Trip to Neptune Island to see the Great White Sharks

Well - yesterday was THE day. I took a trip out to Neptune Island from Port Lincoln on AU's south coast with Calypso Shark Cage Diving tours.

Calypso was a 100% plus provider in every way. You can see my review at Trip Advisor if you want more information about their exceptional service. For instance, they went way beyond expected to ensure I received my souvenir hoodie this morning.

We left in the dark at 0600 from the hotel to staging at the Port Lincoln marina. Coffee greeted us (thank God) as well as a more than light breakfast on the boat. It was a windy morning and during the last hour we were on the open and dreaded "South Sea". We had swells as high as 2 or 3 metres and even though the boat had geo-stabilizers there was still some pretty good rock and roll. I had never been on such rough ocean before. Those who had not taken any motion sickness tablets were vomiting during the last hour. I was gulping down those ginger tablets pretty regularly and keeping my eye on the horizon so I was able to avoid the shame of carrying around the BB's (Barf Bags)

Here is a shot of the inside of the boat, some travellers, and pre-BB.

Well it's hard to get a good understanding of the boat's motions from a photo here is a shot I took. Lots of spray and rough waters....

Along the way the crew did briefings and encouraged us to get pictures taken. Here is a picture of You Know Who....

Our location at Neptune Island was quite sheltered and the weather cleared for a while.

We went into the water in groups of 8 and there were 6 groups of us. Each group was in the water for 30 to 40 minutes which is about as long as you can stand the 14C water. I had an extra thermal shirt under my 7mm wetsuit and even then the temperature was just bearable. This is a picture of some of the tutorials we had of equipment, how to use the regulators, entering and exiting the cage and behaviour within the cage. Sticking your hands or head out are a big No-No... I guess there are people who would do that!

In order to encourage the sharks to visit the cage area the crew threw out berley which is basically fish innards. The berley was attached to a floating ball so they could keep track of it and manage it. The berley was to create a "scent trail" for the sharks but it seemed as though they just circled around looking for a snack. Anyway the berley worked. A total of 4 different sharks visited the cage area in different ways and everyone got a chance to see one of these massively elegant killing machines.

Unfortunately the GoPro photos of the sharks in the water and photos of our groups were not able to be uploaded to memory sticks. I will be getting mine via email, likely tomorrow. I'll do another posting so you can get more detail.

The trip home was rather muted as most people took their motion sickness medicine. Not one BB was used!

It was gratifying to do this type of dive under somewhat difficult conditions, see the sharks and get home to enjoy a very long hot shower.

Today is a travel day back to Melbourne to meet my hubby. I'll share more photos from the shark trip when they are available.