Deej you owe me a beer (not that I'd drink it)

But the principle remains...

Allow me to start from the beginning.

This morning Robyn and I arose nice and early to go for a dive, knowing that the Quobba coastline had some fantastic species of fish in there.  It's a rarity to find pelagics (big fish like mackerel) straight off the coast, but along here it's totally possible.  Some guys who spear this area have gotten some big'uns just diving in off the rocks, and we were hoping to replicate that.

We found a great spot to get in even though it was a bit choppy.  All we had to do was get out a bit and we were set.

So we got out a bit.  To the edge of the little channel we were swimming out of.  I looked to my right as we approached the edge of a rock and saw a massive school of Black Drummer (about 100) - they were like a wall of fish!  My immediate thought was "Sharks love this sort of thing!"  And sure enough, after about 8 seconds...

This photo was actually taken afterwards...  when I had the camera in hand.

I jumped.  He was about 2 metres away from me.

I turned to Robyn (we swim holding hands in foreign waters) and saw there were 2 more on her side.  I looked back around and another one had materialised on my side.  We floated there almost back to back with spearguns at the ready for defence.  They weren't charging at us (thankfully), but they were circling.  Every now and again they'd dart at a fish or kick abruptly which made me think it was probably feeding time.

They took off which was a relief, and we kicked on a little for a few minutes.  Unfortunately, that big school of Drummer came back which meant the inevitable was to occur.  Good thing I had the camera out this time...

Same sort of movements, similar temperament.  When Robyn turned around and saw the tale of one whip around about a metre away from her, we decided it was probably time to get out and not worry about pulling the trigger.

There's two in this one...

We didn't come out with lunch, but it was certainly a breathtaking experience!

Robs'll get onto that "proper" update soon enough.

Much love,

J.

P.S.  If sharks freak you out, don't worry too much.  Some of the guys around here dive with them constantly hanging around - one group last week had about 30 getting in their way, and those were "real" sharks!

P.P.S.  We also saw a big turtle.  Robyn reckons you can just make it out in this photo.  I can't.

Turtle?