Chasing the Oceans “Big 5”
Everyone has heard of Africa’s ” Big Five” attractions on wilderness safaris where you are superbly guided through villages and grasslands of game parks and private reserves to catch a glimpse of Africa’s greatest wild animals – lions, leopard, elephant, buffalo & rhino.
Here in South Australia and to be more precise Pt.Lincoln, on the southern tip of beautiful Eyre Peninsula, is another experience like no other where you have the chance to get up close, personal & interact with our famous five of the ocean – Southern Bluefin Tuna, Australian sea-lions, Great White Sharks, Dolphins, Humpback and Southern Right Whales ( in season).
We kicked this world class adventure off on the weekend & armed with underwater camera man Mark Thomas, photographer Kingsley Griffin, freelance journalist Raffael Veldhuyzen, operator Matt Waller of Adventure Bay Charters, our chef Cookie and some local talent, we boarded the superb 78ft Strictly Business for our 2 days of adrenaline pumping action! Oh and,we did have one of UK’s hottest celebrity couples, Charlie Brooker from the Guardian and his TV presenter wife, Konnie Huq jump on for the ride.
The first box ticked was out to Matt’s Tuna Farm, for some immediate action and this is the fastest growing adrenaline attraction on Eyre Peninsula as you have guaranteed interaction by feeding the fish & then donning a wetsuit on to swim with, under & around this amazing pelagic species. On the way to our next stop was in Seal Cove on Hopkins Island, Cookie gave us a small insight of his master chef talents whilst checking out some of the countries best coastal landscapes of the Pt.Lincoln National Park and the beautiful white sandy beach of Memory Cove.
The sea lions were in a very playful mood as these ” ocean puppies” right on cue, put on a show for all! This is incredible entertainment in a pristine environment with beautiful clear shallow water and this interaction from these wild mammals would be hard to beat anywhere in the world.
With 2 boxes all ready ticked, it was off for the short steam to the anchorage at Neptune Island, home of Australia’s largest Great White Shark population. Excitement was amongst all on onboard as again, we donned wetsuits as the cage was lowered into the deep blue,but crystal clear water. Being eco friendly, there is no blood or burley here but the sharks are very successfully attracted to the cage by using audio sound vibrations of loud music,underwater! Unfortunately, the sharks decided that they wernt going to play the game on this occasion and we were left to play some serious air guitar in the cage to the tunes of ACDC’s Back In Black album!
Not all was lost though as the sun was setting which meant beers and wine started flowing and Coffin Bay oysters were opened and attacked. This was a warm up for Cookie and as you could expect by being at the seafood capital of Australia, dinner consisted of the local product- prawns, tuna, kingfish, more oysters, more wine, more talk, more laughs and so it went on!
Day 2 saw a bit of chop around in the sea and still no sharks but a momentous moment occurred when our UK personalities Charlie and Konnie, both caught their first ever fish from the ocean! We island hopped after this magnificent fishing performance around the beautiful Sir Joseph Banks Group of islands watching the dozens of dolphins surfing on the bow before anchoring again at Blythe Island to again swim with more sea lions, have a walk on the island and snorkel around the rock pools as it does offer top shelf snorkeling.
With a very successful debut trip, disembarkment was made easy as we had a team brief back on land at the Marina Hotel with a couple of cold refreshments.
Bookings have now started for this amazing opportunity to interact with the “Big 5” of our Southern Ocean and more information, departure dates and itinerary can be found on our website.
Hooroo!
