The Australian Shark & Ray Centre sounded intriguing when we drove past the billboard while we were in Port Stephens. What's more is that it's at a place called Bob's Farm. I thought that it was on a farm owned by someone called Bob, but it's what the suburb is called.

Thinking that we should just have a look at some sharks and rays, we approached the building with eager anticipation. There was a long dirt trail leading up to it and we could see quite a few people were already visiting. As we entered the building, we were approached by a friendly man whom we asked about the activities available. He recommended with some enthusiasm that getting into the shark pit and feeding the sharks and rays would be an incredible experience. Someone who had just done it was just leaving and he seconded that opinion. So we decided to sign up for it.

In under 10 minutes, my girlfriend and I were in wetsuits and snorkels and being led to the water. It wasn't quite what we expected as it was a large pool with murky green water in it. With some hesitation, we got into the freezing water with all the rays. The sharks were in the next pool and we thought we start off with what we thought would be the safer option.

It was definitely fascinating to have different types of rays come and brush past you. Once we were comfortable with the rays we went to the shark pool. We were told that the sharks wouldn't try to eat us unless it was feeding time. We weren't as brave in the shark pool and soon I got the man to start feeding time.

We were given gloves and tongs to feed the sharks, and we instructed to hold meet in the tongs and hold them just above the water. The sharks would then come up and suck the meat. We had to keep our hands out of the water so that they didn't suck up our fingers as well.

Following all of this, we finally got out of the pools, out of the wetsuits and dried off. The people had put on a barbeque and treated us to a lovely bbq fish and salad. It was quite an interesting experience and if you're in the vicinity, I would recommend it!