Dreams of mantas

Borneo [Malaysia and Indonesia] - July 2009

Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic translation made from a post originally written in French. My apologies for any strange sentences and funny mistakes that may have been generated during the process. If you are reading French, click on the French flag below to access the original and correct text:

I dream about it, I want to see them, the mantas of Sangalaki. Will they be there? Will I have the chance to meet them, to admire the graceful underwater ballet of these harmless giants?

Stories and images from other travelers

The pre-departure is also a journey... Dreamed, fantasized. Nourished by images and stories of other travelers.

I ride again, this superb Pierre Poilloux's gallery (click on the image to see it):

I read again and savor with envy the words of Yann Senant :

Facing us, mouths open, the divas fly, whirl, brush against us, move away in a magical turn and iron so close that we could caress them.
Huge. They are huge. Between four and five meters wingspan for those with white belly. Blacks are gigantic, more impressive and more fearful too.
In a formidable energy, they want to show us that they are beautiful, majestic, elegant, graceful, agile.

I revisit the page dedicated to them on the site Dive-the-world.com. Sangalaki is renamed here "The Manta Expressway". Oh, my! This kind of tourist propaganda has a real effect on me...

Thailand, February 2006

The first time I saw mantas was in February 2006, in Thailand, during a diving cruise in the Similan Islands.

This trip is not listed here on Small Bubbles of Elsewherebut I had put some pictures online, on my very first websites of the time:

→ Similan Islands - Thailand 2006
→ Similan - Sub Pictures - Thailand 2006

The manta rays appeared at the end of the dive, while I was back on the boat with the rest of the group... I immediately put on my fins, mask and snorkel, and jumped into the water to admire them, snorkeling!

Superb vision, magical moment. I flipped all the way, with all my strength. I flipped like never before, to follow them. They are fast, despite the majestic slowness of their "flight". My emotion, my excitement were such, that I didn't feel any fatigue. Quite an adrenaline rush!

Below is the little shaky video I made at the time:

Indonesia, Nusa Penida, July 2008

The second time was last summer (July 2008), in Indonesia, in the waters of Nusa Penida, off Bali.

Difficult conditions: ice-cold water, exhausting current. They swirled around the well named rock of "Manta point". Fascinating spectacle that their incessant carousel in the blue fog... And here is one, and another one, and another two !!!...

You can find the story of this dive at the end of the link below :

→ The mantas ballet (July 16, 2008)