We stand there on the edge of the land. The ocean before our eyes beckons to us. Isaac stand next to me. The water in front of him rushes up the beach, touches the tip of his toes, before rushing back down the beach, and repeating this action.
“Okay, you see the deep part, just there?” I exclaim, pointing out towards the ocean.
“How do you know what’s deep and what’s shallow?” He asks, getting off topic.
“You can see it’s deep because the water is darker. So that deep bit, where the waves aren’t breaking – that’s the rip.” I say, before spitting into my diving goggles.
“So you paddle out into the rip to get out the back?” Isaac asks, furrowing his brows.
I nod, pulling off my dress. I chose my crochet bikini today. I pick up my flippers and Isaac does the same.
“Lets go in off the rocks.” I say, and we both walk over to the water. I allow the water to engulf my ankles as the tide rolls in. It’s so warm and clear.
We walk around to the edge of the rock face. I wait a bit for the set to finish, before jumping in. I hear Isaac doing the same.
I reposition my goggles and quickly put on my flippers.
“Let’s get out of here, the waves are breaking. We’ll just go off the headland.” I reassure Isaac. We start swimming, diving down under the waves. There’s no marine life or reef over here, that’s why I’m taking Isaac to the headland, he needs to understand how the ocean works.
* * * *
We’ve been diving for about an hour now. My fingers are wrinkly and I can feel my scalp is a bit sun burnt.
Isaac has been actually a really good diver. He can hold his breath for a really long time and isn’t scared of deep water. He did hide behind me like a little girl though we we came across a little sting ray, but I soon showed him it’s nothing to worry about, and I patted the little ray on it’s back.
I looked over at Isaac. His eyes were wide and his face pale. His eyes fixed on something out in the deep water.
I followed his gaze and my eyes grew wide too, but wide with excitement. It was a Whale Shark.
I grabbed his hand and pulled him out into deeper water.
I love Whale Sharks. They’re my favourite type of shark. We see them all the time in the deeper waters around the island.
Whale sharks are massive, but harmless, and that’s one of the reasons I love them, because they’re gentle giants. They let you go right up to them and all!
I tugged Isaac gently until we reached about a 5 metre proximity of the shark.
I swam down a bit, and the whale shark swam straight below us, moving very slowly.
I looked up at Isaac, then down at the 8metre giant. I could tell Isaac had gotten as close as he wanted, and wasn’t coming any closer.
I swam down even further, and my hand came into contact with the ruff skin of the animal. Pretty patterns and shapes covered it’s entire body, and it was amazing.
The shark continued on it’s journey, and I resurfaced to face a pale, wide eyed Isaac.
“I can’t believe you just did that!” He exclaimed, his voice full with excitement.
