Sunday December 2nd
An excellent day that will stay with me for a long time, but
as the title says, one, over the next couple of days at least, I might yet
regret.
Up at the usual time and after breakfast I packed my
rucksack with water, spare towel, sarong, camera, etc. and prepared myself for
my day. Have you tried applying factor 50 to your own
back; not easy! I then retraced my steps
of the previous night. I don’t mean that
literally as my steps from last night had been washed away by the tide but I’m
quite enjoying this literary thing these days and it sounds better than – I
walked round the corner.
Ulric met me and kitted me out with the requisites for the
day in a tidy net bag, flippers, mask and snorkel and surprisingly on time at 9:00 we carried our
gear, plus a large cool box and a couple of chairs, down onto the beach to find
the boat just arriving. The Dutch girls
were also ready with their net bags of equipment and we were ready for the
off. The girls, Jessica and Flo have
just finished University in Holland and both now have Masters degrees in
Biology, so with my well documented skills it was a very erudite boat-full!
The journey to the island took about 45 minutes until we
dropped anchor next to a coral reef just off the shore. The island, as you can see, was simply a sand
bank that happened to be above sea level and apart from a few crabs and a
couple of terns was devoid of life, either animal or vegetable.
The next part of the day is something I can’t really begin
to draw for you with words but as I didn't have the luxury of an underwater
camera I will try.
I have snorkelled before but not with gear as good as this
and the last time was on our visit to Kenya when the area round the reef was
like a marina as it filled up with tourist boats. Here there was one boat, ours, plus the very
occasional passing Dhow, and in the water only the three of us. The coral was
beautiful with a vast array of plant and animal life attached to it. By gliding along on the surface with my mask
just under the water I could see the variety of iridescent fish that swam below
me and in many places practically on me as the coral came within two or three feet of the surface.
Once I had got used to the breathing routine with the
snorkel I did a few dives but without any weights my buoyancy took some
overcoming. (fat floats very well) My other
problem was that, at the swimming pool, I am used to slowly releasing the air
from my lungs as I am underwater, whereas here I needed to save the air to blow
the snorkel clear as I surfaced, but after a bit of coughing and spluttering I
mastered it.
And so to my ‘regret’.
You’ve guessed. I realise now I
should have taken a T shirt to Tanzania for just such a day as this, but I didn't have one and had decided my polo shirts were a bit too thick so was
reliant on the self-applied factor 50. I
hope you have finished breakfast because I want you to imagine me floating face
downwards in the water. Apart from a
languid flick of the flippers to propel me through the water, I am motionless
and a few millimetres below the surface of the water is my exposed back. When swimming at Mkoma Bay I have been very
vigilant and set a limit of twenty minutes before leaving the water but here
with so much to absorb my attention and with the water constantly cooling by
back, I overstayed my welcome. I
realised when I re-joined the boat that possibly I had taken a little longer
than was sensible so donned a shirt and sarong and for our lunch on the island
never really appeared from under the sun shade that was erected for us.
More factor 50 and a shorter, more sensible, dive in the
afternoon on the other side of the island where, if possible, there was an even
greater variety of fish. When we got
back on board they had a set of laminated cards with pictures and names of the
various species and we were back to ‘I Spy’ as we compared notes on what we had
seen.
About 1:30 we turned for home and it was interesting to see
the landscape that I was getting to know so well, from a totally different
angle. I could see the radio masts at
Boza clearly and realised the height they were above the sea level that I
usually frequented.
Eventually we disembarked and after offering up my camera so
that relevant pictures could be copied onto Jessica’s laptop, I headed home to
the luxury of a cold shower and to once again face the problem of rubbing
things onto your own back, this time after-sun.
 |
| Jessica |
I now must await the morning to find whether my excesses
have had a lasting effect or not. I will
let you know, but whatever the outcome, I certainly enjoyed the second touristy
experience of my stay.
Baadaye
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