Last day in Oz

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Today was our last day in Australia, and it certainly ended on a high! After a rousing Easter Sunday church service with Steve & Hanneke, we went for a picnic at Shelly Beach. You know what that means...snorkelling! Yesterday we had a late afternoon snorkel, and were shown by a local where the sharks hang out! He swam us about 100m along the rocks to where the water became quite murky, and sure enough, out of the gloom the dark unmistakeable silhouettes glided into view. We were stoked!
Today, took it to another level. First we stumbled on a Wobbegong - a shark that looks like it was trying to be a bit of seaweed. A group of SCUBA divers came swimming along below us, and the lead guy was oblivious to the animal I had just been photographing. He was virtually on top of it when he realised it was there, & you could almost see the skidmarks in the water from his sudden stop! He quickly motioned to the rest of the group the international signal for shark by placing a flat hand vertically on his forehead (like a dorsal fin).
Steve & I felt like we were in a jacuzzi as we hovered above 10 divers expelled bubbles, so decided to move on - and the reward was great...a group of at least 8 sharks circling quietly about 5 metres below us.
The largest was probably just over 4 ft long, the smallest about 3 feet. Small enough to look not too intimidating. Small enough for me to go diving down after them in an attempt to get a better photo.
Yesterday I caused myself a calf cramp doing this so I tried to be more subtle today. As you can see, they're quite difficult to get too close to, and in the dim, murky water...well, I tried.
The whole dive today was just exhilarating. We stayed for about an hour & a half, and swam probably 200m from the beach, until we begrudgingly decided that flirting with hypothermia was not a great idea, and headed back to shore.

I can only think that swimming with dolphins could top this...so come on New Zealand!

PS: please check Facebook for pics (this applies to all the blog entries as it takes long time to load on this application!)

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