Dreams of mantas

Borneo [Malaysia and Indonesia] - July 2009

Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic Google translation from a post originally written in French. My apologies for the weird sentences and the funny mistakes that could have been generated during the process. If you can read French, click on the French flag below to access the original text:

Français

I dream of 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 giant?

Stories and images of other travelers

The pre-departure is also a trip ... Dreamed, fantasized. Nourished with 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". My my my ! Such a tourist propaganda makes me a real effect ...

Thailand, February 2006

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

This trip is not listed here on Bubbles Underwater & Beyond, but I still put some photos online, on my very first websites of the time:

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

The manta rays arose at the end of the dive, while I was back on the boat with the rest of the team ... I immediately handed palms, mask and snorkel, and jumped into the water to admire them, snorkeling !

Super visi, magic moment. I webbed thoroughly, with all my strength. Palmated as ever, to follow them. It is because they are fast, despite the majestic slowness of their "flight". My emotion, my excitement were such that I felt no fatigue. Sacred adrenaline rush!

Below, 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: laden and icy water, exhausting current. They swirled around the rock aptly named "Manta Point". Fascinating spectacle that their incessant carousel in the blue mist ... And here is one, and one more, and two more! ! ! ...

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

→ The mantas ballet (July 16, 2008)