Friday 1 October 2010

Wednesday – Shark feeding 20ft down, and an important question!

This morning we were up bright and early, as we had signed up for a 2 tank dive.  The first dive would be leaving at 9am, and once kitted up we would be travelling out to open sea for a very unique experience!

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Our boat was the small resort dive boat, which proved a bit rocky when the swell got larger as we got further out to sea.

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When we reached our dive site – Cathedral Reef, we got our scuba gear on and did a boat roll into the sea…quite scary as neither of us had done this launch before.  Basically you do a backward roll off the side of the boat, whilst it is rocking dramatically in the sea swell.

Once in the water we descended 20 metres down to the sea floor, our dive master followed us with a wheelie bin full of food.  As he reached the bottom he emptied the contents onto the sea floor about 5 metres in front of us, and what followed was chaos, with hundreds of fish moving in to feed. 

The sharks arrived not soon after, clearing the way and getting more than their share of the feast.  As two more dive crews arrived, they to brought with them a wheelie bin each worth of food.  By this time there were 4 different types of shark circling us, and going in for food; grey reef shark, black tip reef shark, white tip reef shark and the lemon shark.

It was an amazing sight, especially when one shark came swimming right towards us with a large fish head in it’s mouth…Nicola by this point was squeezing Ben’s hand SO hard!  Sadly, as our camera is only waterproof to 3 metres we weren’t able to take any photos.

After 40 minutes watching this feeding frenzy we started our ascent, stopping at 5 metres for a safety stop.  Back on the boat we took off our kit and journeyed back to the resort.

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A short break, and we were back on the boat and travelling out to our second dive site of the day, called Wonderland.

Once in the water we descended to 18 metres, and followed our guide Jim around the reef.  It was a fantastic site, and well worthy of it’s name.  We saw huge mushroom shaped coral formations, a lobster and large octopus.

Back on the boat after 40 minutes on the bottom we travelled back to the resort and had a well deserved lunch.

In the afternoon we went for a last snorkel along the reef, before handing our snorkel gear back to the dive shop.

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After a shower and change we went for a walk along the beach to watch the sunset.  As we walked away from the resort into the quiet solitude of the beautiful beach we watched the sun slip behind the clouds.

It was then that Ben took Nicola by complete surprise, going down on one knee and proposing, she of course accepted!  We then called our parents to let them know the good news…sorry for waking you all up so early!  The below photo was taken just after the happy moment…

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We then wandered back to the bar and had a Blue Lagoon cocktail to celebrate…what better cocktail to treat ourselves with, whilst staying at the Blue Lagoon!

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Ben then had to give Nicola the bad news, she would not be enjoying ‘Curry Night’ for the last time with the rest of the guests…instead he was treating her to a ‘champagne and lobster dinner’ at our very own private lamp lit table on the beach!

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When dinner arrived we were stunned, it was a seafood feast; with mussels, reef fish, squid rings, prawn kebabs, and the largest lobsters either of us had ever seen!  Here are a few photos from our evening.

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After dinner we grabbed two sun loungers in front of the big screen (white sheet, strung between two coconut trees) and settled down with a G&T to watch this weeks ‘Retro Movie’ The Blue Lagoon!  What movie could be more fitting to watch, as we conclude our two week holiday in the Blue Lagoon?!  Although, we had both forgotten how ‘cheesy’ this film is!

A day neither of us will ever forget!

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