After a nice lay-in to follow the previous days 7 hours of Thai public transport, we had a very tasty cooked breakfast in the Nature Resort restaurant overlooking the sea.
Once all the equipment was prepared and the team briefed for the day’s activities we jumped onto the longtail with smiles in eager anticipation of our first cetaceans. With the GPS pinpointing our location every minute we set out with a general idea to head south along the coast before sweeping around through the islands and across to the North before heading back to base.
Within just 30 minutes of spotting and applying sun cream we had our first sighting. ‘SIGHTING’ is shouted and everybody looks to where we are directed, nothing is seen again and as we approach the area and slow down, it is concluded a Dugong was spotted as there was no repeat surface.
Back on sighting effort we head south again and before we know it ‘SIGHTING!!’ and immediately I spot the two dolphins. The boat slows and we attempt to pull alongside the pair, travelling slowly and resting they surface repeatedly and we close the distance between us and them.
Kev grabs the huge camera and as we get closer he gets our first few photo’s of Humpback Dolphins!Still a bit too far for the best identification photo’s but we were all very happy with our first sighting of the elusive species. After spending a while with them but not being able to get any closer, we finished this sighting and continued on with our search effort.
Heading north now we spent another few hours on search effort before the sun got the better of us on the first day and we headed back to the resort for some well deserved air conditioning and a shower.
Evening entertainment was postponed as we were all too interested in reading articles or identification books, followed by telling stories of past encounters with dolphins and whale of different varieties.
With high hopes for day 2 we head to sleep ready for our early start to catch the dolphins active in the morning light...
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