Today was day 1 of my Advanced Open Water, in Malta. Great support from #Maltaqua and their instructor Cheri and my Dad #DiveServices. We’ve two others with us so its going very well. Three dives completed in 22 degrees – lovely. Dive 1 was a shake down, dive 2 was Buoyancy including my first swim through which was awesome and Dive 3 was my deep dive and the one where my mask crushed my face, thankfully back at 5mtr and I didn’t panic at all. New mask bought ready for tomorrow – Great stuff.
I told my dad that i wanted to go and swim with Sharks. I can imagine that every parent would have a momentary panic as I’m only 10yrs old! As such,dad decided to find a safe solution to answer my request. If I’m honest, I’m not a huge fan of sticking wild animals into aquariums, however am a huge fan of conservation. So dad got in touch with his mate Mike at Blackpool Sealife center.
Mike is an avid diver and head Aquarist (as Sealife call them) and in charge of the dive team there. They run Snorkel experiences with the Sharks and other fish in their huge indoor aquarium where they breed endangered species. As such, we headed up to Blackpool and spent a fantastic 90minutes with the Sharks, Rays, Groupers and other fishes admiring them and finding out all about them. I got into a net enclosure inside the huge aquarium with 20 sharks, ranging from black tip reef sharks, Bowmouth Sharks, Shovelnose Sharks, Guitar Sharks and a Bamboo shark.
Because I enjoyed this so much, next year we plan to head out to somewhere warmer and meet these amazing creatures in the wild where they live.I found it so amazing, that I’ve made this Vlog about it !!
Maybe one day I’ll end up a champion for sharks, who knows.
I love Penguins!
There is something special about Penguins, the way they move, the way they look, in fact everything. This week my dad and I went away for a few days. As part of the trip, I had the opportunity to meet some Humbolt Penguins and also to feed them. This was a very special and exciting thing to do, a real adventure.
The reality is that the penguins were in a Safari land, but it wasn’t an opportunity just anyone could do, but my dad arranged for me to do it.
It was amazing. I fed loads of them, they were so greedy, but cute. One Penguin was blind so I had to touch the fish to its nose so that he knew it was there. Once he got it, he devoured it easily.
What an brilliant experience that I loved a lot.
My interview for BBC Radio Wales went out today across the country. Feel free to have listen to it here;
Today we had to do the final leg of the journey from Monmouth to Chepstow where the river meets the sea.
I woke early today, the plan was to paddle the last section from Hoarwithy to Ross on Wye. We got up and it was still raining. I’m not a fair weather paddler, but I don’t necessarily enjoy getting wet for the sake of it either.
I had a wander around the campsite taking pictures of the various collection of tents and boats and the river. We then had some breakfast and packed up camp.
Joshua Lewis 