Brett’s Adventures - Manta Ray Swim

Brett said “I am not paying $600 for a Manta Ray tour, I will put my boat in and find them myself”. Here we go I thought secretly wishing we would just pay for the tour.

We got up at 5am, it was windy but still ok, we headed down the beach and worked out the best place to launch the boat. After a lot of procrastination and uming and aring ( about if we should go out) we were in the water by 9.

I could not believe it when straight away Brett yells and points at two massive mantra rays right next to the boat. I started to grab my snorkel gear, but Brett let them get away. I was pissed. That felt like the end, we couldn’t manage to find any more.

The tour boats started to come in with their fancy manta ray finding planes, so we moved out of the way. We sat patiently in the bay and stalked the tour boats seeing where they dropped snorkels to swim with rays. We were surprised when they sat in the one spot the whole time. As soon as they left we raced over to the channel where the tour boats had been and jumped in. Straight away of course Brett sees a shark 😮, it was just a reef shark. Then right beneath us a mantra ray 🤗🤗🤗🤗, I yell to Lachlan who was in the boat waiting and he jumps in. Then 2 more rays swim on over. It was truly amazing.

Brax was a bit tedious about getting in, he has been fishing with Brett a lot and was worried about sharks, but he decided to get in and with some reassurance from Brett he swam with the rays too.

We jumped back in the boat and drove back up for another drop and swim with the rays again. After that Brett was saying he had enough but Lachlan and I were keen for another swim as why wouldn’t you be, so we decided to head back up for one last drop.

We jumped in and Brett looks at us and says back in the boat big shark! Well Lachlan and I were back in quick sticks, I have never been able to get back in the boat myself, but this time I managed 😂😂. As I look over to check on Brett he is yelling for the Go Pro, and then I saw ray after ray was swimming past under the boat! 9 of them. The shark was forgotten, in we got. The rays were swimming in a chain then formed a circle and were swimming around and around. It was mesmerising. It was like they were dancing they were going upside down and around in circles at one point I was right in the middle, their wings were touching me I was so close.

We were all on such a high when we got back, it was better than we could have ever imagined. Seeing these large majestic creatures gliding through the water and being able to experience it in our own time and not rush was truely magical.

Lachlan the fish, you couldn’t hold him back from getting in, and Brax we were so proud of you for getting in the water not once, but three times with these beautiful rays (especially, because he the one always telling us different facts about these amazing creatures).

Another successful Brett’s Adventure. It was a big day but well worth it.Read more