Saturday, 17 May 2014

Happy Birthday to Me!

Family law dictates that on your birthday, the honouree gets to do what they want and eat what they want, no questions asked. This year, my birthday fell on the day that Rob wanted to swim with whale sharks.
Le sigh.
At first, I was resigned to the fact that my big day would be spent doing what the rest of the family wanted to do, a direct contravention of family law. However, as the day approached, I found myself getting more and more excited. We had signed up to do a relatively expensive, all day, transportation-equipment-and-food included snorkel outing to the Ningaloo reef in search of the world’s largest fish – the whale shark.
We had an early start so, the night before, I had my wine cut off at 8pm and was ordered to bed early. Someone, who shall remain unnamed, was so excited about the forthcoming trip that the night was filled with tossing, turning and clockwatching. The bus picked us up at 7:30 and we, along with the rest of the sixteen tour group members, were driven around the tip of the peninsula to where the boat was waiting for us.
The 17 metre vessel was crewed by the captain (and galley wench) Josh, safety boat operator Travis (who happened to be a transplanted BC boy from Merritt), Megs, the photographer and Tara and Roxy, the snorkeling guides. They also had a pilot up in a spotter plane circling overhead.
We started the cruise by going for a snorkel inside the reef so that the crew could access our swimming and snorkeling skills. I assured them that Isabelle and Sophie could outswim anyone on board, and quite possibly the whale sharks.
In our fashionable sting suits - red bell jellies had been prolific the day before, but thankfully, were absent today

The first thing I spotted when I put my mask in the water was a 5 foot reef shark lurking directly below. And when I say directly, I mean about 3 feet under my feet, which were immediately drawn up into the fetal position *protect vital organs*. The reef shark was completely unconcerned by my presence and languidly swam on his merry way. I continued towards the group and was treated to a spectacular underwater wonderland – an entire Disney movie full of brilliantly coloured aquatic life. I saw Dory, Gill, the turtle dudes and a school of sign making silver fish. The only beings missing were Ariel and Sebastian leading his underwater orchestra: “Darling it’s better, down where it’s wetter, under da sea”.
Truly spectacular.
After about 30 minutes in the body temperature water, we were ushered back up into the boat and we continued into the open ocean to where the spotter plane directed us. While under way, the crew treated us to a puppet show illustrating how to swim with a whale shark to ensure the sharks comfort and our safety. Amazing how much better directions sink in when delivered by a Fisher Price boat with He-Man at the helm, Dusty the Pixar crop duster and a platoon of action figures with sticks up their butts for ease of illustration.
We arrived at the correct coordinates and were divided into two groups of ten. Department of Wildlife regulations dictate that only ten people at a time can interact with the sharks so we played an elaborate game of leapfrog so that everyone could enjoy the experience. One group was launched into the water in the path of the shark, the boat charged ahead, dumped its second load of tourists further ahead and then looped around to pick up the first group and the cycle repeated itself for a maximum of one hour.
The four Rutherfords were in Group 2 and patiently waited their turn to get in the water.
If by “patiently” you mean scooting as close as we could behind the first group and barging in front of all the seniors in our group.
We launched into the water as directed by Tara, our snorkel guide, and waited until she gave the signal before we put our masks in the water. 
FYI – noise travels four times faster and louder underwater and I’m sure everything within a 10k radius heard my squeal of shock when I put my mask into the water to discover a 7 metre spotted shark lurking four miniscule metres away from me. 
Holy %@#!.
We had to wait for it to swim past us and as soon as we were level with its pectoral fins, we were allowed to try to keep up and swim with it. Before that happened, there was much yelling from Tara – “Push yourself out if his way – he’s changing direction!” (she had already had a good look underneath and determined its sex by the dangly bits). I saw that Sophie was in the direct path of the shark’s gaping maw and couldn’t move back because a bikini clad nymph behind her was taking advantage of the photo op. I channeled my best mama bear and pushed both of them out of the path of the behemoth. The shark stared at us out of its marble sized eyes and I’m fairly certain I saw a disconcerted shrug as he circled around. 
Ok, maybe I overreacted, just a tad.
One of the men in our group was a little too enthusiastic and started swimming within eyesight of the shark. The beast decided he had had enough of the pesky humans, did a sharp jackknife and dove out of sight, just like that. Gone.
Luckily, the spotter plane had seen more sharks and we spent a few hours leapfrogging amongst more of these incredibly spectacular animals. 
I have to admit that snorkeling is made much more exhausting by the necessity of constant head counting. The mantra in my head went something like this: 
Head down “OMG Whale shark!!”
Head up “kid, kid, husband”
Head down “OMG it’s so beautiful!!”
Head up “kid, kid, husband”
Head down “OMG what an experience”
… repeat ad naseum…
On the way back to the harbour, as the crew treated us to a fabulous lunch, we spotted giant turtles, minke whales, flying fish, a school of tuna, a stingray and a bob of cuttlefish. The only thing left on our “To be Seen in Western Australia” list is a dugong – luckily, a red kangaroo hopped into the path of our oncoming bus on the way home so we could cross that one off the list too.
And so, to summarize this momentous of days, I can state that, on my forty fourth birthday, I officially jumped that shark.

It’s all downhill from here.

2 comments:

  1. Your summary made me laugh :-)

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  2. Balls~ you have not 'jumped that shark' yet. Forty four? Just a babe. Another great blog~ now if you only had a Starbucks coffee. Heading out to have one for you.

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