Everyone has heard of Africa’s ” Big Five” attractions on wilderness safaris where you are superbly guided through villages and grasslands of game parks and private reserves to catch a glimpse of Africa’s greatest wild animals – lions, leopard, elephant, buffalo & rhino.
Here in South Australia and to be more precise Pt.Lincoln, on the southern tip of beautiful Eyre Peninsula, is another experience like no other where you have the chance to get up close, personal & interact with our famous five of the ocean – Southern Bluefin Tuna, Australian sea-lions, Great White Sharks, Dolphins, Humpback and Southern Right Whales ( in season).

We kicked this world class adventure off on the weekend & armed with underwater camera man Mark Thomas, photographer Kingsley Griffin, freelance journalist Raffael Veldhuyzen, operator Matt Waller of Adventure Bay Charters, our chef Cookie and some local talent, we boarded the superb 78ft Strictly Business for our 2 days of adrenaline pumping action! Oh and,we did have one of UK’s hottest celebrity couples, Charlie Brooker from the Guardian and his TV presenter wife, Konnie Huq jump on for the ride.

The first box ticked was out to Matt’s Tuna Farm, for some immediate action and this is the fastest growing adrenaline attraction on Eyre Peninsula as you have guaranteed interaction by feeding the fish & then donning a wetsuit on to swim with, under & around this amazing pelagic species. On the way to our next stop was in Seal Cove on Hopkins Island, Cookie gave us a small insight of his master chef talents whilst checking out some of the countries best coastal landscapes of the Pt.Lincoln National Park and the beautiful white sandy beach of Memory Cove.
The sea lions were in a very playful mood as these ” ocean puppies” right on cue, put on a show for all! This is incredible entertainment in a pristine environment with beautiful clear shallow water and this interaction from these wild mammals would be hard to beat anywhere in the world.

With 2 boxes all ready ticked, it was off for the short steam to the anchorage at Neptune Island, home of Australia’s largest Great White Shark population. Excitement was amongst all on onboard as again, we donned wetsuits as the cage was lowered into the deep blue,but crystal clear water. Being eco friendly, there is no blood or burley here but the sharks are very successfully attracted to the cage by using audio sound vibrations of loud music,underwater! Unfortunately, the sharks decided that they wernt going to play the game on this occasion and we were left to play some serious air guitar in the cage to the tunes of ACDC’s Back In Black album!
Not all was lost though as the sun was setting which meant beers and wine started flowing and Coffin Bay oysters were opened and attacked. This was a warm up for Cookie and as you could expect by being at the seafood capital of Australia, dinner consisted of the local product- prawns, tuna, kingfish, more oysters, more wine, more talk, more laughs and so it went on!

Day 2 saw a bit of chop around in the sea and still no sharks but a momentous moment occurred when our UK personalities Charlie and Konnie, both caught their first ever fish from the ocean! We island hopped after this magnificent fishing performance around the beautiful Sir Joseph Banks Group of islands watching the dozens of dolphins surfing on the bow before anchoring again at Blythe Island to again swim with more sea lions, have a walk on the island and snorkel around the rock pools as it does offer top shelf snorkeling.
With a very successful debut trip, disembarkment was made easy as we had a team brief back on land at the Marina Hotel with a couple of cold refreshments.

Bookings have now started for this amazing opportunity to interact with the “Big 5″ of our Southern Ocean and more information, departure dates and itinerary can be found on our website.

Hooroo!

We are now offering you the chance to interact with and get up close and personal with Great White sharks, the powerful Southern Bluefin Tuna, Australian Sealions, Bottlenose Dolphins and when in season, the Southern Right Whales. Over 2 sensational days packed full of adrenalin pumping adventure aboard the spectacular & fully kitted out 78ft Strictly Business, for $1300.00 per person this includes the following;

• Multiple Great White shark cage dives including night diving at Shark Bay, Neptune Islands
• Swim with and feed the mighty Southern Bluefin Tuna off Boston Bay Island
• Swim with the puppies of the ocean, the Australian Sealions at Seal Cove
• Close up viewing of Bottlenose dolphins and Southern Right Whales (when is season)
• Deep sea fishing targeting Tuna, Snapper, Trevally, Nannagai, Shark, Blue Morwong, King George Whiting and what ever takes the bait!
• Fully catered meals and after dinner drinks
• All of your fishing and diving equipment
• Your own bunk for overnight stay and a
• Bloody fantastic experience!

The boat is aptly named Strictly Business and she has been superbly renovated to cater for charters like this one, with the passenger in mind. Limited to 9 lucky guests, the boat is fully equipped with air conditioning,  heaps of room on the rear deck and fly bridge, a large and comfortable saloon with flat screen TV, a superb sound system and the latest in ocean software and technology. There is even a camera hooked up to the shark cage so that you can see the underwater vision from the large flat-screen on the deck! Did I mention the cold beer on tap…? Well that’s included as well.

As this is limited to 9 passengers, this adventure is perfect for a group of friends, corporate  or team bonding retreat, special occassions or we can also make sure the sole traveller is looked after as well. We can also organize group charter flights ex Adelaide for your group.

