Fijians believe that they have magical powers. One of these powers is their ability to charm sharks. During my trip around the Yasawa Islands we stopped off at Waya Lailai, where we had the chance to swim with reef sharks. I couldn’t pass on this offer!
After a twenty minute bumpy boatride to the reef, one of the workers jumped out of the boat with a metal rod and speared some fish. I was a bit nervous at first as I’m not very good a snorkelling and was worried the waves would go over the top of my snorkal (they did!). I eventually jumped in with the rest of my group to see all different coloured coral fish eating the dead fish from the fijian. This fish frenzy brought out a few curious reef sharks who swam with and around us for a long while. The fijian guy’s were treating them like pets, feeding them and even stroking them!
We stayed in the water well past the point where we started getting cold and running out of speared fish, but I didn’t want to go back as I was having the best time. The entire ride home I wore a huge grin on my face, thinking about the magnificently gentle shark.
24 March 2012 at 16:21
What an amazing experience!! Congrats on another check off the bucket list!
27 March 2012 at 03:56
Awesome! My favorite experience was swimming with whale sharks but they can't hurt you. I want to swim in a shark cage with great whites; THAT would be incredible.
3 April 2012 at 23:29
Thanks for the comments. This was an amazing experience but not quite how I wanted to check off this item. I would much prefer the same @jessica and go in a cage with great whites. Oh well it's another item off the list.
9 July 2012 at 01:56
I swam with sharks a couple of years back. It was so exhilarating... even if they were harmless ;)
31 July 2012 at 00:04
Hi Shelley,
I came across your blog today, and I love it, so I hope it's ok, but I followed it! You have gone on so many cool adventures. Swimming with sharks is on my bucket list, but i think I'm gonna need to add go to fiji. While Snorkelling in Hawaii I saw a shark, a reef shark, but that is no where near as cool as what you got to do. Do you have a post that has your bucket list on it? I would love to see it!
Jai
http://beentheredonethatwhatnext.blogspot.ca/