Great White shark diving
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Saturday 4th April 2009 - the shark dive day!!! Was not feeling nervous at all. I’ve thrown myself off tall ledges into canyons, out of planes and this was not scaring me at all, I was just way too excited. We got the boat when it was still dark at 6.30am, and there were 15 passengers including us. It was a 2 hour ride out to Neptune Island which is where they anchor, as its a seal colony on the Island, which obviously makes the sharks hang around for dinner. Well bugger me - I have NEVER been on such a choppy boat ride in my entire life. Now luckily Damian had had the good sense to get sea sickness tablets, so we popped some in the morning, and we were fine, but half of our passengers were big burly, tattooed Aussie guys who started off taking the piss out of everything, but were soon hanging their heads over the side of the boat chucking their guts up. Not so macho now, ha ha!! There were a couple of people who spent the entire day being sick and lying down in the cabins and not doing the dive at all. It was hilarious seeing all these green faces around us, because us 2 were just raring to go. They provided fantastic food and drinks the whole trip, and the 2 guys got all the bait out, and were chucking tuna in as the sharks love tuna, and loads of blood and guts as sharks can smell 1 drop of blood from miles away. Nothing was happening so we were dreading the thought they wouldn’t come, then 3 hours later 2 turned up. the excitement was overwhelming as these beautiful, amazing creatures took the bait. The guys named them and 1 of them was 4.2metres, the other 4.6 metres. They would take the bait and bite right through the rope and bugger off for a munch, then come back. They were truly awesome. 4 people went in the cage at a time, and me and Damian were in the 3rd group, so we got kitted out in our wet suits and masks and breathing gear. We had 2 sets of weights put on us, one round our shoulders and one round our waist, and it actually makes it really hard to breath. As it was my first time diving it took a while to regulate my breathing as the weights were tightening my chest, but once I had practiced, I lowered myself into the cage - and there he was. My god, words can not describe the feeling of seeing these amazing Great White Sharks in their own environment. They do not survive in captivity, so you can only see them in the wild, and Port Lincoln and South Africa are the only places that do the dives, so we were so god damn privileged it was unreal. The sharks were absolutely huge, and they came right up to the cage to get the bait, then circled round and swam off. we had 45 minutes in the cage, and they disappeared for a while so the other 2 guys got out. I went up to surface to just get some air, then the skipper shouted the shark was back, so I went straight back down and it was just me and Damo in the cage, and these beauties were going for the bait again and circling round, coming right up. There is a gap in the cage so when they come right up, you just step back into the middle so they can’t get you if their noses come through the gap - which has happened (see You tube for footage, Damian kindly sent me the links beforehand). It disappeared again after a while, so I went back up to get some air again, then they shouted it was back, so down again I popped and there he was. Its just so surreal being face to face with these predators, but apparently statistically there is more chance of being killed by a falling coconut on your head than being attacked by a shark. Still don’t fancy my chances outside of the cage mind. After 45 minutes we came up to let the other group go in, and we were just buzzing. Its an experience of a lifetime and I feel so unbelievably lucky to have had the chance to do that. When we got back to dry land we went for dinner in the hotel restaurant again, and neither of us could stop talking about it, but we were swaying for the rest of the night from the boat!! Then left the next day to go back to Adelaide, but it was FANTASTIC.
Sad news guys, the copywriting job for the laser tattoo removal manchester webpage is back off, again. Sometimes I really get sick of being a copywriter!