With only limited dates to fill over the summer months, seats on this pearler of a trip will go quick. For a detailed itinerary, availabilities, dates and contact details, please visit our Shark Cage Diving page.

This is the Great White Shark and the new  stage with the volume cranking is Shark Bay, Neptune Island and just a 2.5 hour cruise off Port Lincoln, South Australia. Like many others, I’ve been drawn to the ACDC rockers over their journey but did not expect these predators of the ocean been drawn to them as well!

Proven and friendly partners of Goin’ Off Safaris, is world class operator Matt Waller of Adventure Bay Charters who is enticing sharks to his cage and boat and offering the only berley free Eco friendly Great White Shark Cage Diving Experience in Australia!!! Matt is using audio sound vibrations to attract the world’s largest predatory fish, with ACDC being the Great Whites favourite music!! The benefits of using the sound vibration is that it is omnidirectional and instantaneous and completely eco friendly.

Shark action has been red hot for some time now with 5-7 sharks still being seen daily so next time your doing the air guitar to Thunderstruck, dancing like Angus Young and jamming to Hells Bells, think of the sharks and get on down here!

The Projects lucky correspondent for the day was Julian Schiller who performed admirably all day and really did not want to go home! Also on board was the Adelaide Review’s Jim Plouffe and his photographer, staff of the South Australian Tourist Commission who drew a short straw and the programs producer Margie Smithurst.

Once out at the Neptunes, it was less than a minute when a big 5m male rolled in to check us out with 3 of his mates joining in over the next 5 hours. With crystal clear waters, cameras rolling and the stars on display and performing, all we had to do was to sit back and watch these unbelievable predators lurk around us.

In the cage itself, you really did feel at ease as if you were at a massive aquarium viewing these beauties. Complacent even, as at times my arm found its way out of cage just to try and get the better video shot and image!

The days screening will be shown Tuesday the 8th of February at yep, 7PM! You can check out more of the shark cage dive footage and program at the 7Pm Project’s website.

To get a better grasp of these magnificant predators is to come on down to Port Lincoln and jump in a cage to view the Great White Sharks in all their glory. We are still seeing 3-6 big sharks daily, so plenty of action. For more details contact Goin’ Off Safaris here.

It’s bigger than Oprah’s visit to Australia!!

As part of Colin’s plight to raise awarness, he has just recently returned from Russia and after months of training, he got kitted up and flew a MIg 29 jet fighter to the edge of space to raise awareness for the silent symptoms for Ovarian Cancer! His story has just been on ABC TV in Perth, so click here for the full story.

The images that Colin sent us are below from his day in the MIG. Good on ya mate I say!

For $1500 per person, you can get on board for a 4 night/3 day, ultimate great white shark cage diving experience to the Neptune Islands off Port Lincoln in South Australia. These dives also include the world first bottom cage dives to view the sharks on the ocean floor plus rays and other fish species. With 8 different sharks spotted last week, this is fantastic!

This offer is exclusive to Goin’ Off Safaris & we have 2 trips available with limited positions.

Departure dates & times are;

• 9pm July 15th to 9am on July 19th (8 positions available)
• 9pm July 19th to 9am on July 23rd (5 positions available)

Contact us asap as these spots will go very quickly!

The start of the winter season has been excellent and up to 8 different sharks have been seen daily, with plenty of action from both the boat and of course, in the underwater protective shark cage. In a world exclusive, the ocean floor cages are really proving to be a big hit for those that are certified divers, not only to see these predators scan the ocean’s bottom, but to view the massive rays and other schools of fish. It really is incredible!

Tags have been implanted in a number of sharks in recent weeks to be able to track their movements. “Marine” is a 3.2 feisty little female (see pictured bottom left) which has just been implanted with CSIRO acoustic tag.

Other regular Great Whites that have been seen recently are Mrs.Moo- a 4.5m female, Moo – 4.3m male, Kallel- 4m male (see very bottom) and also some smaller sharks such as Punk-a 2.8m female, Ropey, 3.5 female plus 2 other large females which haven’t been named as yet. With all these females around, Moo and Kallel must be in their  element, but as they are regular habitats of the Neptune’s, they will know that “Jonny” is about to make an appearance any time now!

Jonny, pictured bottom right, is a very big male who historically appears about now & hangs in the area for usually 2-3 months and certainly makes his presence felt! Kallel is another shark that is enormously popular and is renowned as the most photographed Great White by the way he presents himself to the camera’s & his inquisitive nature.

The season is shaping up to be a belter & we have some great offers for the month of July. We have availabilities for 3 different, 4 night/3 day trips for a special half price deal of $1500 per person. Departure dates are July 5th-9th, July 15th-19th and July 19th- 23rd. Contact us for more details.

To listen via podcast or see a transcript of how tags are used with the great white sharks & then tracked via satellite, go to www.csiro.au/files/files/pbhy.rtf or http://www.csiro.au/multimedia/Great-White-Sharks-Journey.html