the cliffs to the water.  Not too much to see in the way of wildlife but we did watch some local fisherman for a while, checking out what they had caught in their nets.

Our morning ended with a stunning snorkel.   It was a little shallow and the tide going out so you had to take real care when swimming over the coral, so didn’t stay long but it was lovely.  As was the beach which had a pink tinge to it, due to the crushed coral and it was beautiful.

 

The local tourism board had arranged for people on the beach to provide fresh coconuts.  This time they even had t-shirts made specially for the occasion.

We repositioned over lunch to a mooring just off the coast from Taliabu Island and the town of Bobong, where we were basically welcomed by the whole town and a lot of welcome formalities!

The welcome ceremony started with Elaine (Elaine #2 that is) and Peter on shore where there feet were washed with the water of a young coconut and then they were beaten with some sort of foliage!  We then walked a short distance down the road to the town hall for a formal welcome. Again it seems much of the town was there.

Fire, ambulance, police, army, children, adults  … everyone was there and most wanted selfies either with themselves or with their children!  We were definitely made to feel like celebrities for the day.

After welcome speeches and more dancing, we were divided into small groups with local guides for a walk around the town which was madness – everywhere we went people were pushing their children on us to have photos – it’s really was an event as we walked around the town. 

We passed the government buildings, a new hospital and then through the market and back around to the water front.  I took some time to wander around on my own (trying to get out the crowds that followed us everywhere).

Back on the ship for dinner and I got thoroughly embarrassed at dinner by a birthday cake and a very very long song from all the staff (yes, it was my birthday)!  I then got back to my room to find it full of balloons, a big birthday banner, a towel cake and a hand written card, signed by the expedition crew. It was all very sweet. ❤️ 

 

What a welcome to the Philippines

On By cockneykiwi15Leave a comment

Calayan Islands & Divilacan Bay, Philippines

June 2026

As I didn’t close my curtains, I woke to sun streaming in my porthole. I jumped out of bed and headed up stairs (I am on deck 3, the gym is on deck 7 – some might say it is a workout just getting to the gym lol).  I just did 30 minutes of cardio this morning as other things seemed way more challenging with the movement of the boat. 

 

I also wasn’t feeling 100% – was it the movement of the boat, not enough water, all the food I have been eating or perhaps too much wine last night. May a combination of all of these.  Either way, after an early breakfast I went back to bed lol.  We don’t reach our destination today till around lunchtime, so the morning was going to be a slow one anyway. 

I had also already decided I was not going to have dinner (which does not start till 7.30 tonight) so started squirrelling away a little food so I had something to eat. Dinner is wonderful if you want 3 course affairs with wine, but I definitely don’t want that every day, particularly when it starts so late (for me anyway)!

Our first destination in the Philippines was the island of Calayan.  One of the Philippines northern most islands.  Officially know as the Republic of the Philippines, the country is made up of over 7,500 islands and has a population of over 114 million people!   Hard to believe as we are going to be avoiding the desensly populated places on this trip. I had applied for the visa online and thankfully the ships crew did all the rest of the formalities for us.

The Philippine population is a mix over the years of the early Negritos, Austronesians, Chinese, Spanish (who colonised in 1543 and named the country Las Islas Filipinas after King Philip II of Spain).  More modern history saw the Japanese invasion during WWII, liberation by the Americans, and finally independence in 1946. 

Calayan Island sits in the Luzon Strait and is in the Babuyam group of islands and I was excited to get out on the zodiacs and on to land.

As in most places where we are travelling away from the landing point, we travel by the best available transport.  In Poblacion, this was motorbikes with small “side cars” attached.  I used the word “side car” loosely as it was not much more than a shelf with a plank to sit on.  Call it what you will, it was great fun wizzing out of town, down the concrete road and out in to the countryside. 

I had opted for the nature walk, more of a nature march as we were a fairly large group, moving rather fast and loudly so most wildlife had long gone before we had a chance to spot it!

We did spot an ants nest made of leaves stitched together, huge black and yellow butterflies, beautiful red dragonflies and a tiny sunbird (apparently a purple throated one).  We also saw a very old Narra Tree, the Philippine National tree.  Often cut for wood, so you don’t often see one this large.

I didn’t get many photos, but it was lovely to be off the ship!

We jumped back into the side cars and headed back down to town where the town had put on a spread of local snacks, had a band playing and put on a show of one of their local dances, showing the fight between good and evil.  It seems the whole town had come out for the event (though I think our visit was the event)! I love it that now days, it is not just us taking photos of the locals, they are taking videos and photos of us!

As we were on land a bunch of the local kids where on the ship enjoying ice cream served by the captain. A zodiac that takes about 10 of ‘us’, took around 20 of them and they all seemed very excited to be aboard.

Back on the ship, we had now settled into the routine, often with a late afternoon lecture and then the briefing about the day we had had, as well as what was waiting for us in our next port of call.  These briefings are best when accompanied by a gin and tonic from the bar!

Travelling overnight as we normally do, we woke the next day in Divilacan Bay in the northeast of Luzon, the Philippines’ largest island. We were near the Sierra Madre mountain range which stretches 540 km along the eastern coast of Luzon and acts as a natural barrier from the east coast to the hugely populated capital city of Manila just on the other side of the ranges. 

On the eastern side (where we were) the protected forests run from the mountains to the sea and has few roads or any other forms of transfer other than boats.  (Though I learnt in a conversation with some of the many tourism staff who are everywhere we go, that there is a road under construction, though it will still take at least 4 hours to get here from the nearest large city).

 Our first activity was a zodiac cruise around the coastline and mangroves.  Incredible big sky and glistening blue ocean.  Unfortunately, the tides were against us, and my group did not get much of a mangrove cruise as the water was too shallow (some of the earlier zodiacs had to row out), so we were some of the first to land at the first village we were going to be visiting. 

 As with every visit we were to make in the Philippines, we were welcomed with a rosette of some kind and a large sign welcoming us and the ship.  This village was different though, as the people who live in this area are the Dumagat people, also known as Agta, the indigenous Negrito group of the Philippines.  There darker skin and curly hair makes them more akin to their Aboringine or Austronesians roots rather than other people we see in the Philippines.

They welcomed us with dances depicting their daily lives, including fishing, crab hunting, farming and pig hunting (thankfully the poor little pig at the centre of that dance was not hurt!). 

From our first landing point, we walked a short distance and emerged in to a much bigger and more modern village of Dimasalansan, where we were welcomed with fresh coconuts and another huge spread of local snacks including sea snails (which I did not try) and my favourite gluttonous rice cake things. 

 

There was also more formalities and dancing, this time including an audience participation ‘solidarity’ Dance.  It was interesting to see both communities participating here and apparently their integrate well and the Dumagat children come here to go to school.

 

Back out to the ship for a relaxed afternoon at sea and a lecture on sea birds of the area as we continued on south.