Mar 14, 2005 - Day 251 in Pandangbai, Bali, Indonesia

We woke up a few minutes before our dive boat took off for “Shark Cave”. We’ve been to a lot of “Shark Fill-In-The-Blank” dive sites and have yet to see one shark so our expectations were in check. The dive started along some magnificent coral in very good condition. Lots of colorful tropical fish were munching away. We reached the cave and our dive master took out his flashlight and shined it on the sand. Charles and I both pointed at the same time: a reef shark! Inside the cave we saw at least 10 more sharks. They sort of minded their own business staying near the bottom and they weren’t so large as to scare the daylights out of us. Instead they just stunned us with their grace. They are a mighty elegant species up close. Seeing them reminded me of when we spotted lions on safari. It is always an honor to meet the king. In between dives we dove off the boat and swam to a deserted beach and lounged in the shade. There were only a few fishermen in sight. It was one of those moments where the trade-off of surviving on coconuts and bananas sounds really appealing if it meant being stranded here for awhile.