As regular readers of the blog might recall I was taking swimming lessons last fall and early this winter. The theory being that this trip we would clearly be spending some time in the water. My relationship with water has never been a great one. It's not so much that I'm afraid of water. I've seen those people, who the mere thought of going into water freaks them out.
No, I have a very healthy respect for water and it's ability to kill me. Any body of water that can go over the top of my head has the ability to kill me if I'm stupid (not exactly an unheard of occurrance) and I'm always aware of that.
Anyway, the lessons went relatively well. I'm not going to be setting any Olympic records, but I should manage to prevent myself from drowning.
However, last evening was a new test. When we were out in Ottawa back in April, we bought a goggle, snorkel and flipper set at COSTCO. And a pretty nice one at that. However, I've never used a snorkel and flippers before. Or if I have, it's been a good few years. So last evening we went up to the swimming pool during the adult swim (no kids and only one other adult in the pool) and gave it a try. Much to Cathy's shock I did pretty well with it. I spent 45 minutes figuring out how to use it and get comfortable with it. I'm not graceful by any stretch, but I can get myself from one point to the other.
Of course, there's a big difference between splashing around in a pool and splashing around in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The pool is relatively calm. I'm going to have to deal with currents, waves and swells in the ocean. At the very least. I'm still hoping to avoid the shark thing. But for the purposes for going out to the Great Barrier Reef or doing some snorkeling around the Whitsunday islands, I imagine it'll do.
Last Five
1. Wake up, she said - Drive
2. Sonny's dream - Ron Hynes*
3. Happiness - Riceboy Sleeps
4. Rocky raccoon - The Beatles
5. Radioactive - The Firm
4 comments:
the great barrier reef........I have good memories of that. A few things to consider :: there are longer any staging platforms anywhere out on the reef (there were in 1993 my first time there) and last time around (2003) they had all been removed due to reef protection. So getting on and off a catamarand or any boat out on the Reef can be in gear can be an experience unto itself. Try to time your visit to the reef so that it is not low tide. If it is much of the particular bit of the reef you may be visiting will be exposed and it is ioncredibly odiferous. Gravol/ginger tablets or whatever works for you for motion sickness is a good option. The reef is a good ninety miles out from any point in northern Queensland and takes usually 90 minutes to arrive at. Long enough to get plenty sick if that is your body's inclination. Suncreen, you would think Oz would have the market cornered on really top end suncreen. Not so. SPF 50 and above is impossible to find.
Have fun in the sun
During my incredibly brief time snorkeling in Cuba, I found that as long as you can get over your natural instinct to hold your breath and not breath when your face is underwater, you'll do pretty well. It's just not easy to get over that instinct, sometimes.
It's also a good idea, when practising with the snorkle, to learn to dive to the bottom (or go fully under at least), then surface and blow all the water out. Once you've got this technique down, your confidence level will be much higher and you won't be bothered by the occasional lop of water into your mouth.
Sounds like fun! Wish I was going...
picture! picture!
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