My National Geographic Diving Day
Contributed by splasch
Ever
felt like you were diving in the pages of a National Geographic
magazine? Well that's how I felt last Sunday on Christmas Island ...
The day started off like any other; meet at the Cove at 8am to head
out for our two dives. I've been doing this for over 10 years,
and have never tired of my weekend diving here on the Island. But
today was to be a very special Sunday.
On the way out we were lucky enough to snorkel with the spinner
dolphins - and then, along came the whalesharks. Not 1, not 2,
but 4 - all different sharks, all in different locations, and we had
the opportunity to snorkel with them all. Whew, and we hadn't
even hit the water for our dive yet!
Given the whalesharks were around my buddy and I decided to stay off
the reef and sit in the blue - and were we rewarded for missing one of
the most intact oceanic reefs in the world? - you betcha - 2
whalesharks and a manta ray went sailing by ...
And then we could hear the dolphins underwater. Next thing, we had around 50 spinner dolphins
checking us out in the blue, playing around with us - I was
mesmerized. What a dive ... But it wasn't over yet - sitting
enjoying our coffee and cake in the surface interval and our dive
operator yells "whaleshark" so in we jump again - this was now 7 in one
day ... Then 8, then 9 ... And each one staying around for a few
minutes just to check us out.
But the best was yet to come - on our second dive we were visited by
one of the largest whalesharks I have seen, and she was ready to play - for
over 40 minutes she played above us in our bubbles, having the
equivalent of a whaleshark day spa letting our bubbles flow through her
gills, she was below us, then she played around us, and above us - I
just could not believe our luck ... That's now 10 in one day
But wait, there's more ... Having completed two of the most amazing
dives and encounters with dolphins and whalesharks underwater, we saw
another 3 whalesharks on our way back to the Cove - that's 13 in one
day ... I still can't get the smile off my face. I know this was
one of those "once in a lifetime" dive days, but Christmas Island
definitely delivers its fair share of once in a lifetime "National
Geographic" experiences.