Sharks, sharks and more Sharks in Fakarava

We had a nice sleep in our bungalow. The bed is wider than in the previous pension and more comfortable. Breakfast is included and the owner has set up a nice little spread on each communal tables with freshly baked bread. It’s lovely. 

We are one of the earlier risers because we have an early pick up from our dive center. Today we do 3 dives around French Polynesia largest pass. Fakarava is famous for sharks. So we do expect to see a lot of them. But if there are so many predators, it also means a lot of fish to feed the whole lot.

I can resume our first dives by one word: Sharks. Down the pass it’s thousands of them. Mostly grey reef sharks and a couple of white tip reef sharks. They are quite big. 
What is exceptional is that there is action down there. We saw them hunt a large fish and they made a tornado / column of shark going up. It lasted a few seconds but it was impressive ! We also had a school of fish that just got rammed through on many sides by sharks right in front. Again seeing them hunt is quite unique.

As correctly guessed, loads of fish. There were other predators such as tuna and trevallys around as well.

We ended the dive in an area that is called Ali Baba. It’s like a bowl a little lower on the pass that is protected from currents, so this is a ton of fish in there. We saw a sleeper shark as well in this area on the second dive. Again, all of that in perfect visibility and aquarium condition. Much stronger currents on the second dive of the morning.

The afternoon dive was on a coral garden on the edge of the pass, since the current had shifted to go out of the lagoon. There our luck brought a large Manta ray to us. Apparently, they are pretty rare in Fakarava. We got lucky.

3 dives a day is quite tiring. We were happy to be back at the pension to relax. We caught up with another customer and chit chatted with her at the kitchen. Alexis tried to go by the shop to see if they had any fresh vegetables or fruits today ( there was none yesterday)  but he arrived too late and it had just closed.

At the kitchen you have a cute kitty who is quite cuddly. We made a friend. He got his fill of caress and scratches. Followed us to the bungalow and stayed on my lap as I type this for a little while before getting bored and then back to the kitchen. He very much wanted in the bungalow for the night.