Shark Swim at Manly Beach

wow what a scary day - we left early this morning - 6.30am and drove out to the beach for a 9am swim.

got to venue early but was still shut - so spent 30mins waiting outside prolonging the agony before we could go in. Trudy went to toilet 4 times !

When we went in, we had a safety briefing and had to watch a DVD on diving, signage to use, breathing.

Pete our instructor then talked us throught he dive after introducing us to the 20 or so sharks, we also had some rays and turtles to see. After seeing them in action in the tank the tension had risen, we hadn't heard a word from Trudy for 20 mins!

We then had to be shown how to put on suits/tanks and weights and then went to get changed.

After a struggle to get the wetsuits on we entered the water and had a safety session, showing us how to breath, clear our masks, equalise ear pressure etc. this was very difficult for us being 1st time divers. Anna who hadn't ever been under the water before in her life, felt it was best to snorkel and swim with sharks instead of Diving, Pete was great showing Anna how to do this and supporting her - thanks Pete :-)

Trudy and myself went with Jim the other instructor and entered the tank, very slowly and gradually accustomed ourselves to the water depth, visibility and sharks.

Jack was busy at this stage taking photo's (hope to load these later tonight) and vid trough the thick perspex.

We then proceeded through the tank at a depth of 4/5m with the sharks/rays/turtles swimming around us, over us and under us. It was fantastic but really scary, me and Trudy look petrified in pictures, especially as the big shark (3m long) come over our heads and brushed against us.

We had a long session in the tank and Anna followed us all around using the snorkel and had the rays swimming all over her :-) she was so pleased to have done this.

We then left the tank and spent 5/10 mins trying to get out of the suits. We were all very quiet, the experience was so scary, but great we were speechless.

We finally got ourselves together and went with Pete and Jim to view the photo's and vid they took in the tank with us, we have a copy of this for you to view when we return, as well as a cert.

We left the experience drained and had an hour on Manly beach and then spent the afternoon at the pool back at Jack & Trudy's - thankfully no Sharks

Tomorrow we are of to Taronga Zoo - more wildlife experiences

LOL

Lee/Anna XXX