PADI open water qualification, tick. I am now a newly qualified PADI diver and I feel quite good about it I must admit. My left ear now refuses to clear and is very annoying but what an incredible experience.
I've seen a dozen different types of crab including a very spiky one, barracuda, green moray, three types of Ray, sea cucumber, sand eels, more fish than you can shack a speargun at including, jacks, groupers, gruntfish, parrotfish, batfish, frog fish, little electic blue ones by the swarm, hi-viz yellow ones swimming right upto your nose, blue and yellow zigzag stiped ones, big fish with scales the size of your thumbnail, coraly stuff that disappears into itself in a flash when you stick your finger near it, flatfish that look like sand until you get within an inch of them and then they scuttle off, fish with great big lanterns protruding from the end of their noses on droopy prongs, fish that had four swipy rear fins that operate in four different directions at once that resemble.. well I don't know what, but they're mental, great big emerald tubes poking out of the bottom of the sea - don't know what that was but they were beautiful. Leaf coral swaying with the current and the stingrays that waft gracefully just above the sand, minding their own business were THE most incredible sight. Oh! Actually, they got trumped by the cowfish that change their colour from brown to electic blue when you get near them. God must have been tripping when he made them up. Phenomenal. I even had a bunch of fish that nipped me. I think they were attracted by my horse riding wounds. In fact I know they were, as they were feeding off my poor old legs like they hadn't had a decent scab lunch in forever.
Apologies for not providing the Latin names for any of the above but it's still early days for me.
I have no reference point but according to the owner of the dive shop, a Canadian, the visibility below the surface is, 'insane' at the moment. I certainly didn't have a problem seeing stuff - for seemingly miles.
It's funny isn't it? I'm becoming blasé about things like Seahorses and exotic fish. Having never set eyes on a seahorse until 48hrs ago, I'm now seemingly surrounded by the things and regard them much like I'd've regarded seaweed last week.
Boiled down version, I'm basically Sean Connery in Thunderball. Except without SPECTRE chasing me with motorised speargun shizzle. 'Another cold bottle of Salva Vida Mr. Bond?' 'Don't mind if I do old man. And crank up the Aerosmith would you? I love this one.'
I won't be going on about this for the next week but these things will stay with me forever I'm sure.
Long nosed batfish from the dock.
Well now, you’re becoming quite the little Action Man with your change of outfits...Diver Billy, Cowboy Billy, Easy Rider Billy, Ruskie Hat Billy and whilst avoiding Face Paint Billy, you did succumb to Massage Billy (with not much of an outfit). The diving sounds like one the big highlights of your time away and impressed with your rapid knowledge of tropical fish, very Jacques Cousteau. Not sure I’d heard of a ‘hi-viz’ fish, but of course we know Billy the Fish from Viz, so maybe you were destined to meet this little yellow underwater charmer. All sounds jolly good fun.
ReplyDeleteHi Neil, Having just found your new 'Few Dollars More' blog - just read the whole thing and now happily back up to speed with all your adventures - keep going sir!
ReplyDelete