Momentous Events

Thursday started early for the Gorse Fox (actually, very early  as he found that sleep eluded him most of the night). He was up and out of the room before seven and striding purposefully (and with a degree of trepidation) down to the car for a rendezvous with Cousteau-cub and the Coventry Hobbit.

Driving here is a bit hit and miss. (OK, that’s a bad turn of phrase). Driving here requires that you keep your wits very much about you as you watch for all sorts of crazy manoeuvres by the riders on the scooters (some, quite literally, children), and their passengers – yes many of the scooter may have three or or four passengers sharing the pillion. GF avoided incident on his drive south, but was pleasantly startled by the sight of a mahout riding a huge bull elephant along the road towards him. Not the sort of obstacle one gets used to on the A259!

First things first. Once GF arrived at the resort he checked the WiFi status so that he could find the scores from last nights game. Delighted that Spurs had beaten ne’er-do-wells of Manchester and achieved Champions League for next season boded well for the day. Administrative details complete, and other divers assembled we were soon on the speed boat heading west towards Ko Haa (5 Islands) where the next stage of GF’s diver training was to take place.

This small group of islands comprises a number of limestone stacks and a small sandy lagoon. It is part of a marine park and protected – a responsibility that “Scubafish” take very seriously.

The Coventry Hobbit completed his briefing of his clutch of divers and they entered the water. GF got the gear on – fins, buoyancy control device, scuba tank, regulator set and mask. Clutching the regulator and mask to his face he stepped off the back of the boat. And so began the next part of the training in the capable hands of Cousteau-cub.

Some 43 minutes later, GF surfaced from the deep. He had seen more exotic fish in these few minutes than he had seen in his life, and without  realising had been over 11 metres below the surface. The anxiety of the pool sessions melted away and the wonder of the sights on offer made the heart soar. Unfortunately, when he surfaced, the ingress of salt water into his smiling mouth had the effect of inducing a coughing fit – but that will remain all that is said of that.

Back on the boat we moved round to the lagoon. It was about 10 on the morning – and that my friends is time for a Massaman Curry. We were resting prior to the second planned dive and need some degree of sustenance. Some ignored the curry and for the whimps option of fruit, but GF decided he needed to have a little more ballast.

The 90 minute stop gave us a chance to let some of the nitrogen disperse, and gave us time to gather strength for the next dive. Some of the others used the time to snorkel across to the beach. GF decided that, at his age, energy was not there to be squandered.

The second dive went much as the first. GF stepped into the blue and Cousteau-cub took him through some exercises to show that he had grasped the theory correctly. Then, we slowly descended and swam slowly around the island. We reached a depth of 12m and remained under water for 54 minutes. As we circumnavigated the limestone stack we saw the fantastic shapes and colours of the coral, the tiny fish that hid among their fronds, squid (and their eggs), a Moses sole, a school of barracuda, clown fish, angel fish, moray eels, sea cucumbers, and as we swam through an overhang the Gorse Fox couldn’t help but marvel that he had had such an opportunity.

The boat headed back for bay from we left. The journey back was quiet as we all seemed lost in our thoughts or were dozing.
Log books needed to be filled in and Vicky, the photographer who had accompanied the dive needed to show us the pictures that she had taken.

GF chilled out for a while with Cousteau-cub before headed back up north to to reclaim the missing Silver Vixen. She had made the most of the peace and quite to explore the resort a bit more, to swim and to start on another book. By mid-afternoon the exertions of the morning had caught up and GF retired to the room for a shower and a snooze.