Welcome back to our blog! This being the final one for 2016, where has the year gone? We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and hope that your well-earned time off work is amazing.
I write this, sitting in our beautiful house, looking out over the ocean, as Day 2 of our family Christmas festivities come to an end.
We’ll do a bit of a recap of the previous month of our working stay in Ceduna. We’ve had the luxury of staying with Jamie’s Uncle and Aunt, Andy (Grandy) and Teresa, as well as getting to spend some time with more of his side of the family. We both had full time jobs; I was doing 6 days a week at the Ceduna pharmacy while Jamie worked Monday to Friday with the local electrician. We sure made the most of our off time though, both after work and on weekends as well as eating like kings in the usual style of Andy and Teresa.
Our first weekend, the Ceduna races were being held, so we dressed up and headed to the slightly dry, dirt racetrack. Jamie’s cousin Corey and his wife Nia were there for their Christmas work show so we were able to catch up with them and meet some new people. I got fairly drunk in true race fashion and so we had a pretty early night that night and had the next day as a recovery day.
Mid week after work Andy and Teresa took us to a really cool spot to have a picnic dinner and go fishing. I managed to get the record for catching the most “shitties” (trumpet fish which are no good for eating). After getting off to a slow start Jamie caught a whole bunch of salmon and Andy scored a KGW. The sunset was absolutely epic that night and the weather was just perfect. Needless to say, we dined on various fish meals for the next few days including some delicious Thai fish cakes. The next weekend we were taken out to another great beach spot, famous for surfing, where Jamie was able to get a good surf in while Pumba and I watched and photographed him surfing. It was a perfect weather day and we had another picnic lunch and then had a nice swim in the crystal blue waters that the West Coast seems to be famous for.
Before we knew it, the weekend of our shark cage dive had come around. To get into a Saturday spot we had to book it about a month in advance. We both took off work early on Friday and drove down to Lincoln for the weekend. We had an amazing seafood dinner that night in preparation and then were up by 5:30 ready for our big day out on the water. We had booked in with Calypso Star Charters, who are the only company to use burley bait to lure the sharks in. We had about a 3 hour trip to get to the Neptune Islands and the seas were quite rough with massive swell. We were prepared and took seasick tablets both the night before, and that morning, but even so as we rode up and down the giant waves (thinking we were part of The Perfect Storm) Jamie started to feel less than average. There were quite a few on the vessel that were feeling a bit sick. I went outside to get some footage of the rolling waves and get mega wet from a wave crashing over us. Worth it though!! We were given breakfast, fresh fruit and cappuccinos on board. When we finally got to the Neptune Islands the weather cleared up a bit and Jamie and I ended up in the first group. We suited up in our thick 7mm wetsuits, booties and hood, had a quick practice with the breathing apparatus and waited for the first sighting of a shark. After about 40 minutes they had spotted one so we jumped into the cage with other people. It was the first time Jamie or I had ever used a SCUBA like breathing apparatus, and admittedly we both freaked out when we first had to plunge into the water. It was also very cold which didn’t help. I took quick, short breaths when I tried to practice underwater and it just made me panicky, as I wasn’t getting enough oxygen. So I popped my head up and had to have a stern talking to myself to relax so I could get on with it and enjoy this experience. Once I had done that, I was fine and able to really enjoy the whole thing. We spent the first half hour in the water without any sightings of the sharks and just got to watch the large groups of giant tuna and trevally swimming around us. Then finally out of the dark blue depths of water our first shark came into view. I actually stopped breathing when I saw the first one, as it was so big and amazing and I was so excited to spot one. We spent the next 15-20 minutes with two different sharks swimming past the cage. They weren’t anything like we expected. They were calm and graceful and very beautiful in their own way. They didn’t get into any kind of blood frenzies or anything and they only went for the bait when they had decided it was worth their effort. We even got to watch them from the viewing decks on board as they came up to the bait and even take the bait on several occasions. A seal even came around but sped away quite quickly when it realised there were sharks around. After the other 3 groups had spent their 45 minutes in the cage and we had devoured our fresh cooked lunch onboard, some of us from the first group changed back into our already wet wetsuits to go into the cage again, as the sharks were a lot more frequent now. I again marvelled at their size and composed demeanour as we spotted three different sharks to the first dive. I only got out in the end because I was shivering uncontrollably; otherwise I might have stayed in there even longer. We arrived back into harbour at about 6pm still on a high from our massive day of shark viewing. Sunday was spent in Port Lincoln doing some errands and our Christmas shopping at a cute little market.
And then it was our last week of work leading up to Christmas. We were both super busy; Jamie because everyone always wants electrical work done before Christmas and me because it’s retail!! On the 23rd a huge storm rolled in out of nowhere. Jamie and I had come home for our lunch break when it started bucketing rain and heavy winds which blew in the garage roller door. Uncle Andy was mega impressed at this! When I got back to work there had also been a power outage and some flooding in the front of the shop. We were one of the only shops that remained open as we had back up generators, so we were super busy while the rest of the town remained without power for 24hours. After I finished work on Christmas Eve, we went to the beach as Jamie’s cousin Jess and her fiancé Dan and little girl Summer had also arrived. The boys all had a good surf and then we had a barbeque on the beach followed by Jamie and I annihilating Jess and Dan in a fishing competition. It was the perfect, relaxing Christmas Eve. Christmas day started early with lots of present opening and then Jamie and I made everyone Loukamades (Greek honey balls) as it has become a tradition to have them for Chrissy breakfast. We then relaxed a bit before more family came over for a visit and more present opening. Both Dan and Andy received drones so they were testing those out, somewhat unsuccessfully. Lunch was an elaborate spread of local king prawns, local ham, chicken, mango and mint salad, black rice salad, beetroot salad and topped off with individual Christmas puddings and brandy cream. It was a boiling hot day so we all walked down to the beach for a swim and then spent the afternoon playing pool and having an all out shooting war with nerf guns. Leftovers for dinner made the ideal end to a great day full of eating, laughter and great company.
