Snorkelling at Wayasewa

I woke at daybreak. It had rained during the night but I hadn't noticed.

For breakfast there were sunny side up eggs, bread and some kind of fried dough. Meals in the resorts were carbohydrate rich. I missed fibre from fruits and vegetables.

We cast off from the island about 0900 in a motorised boat and headed towards the reef. We all wore life jackets. In addition because I'm a poor swimmer they gave me a "noodle" float.

After a bumpy ride of about 20 minutes, we reached the reef. I found that the goggle and snorkel set I brought wasn't up to the task but fortunately they provided one. I also had a waterproof camera for these underwater photos.

To be honest, half the time I couldn't see clearly what I was framing in the viewfinder due to the current so I just snapped away at anything likely.

Here we encountered a reef shark. They are harmless to humans but the mention of shark always induces some frisson amongst prospective snorkellers.

It was one of the most difficult half hours of my life because I was trying to do all these things at once: keep the salt water out my mouth by maintaining the watertight seal on my snorkel mouthpiece; expel any water that might have leaked in by exhaling hard; not tilt my head too much when looking above water or water would enter the snorkel; stay within sight of the group; avoid touching coral; avoid the strong current in the shallows which made swimming difficult. Oh and I was no good with flippers either.

If I had time to adjust the zoom, I might have got a magnified shot of this brightly coloured denizen of the coral reef. Then again, I might have missed the shot totally.

More coral.

The reef shark again.

When time was up, in trying to reach the boat, I lost one of the flippers to the current. Fortunately they float and it was retrieved without issue. I also got scratched by coral near my left knee. Coral cuts take a long time to heal. I still had the scab over a week later.

One of the divers had speared an octopus and posed with it for photos. It was for themselves though. Seafood is abundant, but effort intensive to harvest so not served to guests.

Approaching the shore, the petrol in the working tank ran out and they had to refill from a can. A normal procedure, but they joked that we had to swim to shore. I made a mock grimace. But the petrol fumes just made me seasick and throw up again.

I'm not sure I'd snorkel again. Salt water and I don't mix. I'm happy to vicariously enjoy coral beauty through photos and cine documentaries.