I went snorkeling with a shark and a stingray for the first time!
We are at Diggers camp which is a 40 minute drive from Grafton, we are staying at a friend’s beach house that right on the beach! At low tide we went snorkelling in a cool gully with a guy that’s in the beach house next to us. When we got there and it was time to jump I got too scared because he said there was a stingray in there and I’ve never swam with a stingray before. But then dad, with some words of encouragement got me to jump but I was extremely scared. We swam a few metres and I could not relax my breathing so dad asked if I wanted to go in the shallower end and I said yes.
We walked to the shallower end and I got a bit scared again but then I leaped into the water and the guy said there was a spotted Wobbegong shark hiding in the weeds! Now, spotted Wobbegong sharks are completely harmless and are cool to look at. They are a brown species and its body and fins are covered with large pale-edged eye-spots. Spotted Wobbegong grow to about 5 feet in length but can get up to 10.5 feet. The one we saw was about 5 foot.
We then continued on snorkelling and I watched some fish searching for food and swimming around, I also chased a few fish which was fun. Then we headed back into the deep gully and the guy said the stingray had just swum past him and I completely freaked out! When we swam past the ray I stayed REALLY close to dad holding his arm until we got past and then I slowly calmed down. We kept swimming for a while until we got back to where we started and I then fully relaxed. We also saw a sea slug which I touched and it was very soft and looked very cool!
When we got out and sat in a small warm rock pool together and had a little chat about stepping outside our comfort zone, because outside of our comfort zone is where all the fun is! I want to get better at snorkelling and get over my fears of some animals so I can learn how to spearfish while snorkelling.