Extreme Close Encounter.
Hi Peeps,
.
Are you scared of sharks.
Daft question really….who isn’t!
.
I have been watching a BBC programme about these beautiful and terrifying creatures, and another beautiful but terrified creature.
.
The latter is a free-dive champion called Tanya Streeter.
.
Although she is a wonderful diver she worries about one particular problem that she has had since childhood.
She is afraid of sharks.
.
This is obviously dangerous for her, because if she meets a shark while free-diving it could obviously have a fatal effect upon her disciplined breathing, if she is terrified.
.
She decides to undergo Shark Therapy.
This begins with paddling amongst 2 foot long sharks before gradually becoming acclimatized to bigger and bigger specimens.
.
She is very brave and determined, eventually making a free dive with reef sharks in very shark infested water.
.
Her Free-Dive With Sharks.
.
.
.
Hmmm….I am not sure that it is a good idea to get in there with them.
Especially after this next clip of an accident while in a shark cage.
.
.
.
Tanya did well though to overcome her very understandable fears and It is totally breathtaking how long she can go on just one breath.
.
.
Just in case you are mad enough to do free diving yourself….here is the lady herself with some advice about doing so safely.
.
.
You might be persuade but I am going to stick to paddling….near the beach!
.
Have a shark-free one.
J,x.
.
.
Twice in one week I came across sharks when I was on the Eastern Coast of Australia. Once when I was diving near the Whitsundays islands – it passed by and everyone froze – I saw a fin and froze as well. Turns out the dive master took us down at a “safe time” where the sharks would have likely ate and if we didn’t cross their territory they wouldn’t even care about us (there were about 4-5 people diving).
The second time was by a sand bank off one of the islands where the currents create sand paths into the water that shift location every hour. One one of these walks, a german group of tourists freaked out and we couldn’t figure out what was wrong until we heard “shark shark” and everyone ran down a sand bank back to the mail beach.
So in both experiences I can safely say I missed out on everything but a fin and a sense of panic
still, I respect sharks. The Megalodon being my favourite
If someone was running around my room poking at my things, I’d bite them too. probably..
Shark soup by the way, isn’t very tasty..
nelly
Hi,
.
My goodness, you have done heaps of stuff I couldn’t do, and you’ve travelled all over the place too.
.
You sound a bit like Wonderwoman compared to me.
I wonder if it is a generational thing or just that I would always have been a fraidy-cat about dangerous stuff like swimming, climbing, exploring, skiing etc….never mind with bloody sharks! ( that’s just the swimming bit of course, as far as i know! )
.
I agree with you about needing to respect them ‘cos I certainly do, I keep right away from them….and bears, wolves, and anything else I meet that is not behind netting or glass.
.
Over the years, a friend of mine has been trying to get me climbing, camping out under the stars in winter and even going to learn how to drum by livng with a family in a hut with no windows in an African village in the bush….Aghhhh.
Needless to say, I did not go, and I am glad because I would have been totally unhappy about it.
.
I hate soup anyway.
There, how sad is that!
J,x.
.
.
I don’t think it’s a generational thing. My mum does all sorts of crazy things that I wouldn’t do (she skates the whole length of the Rideau canal – and she’s only been skating for 3 years). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rideau_Canal#The_Skateway
I think it actually has a lot to do w/ upbringing. My mum is very adventurous and thinks life has a lot to offer and we should try as much as we can. My dad is the exact opposite. he’s quite content with a cup of tea and a newspaper. Exciting to him is a speech from the Throne, a new discovery in science, and a trip to the zoo.
Since we’ve spent the majority of time w/ my mum, I think both my sister and I inherited some of her sense of adventure. And since both of my parents took us travelling when we were little, and were believer of global citizenship – it was only natural that we just saw the entire world as extensions of ourselves.
I love water, so I like swimming, snorkeling and diving. But, I have a mild fear of heights, so the only real climbing I’ve done was in Australia on Fraser Island – and mostly I went up because the guide was a very pushy Aussie man in his mid forties who had a beer belly, a cigarette hanging off his mouth and a rather funny temper. He basically bullied me to the top, and I’m glad he did because the view was stunning. It was well worth the, “you Canadians with your delicate sense of self get on will ye ..” the whole way up. I think I’ll go climbing again w/ someone who knows what they’re doing. I’m definitely naive when it comes to that kind of survival.
I also dislike bears. I was going on a hike around Thanksgiving to a really nice place called Eagle’s nest to go to Manitou mountain and there were reports that week of a pack of bears feeding before going to hibernation in that area. I promptly cancelled the hike. I wouldn’t know what to do if I see a bear face to face.
Here is Eagle’s nest view
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nellleo/4810732601/
and the peak were were getting towards
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nellleo/3607813365/
I like some soups. Well, borscht by default or brain washing, I don’t know. I like French onion.. it’s delicious but you can’t eat a lot of it.. what with the cheese. And finally, spicy thai soups are great, especially at wintertime.
And now I’m hungry for some thai soup
nelly.
Hey Nelly,
.
Interesting reply…I like the links too.
You are lucky to have access to the skateway, I think I would have been keen on that as a child, it is a great resource to have available .
.
You are probably right about it having a lot to do with the way you are brought up.
I was from the ‘children are made to be seen not heard’ generation.
It was just after the war and everyone was busy trying to manage so there was no time or money for treats, outings or anything different from the everyday.
.
I spent my time reading, drawing, making jewellery with dried melon seeds threaded into strings with a needle, or using my mom’s old Singer sewing machine to put lines of perforation into a sheet of paper and then sitting for hours filling in each square with tiny drawings to make stamps….which could be torn off just like real ones.
.
We had three holidays to the seaside during my childhood.
It was about twelve miles from home and we went in the train, so it seemed to be the most exciting thing in the whole world to me and my brother.
.
We did not have a television til I was 13 so there was not a lot of input about anything new, so perhaps some of us learned to curb our natural daring, although we did spend whole days roaming about in our local park with a bottle of sherbet-water and some jam sandwiches for sustenance.
.
Nowaday’s one of my favourite meals is singapore style chow mein…very hot.
Partly because it is a takeaway and I do not have to prepare it.
I am not naturally into cooking like your mum is, and after 40 odd years of doing it I have had enough of it.
.
However it does lead to healthy eating because i am happy to eat ‘simple and raw’.
.
Oh, I was looking at your pictures and Big H came in.
He looked at them all and was ‘very impressed’, I think that you have another fan there!
Well done that girl.
J,x.
.
.