A lion, a tiger a bear. Oh MY!

I booked to go scuba diving today. I was torn between that and swimming with the shake sharks but i thought $400 was a bit too steep so i decided on the $200 for two dives... And what a good decidcion it was.

The first dive i saw a Manta Ray and a huge Cray fish hiding under a rock. Among all the other beautiful reef fish and amazing coral.
We came back up after almost an hour and had lunch on the boat. I sat on top deck with a few others while the skipper pointed out humpback's for us to see. A couple swam by which was so amazing to see! I've never see a whale that close before. The mum was popping up for air every few minutes while her baby followed behind trying to breech. We were all hoping to see a jump but after a few minutes the had disappeared into the sea.
The skipper, Dave, carried on to our next dive spot, Nick Lumps, but spotted three Manta Ray. He swing the boat around, dropped the ankor and shouted "manta ray, 1 o clock! Everyone get your masks and flippers on and jump in there!" So it was literally all hands on deck! We all rushed to get our gear on then had to slowly slide into the water so we didn't disturbe them. We swam for about 200 meters to reach them. They were such elegant things. Gracefully gliding through the water, not caring we'd come to look. There was a black one which was about two neters long and two smaller white ones. We followed them for a few mins then headed back to the boat.
Wet were a good 3/400 meters away now and as we turned back to swim, one of the guys on the boat shouted something (i didn't quite here) and the dive master almost had a freak out. My first thought was Shark... She then said " i think they shouted whales!" Apparently it is against the law in Australia to jump into the water when you see a hump back whale... But... If your already in there, then they cant do anything about it. I looked in the direction they were coming from and saw it pop up for air not to far away. The dive master shout "get your heads in the water" and there they were! A 10-15 Meyer hump back whale with her calf swam right past us. It was really breath taking to see such a huge animal that close in the sea. Everyone was so stunned by it and for the few seconds after it had left and we all popped our heads back up it was silent. Then everyone started cheering! A once in a lifetime opportunity!Read more