#77 Have a Flying Lesson

This is definitely something that I HAD to try because of my Dad.

When I was younger, I always loved hearing about my Dads adventures of when he was younger. Actually, that is a lie, I STILL love hearing all about his adventures! He is a wonderful story teller, and it is actually amazing what you find out when you sit down and listen to people who have had more life experience then you. 

Anyway, once such story, involved him almost crashing a plane during one of his flying lessons. 

"Hmm," I think, "flying lessons sounds like fun."

On the 14th of November 2009, a good friend, Clarice, and I went to Camden to experience it! After navigating the plane "to that shed over there," and "to those mountains over there" plus barrel rolls and loop-de-loops (controlled by my instructor) I came back from defying gravity with a great desire to become a pilot. Although, I would probably need a plane better suited to those with smaller stature, because I definitely could not reach the foot pedals that controlled the rudder....

But then I thought, "maybe a plane isn't the aircraft that I want to be flying..."

Clarice and I were so pumped from our flight that we quickly planned a holiday to Byron Bay so that we could tick off another, yet similar thing from our list.

On the 19th of December 2009 we were flying a chopper... of course!

It was way more technical then flying a plane. I got to use the cyclic to steer the chopper, the collective to ascend and descend, and more foot pedals (that I could actually reach this time!) to control the direction of the chopper.

And, as you probably guessed, I got to as Georgia (my co-pilot! Or instructor, however you want to look at it) HEAPS of questions about how choppers actually work. So not only did I have my lesson and tick it off my list, I also learnt a lot too!

Out of the two I now would prefer to have my chopper license. I know you can go further distances in a plane, but there is just something about the Bell 47 that I flew that I fell in love with!

Getting a chopper license is on the list.

But having a flying lesson - #77 DONE!

#61 Dive with Great White Sharks

Why you might ask? Why the hell not I say! A chance to see these awesome animals in the wild – yes please!

I always thought that cage diving with the great white sharks was something that I wanted to do in South Africa, but on the advice from a friend, I decided to go in South Australia in January 2010 (just one month before my transplant!).



Best. Decision. Ever.

#1 – I was supporting an Australian industry – keep it local, yeah!

#2 – It’s cheaper then flying to South Africa

#3 – I got to meet the man himself. The man who was mistaken for food by one of these great sharks, who I first head of and saw as a manikin at “Ripley's Believe it or Not.” The one, the only, Rodney Fox. 

If you don’t like the look of the insides of a man, then probably don’t look at the above link. However, if you would like to read about a man’s fight for survival and his passion for the animal that almost took life away from him, then you should have a read and skip over the pictures!

I want to skip over all the boring detail of WAITING for the shark to grace us with it’s presence and get straight to the part where we SAW the shark, but I can’t!



Me with Andrew Fox, asking my
thousand questions about a
thousand different things





Researchers about to launch a device that will "ping"
every time a GWS comes into range. The tagging
of the sharks was done later in the trip

There was a team of researchers from France and members of the CSIRO on my trip who were joining us to monitoring the movements of the Great Shark. Anyone who knows me would assume that I used this opportunity to ask as many questions as I possibly could about what type of research they were conducting. Correct. 



Rodney was also along. Obviously I also was trying to ask him thousands of questions about his story but he wouldn’t talk about it. Until the last night that is. Our amazing chef made (or purchased) a Shark Cake (made of chocolate, not shark) for everyone to share in order to summon the Great Sharks to our boat. This was very important as we had yet to see a Great Shark. As everyone was settling down for the night it was time for a bedtime story – but probably not a good one to tell children. Rodney’s story was amazing. No matter what you read in books or see on T.V, nothing is similar to hearing the words from the man that lived through it. 



The Shark Cake that we call enjoyed

before listening to Rodney's
extraordinary story 



Rodney deep in thought as he recalls
his experiences with the Great Shark



Next day, SHARK DAY! Hearing the words “Shark! Shark!” being yelled from the back of the boat was something that I had been hoping to hear my whole holiday! And when it actually happened, and when I saw the Great Shark for the first time, it was exhilarating… above water of course. I nearly had a heart attack when I first saw the Great Shark under water!



My first glimpse of the Great White Shark!
He circled the boat a few time before deciding
to stick around at the back of the boat for the
rest of the day








Rodney and I on the top deck Shark spotting

 

 

I really do think that the reason Sharks are so good at what they do (finding food) is because they play mind games with all of the other sea creatures. Well, maybe not but the one I saw was driving me crazy! 



