I can't believe I've been on Steemit for a month already and not posted about the thing that I'm most passionate about...........breathing underwater.
I've been taking pictures on dry land since the age of 14 but it wasn't until 2004 when I was able to combine my love of photography and the underwater world. As one of my advanced diver training modules, I took an underwater photography course and if I thought I was hooked on diving before before I'd now officially become an addict.
Over the last 13 years I've been shooting pictures and filming underwater and thought what better place to share my underwater adventures and travel tips with my fellow Steemians. In a break with tradition where you save the best 'til last I'm going to jump right in with the most mind-blowing underwater encounter I've ever had.
I'd been travelling around Africa for six months and exchanging my underwater film-making skills for free scuba diving and found myself in one of the shark diving capitals of the world. Very long story short, I'd actually gone to Shelly Beach, South Africa to do my skippers training, but ended up making life-long friends with the owner of Aqua Planet Dive Charters and ended up diving the famous Protea Banks for 6 weeks.
On a return trip to catch up with my South African diving foster family, I was filming with a group of British divers when one of them started going crazy and pointing to the surface. We were at a depth of 30m but could see two humpback whales cruising by.
We'd been hearing whale song on most of our dives, to the point where it was becoming annoying, they're really not that tuneful in real life, and had seen them from the boat most days, but on this day they decided to come check us out.
I've only cried twice underwater and this was one of the occasions. The pair stayed with us for half an hour and were so close you I was able to look straight into their eye as they swam passed. I swear you could see the curiosity in their eyes. It was hands down, with no exception, one of the most incredible like experiences I've ever had.
The humpbacks migrate the coast of South Africa on their journey from the Antarctic to calve in warmer tropical waters and the female in the video was heavily pregnant and no doubt on her way to give birth.
If a chance encounter with humpback whales isn't enough to encourage you to dive Protea Banks then keep following and I'll share some video clips of diving with 4m sharks with no cage!
#teamsouthafrica
!steemitworldmap -30.827299 lat 30.489204 long Protea Banks - Diving with Humpback Whales, South Africa D3SCR