3.8 to 4

3.824

The next few days at Byron rained very heavily, which meant reading at coffee shops, and the buying of completely ridiculous hemp clothing I will never wear again. A salute to holiday eyes shopping. I think I have narrowed it down to a subconcious, "If I own that ridiculous item, I can take the feeling and soul of this place and time with me to the hustle and bustle of my life.

As I left a shop yesterday, Kate commented, "Your brother Jeff can never come here, we would never see him again." I agreed (Jeff if you are reading this, stop now)

A man yelled "Out of the way!" We both jumped back as a guy with hugly dilated pupils flew by at high speed on a long skate board, being pulled along, huski style by two two pitbulls on long leads. He continued down the street, clearing a path through startled tourists. Where was my camera when I needed it?

We made our way to the beach for ournext adventure, Kiyak with the Dolphins and their babies. There was no mention of sharks this time which I was happy about. The instructor gave us the safety talk, raising his paddle in the air, "This means come to me, and if you see me paddling fast for the shore, try to keep up." We were then informed he doesn't get paid enough to worry about us. He was very dry and had a routine down pat .

We headed through the small waves at the shore, making sure to keep the boat strait into the waves to aviod tipping, as it is a task to get back in the boat. Kate sat in the front and me in the back of the two seater plastic boat. Soon we were out about past all the waves and as promised dolphins appeared, they were cautious and their enquisitive nature was obvious as they passed the kiyaks, one eye checked you out. I broke out my $44 dollar underwater camer and started snapping away, one hand holding the camera under water off the edge of the kiyak, as we were only 10cm clear of the water.

They all disapeared in unison, simply not returning to the surface from the last breath, which I thought was strange. I would on the camera for the next shot, then saw another one, no wait, thats a bit different. I took a photo as a shadow cruised towards the group. Then a different fin rose out of the water, straight and triangular. A shark! no wonder the dolphins had left so quick. I called out to the lead guy, who stood up in his Kiyak to get a better view. "Yea its a big one." "Head back in big?" was my immediate question, to which he replied, "None of them are that big." He snapped a few shots and informed us it was a great white.

I wanted a photo up close so I asked kate, who was sitting in the front to do head around the group to follow the shark. We started paddling after the shark but soon lost it. We stopped paddling all the people in the five kiyaks scouring the water for the shark. Kate let out a yelp and I then noticed a massive black shadow to our right hand side, about two meters away, cruising very slowly towards the right hand side of the boat. I also yelled very instinctivly and had a tremendouse desire to no longer be stationary. It was a start that the men's Olympic Kiyak team would have been proud of. I had forgotten all about photos, and wanted very much to be away from the shark, who judging by the shadow was bigger then first thought. We rejoined the group and I asked how big he estimated the shark was, "3.8 to 4 meters," he said, "about the same size as the Kiyak you are on." Oh shit. Kate asked if we had completed all our activities and could now head to shore. He pulled a radio off his shoulder and reported to the surf patroll that we had a big shark out here with us. Surfers on the point were only five hundred meters away, but propably not phased any way, as sharks are always around and don't tend to bother people. A four meter shark is maybe a different story, I am not sure, but I would like to know.

We headed for home and saw another pod of dolphins, two broke away from the pack and headed towards the area the shark had been. Aparently the area is a dolphin nursery and the bigger dolphins will see off anything, no matter the size by bumping and antaganising it. We surfed down the small waves and dragged the kiyaks to shore, where a cup of coffee and tim tams awaited. The OS tourists in the group were shown how to bite the ends off tim tams and suck the coffee through. They were now Australians.

"We will email you the photos, probably wont put them on the web site. Yes I thought that may not encourage people. I had a look at the digital camera the instucor had taken shots with. The hair on my neck stood on end and I shivered. As soon as I get the photos emailed through I will add them to the Blog.

Jonathan

Byron - Friendly Sharks

So Kate and I have started our honeymoon in the stunning Byron Bay. What a place! It is what I imagine would happen if at the end of the Meredith Music festival, the crowd had decided that instead of going home, one person would open a milk bar, the other grow cherries, and another bake organic sour dough bread.

The only downside to the place is the throngs of beautiful topless German backpackers who make the beaches a bit busy. This is something I will have to live with. Sigh...

I started yesterday with a program of yoga at 8am, followed by a bircher muesli , and then off to a snorkelling adventure to the rocks located 1km off the Byron Bay point. I noticed the chalk board as I borded the rusty 4x4 landcruiser, which stated, "Come and Snorkle with turtles and friendly sharks." Ha, friendly sharks, thats a good one I thought.

After a quick dart out through the surf on the zodiac, filled with professional scuba divers, and four "which way up does my mask go?" snorkelers, we arrived at the rocks.

The captain announced a quick safety speech before we entered. Then pointed out the way we could go to find the 1.5 meter Grey Nurse sharks. "If I ask you, this signal means I'm OK, this signal means pick me up." "Watch out for Wabbies, stingers and rays." He looked at me perched on the edge of the boat, checked over my shoulder for other divers in the water, "Right to go!"

I flailed backwards into the water, with a few questions running through my mind. Why are we diving if there is 1.5 meter sharks in the water? And the next logical question, why would I want to find them? I then thought of his warning, wabbies, stingers and Rays. WHAT IS A WOBBIE! and does watch out mean, be ready to swim away from, dont provoke or dont go near??? These are all good questions I should have asked on the boat.

A quick check around me revealed no immediate man-eating danger. Kate swam up beside me in an all black wet suit. I had luckily donned the wet suit with more colours, and looked a lot more poisonous then the Kate in her "Please eat me, I am an injured seal" suit. I decided to swim with Kate for the remainder of the adventure.....so we could share the experience.

The sea is warm beautiful and full of life around the rocks. Massive snapper cruise by and rays a meter wide flap their wings in slow motion along the light blue sandy bottom. I for a moment thought of duck diving, to get closer and try out my new $44 dollar under water camera, when a voice popped into my head, "Crikey, thats a bad idea!" needless to say I took my kaki shorts off and decided not take close ups of anything big enough to see from 10 meters away.

We swam along the protected side of the rocks, rising and falling with the waves that arrived. Kate popped up and had started to feel very sick from the rocking. We headed back to the boat as we neared departure time, Kate sitting on the left of the boat between an instructor and a buff German guy. The instructor asked if I wanted to sit next to Kate, I declined, it was a short trip back. I started chatting to the scuba diver next to me, completly oblivious to the fact that Kate had lost her bircher muesile breakfast over the side a number of times.

We arrived back, me glad to be "unwobbied" Kate as white as a ghost.

If you come to Byron, it's a must, just watch out for wabbies, stingers and Rays.

Jonathan