Have you ever tried underwater diving?

Well this was going to be a fun way to spend time together. Doing a fun recreational activity.
It was great fun getting our wetsuits, I now have a new empathy for sausages, the squishing and squeezing into this wetsuit.

It is a great feeling once in the suit. You feel so slim and warm. The idea is so that you do not get too cold while diving in the ocean.
The wetsuit is made skin tight and you literally wiggle your way in and baby powder the suit so that it does not get stuck on you while trying to put it on. Beware if you need to go to the bathroom, there is no way of getting out of this suit in a hurry and on your own.

Well once you have this on, you feel amazing, so streamlined, ready to swim through the water. I am sure I now know what seals feels like.  Sushi has a new meaning.

Well, we have all this equipment, a diving tank which has to strap on your back, a weight belt which has to have a few lead blocks on to keep you under the water.  The hoodie on your head, goggles, and mouthpiece for the breathing tank.  Now for the slippers on my feet and flippers. Wow this is really fun!

What they did not tell me was that we had to go over some rocks and walk a little way to the ideal diving spot.  So duly off with the flippers at least.  It feels like 40 deg in the suit.  I am breaking out in a sweat in places I did not know existed.

Well after careful negotiations I have managed to get to "The Spot" flippers back on, goggles spat in and on face, ready to enter the water, and really it is a slip, sliding affair. The cold water feels soothing when you enter the water.  Your body so hot and the water so cool.
All too soon you realize that you are not reaching the ground anymore, you are not able to stay afloat, as you may have a few too many lead weights on.

I get the mouthpiece in, the gas/oxygen is on.  My misted up goggles are on, check. I am trying to see where I am.  My diving buddy, having done this before is impatiently waiting for me to find some direction to swim in.

All I can see is big dark plants that are swaying in the water, the kelp is thick and not letting me see any light. I feel panicked, luckily I am tied to my diving buddy.  Such a sweetheart really looking out for me......

He is merrily swimming along, pulling me along in his wake, oops here come a large fish, is it a shark? Nemo? Oh my word, its going to swim into me..... It was  a sardine, I later heard. My goggles seemed to magnify the size of the fish.

This seems like fun as we get to a section where there is no kelp, beautiful water all clear and this is what diving is supposed to be about. I have images of diving off Mauritius, Mozambique. Costume and snorkel and beautiful fish.

We are going down, closer to rocks and sand and there is this huge spider, and its all claws and legs. Hold this my diving buddy says, are you nuts, me touch that thing....

I had, had enough fun for one day and wanted to get to shore, except it was quite a way away, and I would have to fight the kelp again, with that long walk to the Landrover and some hot coffee.  It was looking like a task way too big for me.

Needless to say all good things come to an end.  I did not volunteer to dive again, but rather to be the base station.  It definitely was a lot more fun and easier, and I could snorkel where I wanted to.
Till the next time.