This is an amazing experience; snorkelling through a lake teeming with jellyfish – harmless, thanks to a rare combination of environmental and evolutionary circumstances.
It begins when your boat is parked on the edge of an island and you wander up and over the steep volcanic ridge that separates the lagoon from the lake. After a 200 metre paddle, you’re drifting through a wonder world of jellyfish – millions of them – gently jostling and shunting each other aside as they glide in the direction of the sun’s trajectory to complete their daily migration. Its a surreal experience, a combination of something you’d see in the movie Avatar, and being immersed in one of David Attenborough’s nature documentaries, only you can feel the jellyfish roll off your body and see them sliding off to one side of your face mask as you move through the water. When you dive down and turn upwards, you can see the sunlight shining through a constellation of golden orbs, so thick in parts you can barely see the sky.
Its absolutely mesmerising and, for a photographer, a sheer delight.