The shark that we saw looking ferocious...
(copyright Rodney Fox)



and now looking more, satisfied
(copyright Rodney Fox)

 

I was sitting in a cage, attached to the back of a boat, constantly looking around me seeing nothing but blue thinking, “where is it? I can’t see it! Far out, I can’t see it! Which way is it going to come from? Argh where is it!” And when I did see it, it wasn’t as if it slowly made it’s way into view, it would come out of nowhere, sometimes bashing up against the cage. You are taught in scuba diving that the most important thing is to control your breathing… I wonder if hyperventilating counts as control?





Holy crap a shark!
My thoughts as I just experienced my first Great Whte Shark
sighting in the surface cage at the back of the boat







 




Getting my sexy face on  in the submersible
cage at the bottom of the ocean

 


Looking into the surface cage, which
was actually very hard to get in and
out of.

 




Oh, and the water was freezing. In the middle of summer, 15 degrees. Nice. I stayed in the cage as long as I could, but it is really hard to sit still, in freezing water being psyched out by a shark. Two eventful things happened to me: 



Shark wins #1: I was trying to get out of the cage because the Shark seemed to be doing his fascinating “no show” for a while. Every time I got out of that cage I had to be dragged out! I was weighted so that I would stay on the bottom of the cage, and cold and weak and couldn’t lift myself out. I was probably half out of the cage before I got pushed back in and a regulator thrown to me. Mr Shark had decided to start ramming the cage again. With a leaky regulator (for all you non-divers out there that means that I couldn’t breath properly under water) and the shark doing his no show again I tried to get out a second time.




Hello, my name is Bruce

 


and I am hungry!

 

 Shark wins #2: This time I managed to get dragged out of the cage. But just as I was out – as in, just, the top of the cage was still open – the shark decides to have a go AGAIN. I was being held really tight by one of the crew members as the Shark came right up to the back of the boat and rammed into it. I was so close that I looked in his eye and watched that same eye roll back into the sharks head as it prepared for impact with the boat!

I have a feeling that the shark was after me because I was the smallest on the boat.




Me and the Rodney Fox gang at the end of my trip! I had an amazing time, it is something that I will never forget!

 



#61 DONE!

#4 Graduate from University - Bachelor of Science (Biological Science)

Ok, so this might seem like a boring simple task that should have never have been on my list of things to do.

BUT, I am telling you, any student who has completed 13 years of schooling and decides to go straight to Univeristy will always have that moment when they sit back and think - why the hell am I doing this?

University is fun. It honestly was one of the best times I have had. I made life long friends. I learnt heaps - not just about science but about life in general and about myself.

University is hard. It does not feel good to fail (sadly, I am speaking from experience). It is not fun being broke all the time. It is stressful. Sometimes you need a break to figure out if it is all worth it.


So, I did just that. I jet setted off to Europe for 3 months and ticked of lots of things on my list! I am pretty sure that I was in... a Macca's in Italy (please don't judge! It was cheap food on a backpackers budget!) when I said to myself, "Yep, I have to, no, actually, I want to go back and finish Univeristy."

As you can see from the photo above. I did it! I graduated from the University of Wollongong on the 21st of December 2007 with a Bachelor of Science majoring in Biological Sciences!

#4 DONE!

My list of Things to Do

My list of things to do is long.

Hopefully most of you already know about the things I am ticking off my list at the end of this year, but just in case you forgot here they are:

1. Go on a Safari to see the Wild Cats
2. Climb Mount Kilimanjaro
3. Go Scuba diving in the Red Sea (and see the pyramids while I am there!)

This, is in fact, an adventure. An Amazing African Awareness Adventure to raise funds and awareness for organ and tissue donation.

My list has been established for some time now, and it was not until last night when I was looking for photos to share with you my previous list ticking adventures that I realised how much I had actually achieved!

This is what this blog is about! Sharing adventures and ticking things off that every growing bucket list!

My first Blog!

So. I have created a blog!

I am trying to decide which will be the best way to keep everyone up to date on my happenings during my Amazing African Awareness Adventure. I am thinking this blog. I can write more, include photos, and inlcude links. I think....

So far my goal of $10,000.00 is just over a quater of the way there!!! Thank you to everyone who has already donatetd! If you would like to help me on my Amazing African Awareness Adventure then Donate now!