No one in the boat was saying anything but you could sense the tension. Word of fantastic sightings in last couple of days had spread so signs were positive. However, the reminder "we can't guarantee we'll see anything" hung in the air growing heavier as our luckless searching continued. Then we found them. Instructions were pretty clear from thereon: "jump now".

In researching for her own blog - The Ordinary Adventurer - Bex had seen our paths were set to cross on this little island off the coast of Africa her and husband, Gil, had made their latest stop. Just like that we had a trade, documenting a bit of their current island life along with some portraits in exchange for a day of food, beers and a seat on the aforementioned boat.

I jumped. Swimming, keeping up then eventually looking back to the absence of the other swimmers. It felt, for a long moment, it was just me and the lone whale shark left to ourselves to swim together and talk fish.