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I have never experienced winning the lottery. But this encounter with a whaleshark might get really close to the feelings of winning something big! Whalesharks are seldom seen in the narrow bay of Palu. I still remember my conversation with our dive guide Nasrun.

Me : I might go wide-angle on the housereef dive.

Nasrun : Naaw, housereef is only macro. I’ll show you some pygmy seahorses and ghostpipefish. Wide angle is not good on the housereef.

Me : ok, then, let’s do macro.

After roughly 30 minutes diving Nasrun looks at me and points to the sand below us. I didn’t understand. There was nothing to see. Then he lifted his head to the surface above us. So did I…and almost lost my regulator! A whaleshark just swam over our heads following our bubbles. Nasrun was actually pointing at the giant’s shadow in the sand below us.. My first thought was : Dammit, I’m on macro! Then I rembered my GoPro Camera attached to my housing. The gentle giant of about 5-6 meters cruised around us for more than 10 minutes, searching for the bubbles we expelled, a bit faster than usually, I have to admit.

Visibiltiy was not at it’s best, but here are the images of my big win!

Last April we spent 2 weeks diving at the Prince John Dive Resort. Everything was great, the staff was really helpful and nice. The atmosphere was fun and easy-going!

At one point comes the moment when you prepare for your last dive. Always a moment of mixed feelings:happy to go diving but totally aware that it is the last dive before returning home.

Well the staff at Prince John found a great way to make this last dive a really special one ! You will do a Flower dive 🙂

Now I can already imagine some of you wondering. A Flower dive? Well the divemasters collect some beautiful flowers from the garden and attach them to your tank and regulator hose.

Men and women alike then walk fully covered in flowers into the water. No need to say that the locals watch you with a bright smile.

Sometimes it doesn’t need much time nor money to make people feel special.

Thank you for that Alex, Dedi, Moh Amin, Gunawan and Nasrun