Hi Alison
Yes I do have a day job with 5 weeks annual holiday. Good use of national holidays and weekends mean I can get out of the country diving for 52 days this year. No kids, no mortgage takes care of the money side of things.
I met up with a tour operator on a stand at London Dive Show last sunday and discussed a trip with them, they had a Bali liveaboard operator with them although not at the time I was there who was doing Raja Empat, Irian Jaya trips. I searched the web and found
www.kararu.com who seam to go but it is very seasonal. Komodo looks a good bet as well. I am thinking around easter next year, obviously to use up to 3 national holidays.
Whilst at the show I have found the trip for you!!!
The Shark Research Institute
www.sharks.org a non-profit organisation organise research trips that you can join for a charge/donation. La Paz is $1150 but you can join them in their whale shark research, so far they have tagged 160 whale sharks. They also take DNA samples and use a spotter plane to find sharks and manta's and will teach you to help them. There are also trips to Galapagos, where I undertstand the Galapagos National Parks will be allowing them to use a new research station facility from next year. As a non-profit organisation and provided they register in the UK, a donation would be tax deductable effectively dropping the price by 40%. Imagine that tax deductable whale shark diving!!!! magic. I met Dr. Alex Antoniou, who is a field director and I'm quite excited about doing this in the future.
My suitcase is allways open.
Neil
