1 post tagged “ocean world manly”

Now that I am absolutely comfortable playing the shameless tourist, I decided to treat myself to one of the main tourist attractions here, well for the brave ones that is (so I keep telling myself): Shark Dive Extreme at Ocean World in Manly.

 After diving in some very so-called shark infested waters in Hawaii and not seeing any sharks, after missing the whale shark at Racer Rock in Thailand, while every other diver there seemed to have seen it every single day....I decided to go for the guaranteed sighting in this big aquarium. Yeah yeah some of my diving friends may not consider this as a real dive. Yes let's discuss this next week thursday evening at the bar in the Bauhaus ;-)

Anyways...took the ferry to Manly. Treated myself to a very nice Thai lunch. Felt a tad bit nervous. Visited Ocean World, it's a pretty old and shabby aquarium to be honest, but the shark tunnel was quite impressive. 7 adult grey nurse sharks, all measuring around 4 meters, giant stingrays, sea turtles, wobbegong sharks and a vast array of marine life. And I was going in there!

Met the cute dive instructor, my 3 fellow divers and off we went. The water was cold, but the giant sea turtle in the entry bassin made me forget about the cold, as did the cute cuttlefish around me. Then we went in the first area where normally the sharks don't go in. Except for today...as soon as we glided in the water, we got up very close and personal with a huge female grey nurse shark. I didn't feel afraid at all, such a gracious and calmly moving animal, extraordinary. Then we went to the part where all the sharks hang out, and the giant rays and sea turtles. It was amazing, cannot even begin to describe it, They just glided past us maybe 5 cm away, we had to duck for the clumsy sea turtle, the stingray brushed the top of our heads. 

I am so glad I did this dive. 30 minutes with these beautiful animals...one of the hightlights of my trip.

Then I spent a small fortune buying the 3 minutes movie they made in the aquarium, but hey it was worth it. And as a bonus the cute instructor gave me all the pictures they took, instead of just the 2 I was initially going to buy.

So yeah, the lucky ones among you will get to see them all and the little movie ;-)

After the dive I shared my enthousiasm on the phone with my friend, got back on the ferry and even the pouring rain couldn't bother me. I finally got to swim with sharks, yay!