Kendall Talbot Blog

Christmas Island where magic happens...

3/18/2015

Christmas Island is barely a dot on a map North-West of Perth, Western Australia. 63% of the island is designated National Park and its nearly overflowing with complex flora and fauna unique to this island. The island has only been inhabited since 1888 so that makes Christmas Island one of the youngest communities in the world.

The entire island is a wildlife sanctuary excellent for bird watching, nature lovers, anglers and scuba divers.

There is so much to explore both above and beneath the water, but in 2010, I went there specifically for the scuba diving. Although I love my diving, I get sea sick. To combat this I go in search of diving that doesn’t require a big boat trip to get to the dive sites. Christmas Island was the perfect choice. The island is actually the tip of an ancient volcano that rises about 5 miles up from the ocean floor. So literally metres from the shoreline, divers can explore the drop-off that plunges dramatically into the abyss.

On our second day of diving, I experienced one of the most magical moments of my life.

With my husband as my dive buddy, we dropped into the water and gradually cruised down Perpendicular Wall, which is exactly what it is. This dive site is a fathomless vertical wall bustling with enormous coral fans, hundreds of colourful tropical fish of all shapes and sizes, eels that dart out and disappear just as quickly, and of course sharks, turtles and stingrays.

About 40 minutes into our dive, my hubby indicated he was nearly at his air limit. He’s what’s known as an air pig - in that he consumes his air way too quickly. I was a tad annoyed about this as I had at least another 20 minutes of air time remaining. But as every good dive buddy knows, you stick with your partner. So together we gradually floated toward the surface.

This is when the magic happened.

At our decompression stop, a four metre long whale shark came over to check us out. Whale sharks are the largest known fish species and can grow up to 12 metres long and weight as much as 21 tons. They have very large mouths but thankfully for us, they are filter feeders and mainly eat plankton.

I thought this 'baby' whale shark was going to eat me.

Dean and I were so lucky, because not only did this friendly fish cruise around us for a good twenty minutes or so, but as the rest of our dive party were below us, nearly every picture they took of the whale shark had us in it. It was a special moment for everyone. At one point the whale shark came so close to me, with its mouth wide open, that I thought he was going to swallow me whole. Just the surge in the water as it passed was enough to feel it’s immense size.

I feel completely blessed to have experienced this rare, close encounter with a gentle giant of the sea.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed one of my travel experiences that influenced a scene in my upcoming book Treasured Secrets.

You can check out a few more of my travel blogs, HERE.

Some secrets should remain hidden forever.

Treasured Secrets the first book in an adrenaline fuelled new series with sexy sassy characters, exotic locations and action-packed adventure is available for pre-order now. You can learn more about it here.