My National Geographic Diving Day

Contributed by splasch

Spinner Dolphin at Christmas Island, Indian Ocean, Australia Ever felt like you were diving in the pages of a National Geographic magazine? Well that's how I felt last Sunday on Christmas Island ...

The day started off like any other; meet at the Cove at 8am to head out for our two dives. I've been doing this for over 10 years, and have never tired of my weekend diving here on the Island. But today was to be a very special Sunday.

On the way out we were lucky enough to snorkel with the spinner dolphins - and then, along came the whalesharks. Whaleshark, Indian Ocean, Australia Not 1, not 2, but 4 - all different sharks, all in different locations, and we had the opportunity to snorkel with them all. Whew, and we hadn't even hit the water for our dive yet!

Given the whalesharks were around my buddy and I decided to stay off the reef and sit in the blue - and were we rewarded for missing one of the most intact oceanic reefs in the world? - you betcha - 2 whalesharks and a manta ray went sailing by ...

And then we could hear the dolphins underwater. Whaleshark and divers, Indian Ocean, Australia Next thing, we had around 50 spinner dolphins checking us out in the blue, playing around with us - I was mesmerized. What a dive ... But it wasn't over yet - sitting enjoying our coffee and cake in the surface interval and our dive operator yells "whaleshark" so in we jump again - this was now 7 in one day ... Then 8, then 9 ... And each one staying around for a few minutes just to check us out.

But the best was yet to come - on our second dive we were visited by one of the largest Whaleshark, Indian Ocean, Australia whalesharks I have seen, and she was ready to play - for over 40 minutes she played above us in our bubbles, having the equivalent of a whaleshark day spa letting our bubbles flow through her gills, she was below us, then she played around us, and above us - I just could not believe our luck ... That's now 10 in one day

But wait, there's more ... Having completed two of the most amazing dives and encounters with dolphins and whalesharks underwater, we saw another 3 whalesharks on our way back to the Cove - that's 13 in one day ... I still can't get the smile off my face. I know this was one of those "once in a lifetime" dive days, but Christmas Island definitely delivers its fair share of once in a lifetime "National Geographic" experiences.