Our goodbyes were quite sad really.. our long stay with our extended family has come to an end. It has been so far such a significant, happy, wonderful experience that we will never forget with them all. We were treated as part of the family and when away from home and on the Easter Sunday as it has always been a very big family thing in both of our families it was lovely to be around them all to stop the homesick kicking in. They are planning to visit England next year so hopefully you can all meet them! 7 am Friday morning Hazel dropped us off at the bus stop.. our big day of travelling. We had a bus journey for an hour, jumped on the next train for an hour, then got on the sky bus to the airport for an hour. As we have sent one of our suitcases home - too much luggage!! We had the nightmare of exceeding our limit of both our hand luggage and suitcase so we ended up putting on as many clothes as possible and chucking a few things to get through! 3 hrs later our plane to Adelaide was due after a delay but we eventually got on and landed safely. Our next adventure, we landed in Adelaide and headed to pick up our next wicked camper for our 4 day adventure! We then set off to Port Lincoln the Friday night.. we only managed to get 2 hours of our 8 hour journey complete as the darkness and our tiredness got the better of us! We found a free camp spot and slept over. The next day, Saturday morning we had a long 6 hour drive ahead of us so enjoyed a nice bowl of cereal outside our van at 6 am and headed on our way. Switching over the driving as the roads are sooooo long and tedious! At one point we felt drowsy so stopped off at a beach along the way for a dip to wake us up- Lucky Bay, it was amazing. We then got back on the road and with a huge amount of singing, hang man and eye spy we finally reached Port Lincoln 6 hours later. We were exhausted and had a big day tomorrow.. so we grabbed some Chinese sat and ate it in our van and fell asleep! Sunday Morning 5:30am, we were up! Ryans big day diving with Great white sharks we got ready and headed to the meeting point, boarded the boat at 6:30 am and set off for a 3.5 hr journey to Neptune Island. There were 45 of us on this boat all hopeful and apprehensive to see some Great Whites. The boat was very choppy but luckily we weren't one of the unlucky few who were ill.

Ryan talking now: We arrived at Neptune Island. All 44 divers were split into 6 groups. The cage was lowered into the water and the bait was thrown in. After approximately half an hour the first sight of a shark! The first group jumped in the cage and began their 45 minute of pure adrenaline fuelled excitment. The views from the boat deck and upper deck were just as exciting, you could spot their fins gliding through the water and if you looked closly enough and if they came close enough you could fully see them in the water circling the boat and cage. Within 10 minutes of the first group being in the cage the shark breached out of the water!! It was spectacular to watch. The guys would thrown in the bait and then hoick it back out again before the shark had a chance to eat it. After the 3 groups it was my turn, I was all wet-suited and booted up and ready to be acquainted with my all time favourite animal.

I got into the cage and began lowering myself down into the water, my heart was beating through my chest. I put the breathing apparatus into my mouth gave it a few practice breaths and then fully submerged under water. My immedaite reaction was to breath through my mouth and nose I panicied and came back up to the surface to re-adjust my face mask and try again. There was hundereds of fish of all sizes surrounding the cage, waiting for the bait to be thrown in each time so they could pounce on it and have a nibble. My eyes were shooting around and I was anxoiusly waiting for a shark to appear! All of a sudden out of the darker depths of the water he appears. My heart quite literally fell out of my arse. I was speechless. Completely amazed and took back. Holding on with one hand and the Go-pro in the other recording it all.

The shark circled the cage, he swam iches away from me I could have literally reached out and touched him the other fish would dart around him. Mouth wide open, all teeth on display he went for the bait beside the cage as it was being pulled in. He would go and then come back for another shot at the bait. My aderaline was at it's absolute peak when he came directly for us, gliding though the water like a hot knife through butter and then quickly darts off turning around. The video doesn't do it justice but you'll have to watch it if you haven't already. Our time with the Great white came to an end and we had to get out of the water, although like before it wasn't fully over as we could still see plenty from the boat. All six groups had dived and the shark cage was hoisted back onto the boat and we began our jounrey back. On the way back we could see dolphines jumping out of the water beside us it was magical. The bar was opened so we celebrated with everyone and had a stubby of cider, tea was also served not long after. All inclusive - My favourite :-)

We got back in the camper at around 7pm and headed to the closest free campground as we were knackered. The next day we had the dreaded 8 hour journey ahead of us..