5 wildlife experiences that changed us: the good and bad
Had you told me a few years ago that I was going to come face-to-face with the world’s largest shark I would have said you had the wrong girl. I wouldn’t have dreamed of putting myself anywhere near this kind of wildlife experience before we moving to Oman.
But that’s exactly what happened. And when I say face-to-face, I mean it – an unexpected event for both me and the Whale Shark.
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How I got myself into this really wild adventure
Before our 2.5 years living in Oman the closest I got to real wildlife was swatting seagulls off our kids’ ice creams in Devon. Of course there was also the odd zoo and farm park.
But moving to and holidaying in Asia gave us the chance to have wildlife encounters that we’d only ever seen, and imagined seeing, on David Attenborough shows.
They were thrilling, wonderful and uncomfortable for different reasons – giving us taste of how some experiences are not weighted in the creatures’ favour.
Here’s five of those wildlife experiences and how they measured up to the hype.
Swimming with turtles at the Daymaniat Islands in Oman
Something that I still pinch myself about is that while living in Muscat we were less than an hour from a protected archipelago that attracted an abundance of marine life.
We snorkelled at the Daymaniyat Islands often, swimming with iridescent fish, flighty reef sharks and large groups of green turtles.
I remember the girls being cautious during our first visits. They were more used to being on top of the water, paddle boarding in the UK. But they soon got used to using snorkels and calmly watching bales of turtles nibbling on coral.
We used a handful of different tour companies to take us to the islands, booking ones recommended by friends as being knowledgeable about the marine life and respectful of the nature reserve.
Seeing turtles nesting in Oman
Conversely, watching Green Turtles lay their eggs at the Ras Al Jinz nature reserve 250km south of Muscat felt intrusive.
The reserve is the only place in Oman where it is permitted to watch turtles nest and hatch. All other nesting beaches, like the ones on the Daymaniat Islands, are closed to the public during the summer season to protect the wildlife.
At Ras Al Jinz you can take a late evening or early morning tour. The evening is when you can see turtles hauling themselves up the shore to find a spot to do the backbreaking work of digging their nest. And the early morning, before sunrise, is the time to see the baby turtles emerge from the sand.
We visited for both experiences and, while we learnt a lot from our guides, it was sad to see little effort made to control unruly guests.
People were noisy, they wandered away from the group and we saw some kicking the body of a turtle that had tragically died in the surf. It was upsetting and these were not isolated experiences. Lots of reviews mention bad visitor behaviour going unchecked.
I know stricter rules are enforced elsewhere in the world and I’m sure Oman, a country still refining tourism, will find its way.
An elephant safari in Sri Lanka
Seeing elephants was high on our wish list of wildlife experiences when we planned our two week trip to Sri Lanka. We’d never seen them in the wild or been on anything like a safari.
Even before the day of our trip to Kaudulla National Park we’d seen elephants crossing the road as we drove towards the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Sigiriya. Our minds were blown. It was a very surreal introduction to the incredible wildlife we were to see.
However, we came away from our safari with mixed feelings.
Our experience with our guide and the sheer number of elephants we saw was overwhelmingly positive. The girls were amazed. But the park was incredibly busy during what was migration season. It felt like we were in nature’s way.
After this we decided to make our next elephant encounter less wild and more considered.
An ethical elephant sanctuary in Thailand
The opportunity came up during a stay in Thailand where we visited the Following Giants sanctuary in Krabi.
This is a no touching attraction where the rescued elephants roam freely and visitors observe them on foot. You don’t get the hands on interaction that many sanctuaries still offer, but Following Giants explain how any kind of touching is a continuation of the abuse that these intelligent animals have been conditioned to endure.
It felt like a very enriching experience. Not wild, but also not exploitative.
All of this gave us plenty of food for thought about organised wildlife experiences. But our most extraordinary was one that couldn’t be planned.
Swimming with whale sharks in Oman
Whale Sharks migrate through the plankton rich Gulf of Oman each summer. But you won’t find tour companies selling trips to see them here. If you do, I would question their credentials.
In order to see Whale Sharks in Oman you simply need to get lucky during a crossing to the Daymaniat Islands, looking for the tell tale sign of dorsal fins and the tips of their tails skimming the surface.
We peeled our eyes on no less than four separate trips during the migration. It was during our last chance trip, weeks before leaving Oman, that we hit the jackpot.
“It was just like on TV”, exclaimed our 12-year-old as we got back on the boat after swimming with more than 10 of the season’s early arrivals. She wasn’t wrong.
We’d been the only boat with our constellation of sharks and had the most relaxed time watching them feeding around us.
That was until one of them decided to swim right towards me. All I could do was make like a star fish on the surface as it skimmed underneath me.
Wildlife experiences to remember
We learnt a lot from these experiences, both about the animals and what makes animals encounters positive for all.
The ones that I wouldn’t hesitate to repeat would be swimming with turtles and the ethical elephant sanctuary. I would love to swim with whale sharks again, but I doubt our experience in Oman can be beaten.
To find out more about adventures in Oman I can recommend reading my post about our wild camping trips in Asia.
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