Wednesday, 20 February 2008

Adventures under an azure sky

Apparently there are no weathermen in Sharm el Sheikh, because the weather varies so little.

Today, the sky was once again the colour of azure. How do I know? The following photographic evidence and a Dulux colour chart prove my point.



For those interested in buying the colour it is Azure Sky 2 from the 'Fresh Blues' Dulux range, available at all good stockists.

Today, was broadly similar to the previous days, with snorkeling being the main focus.

Whilst, I had snorkeled yesterday, there were times - especially when looking down at the seabed some sixty feet below me - when I didn't feel as confident as I would have liked.

But did I panic? Of course I did... if only a little.

However, today I was determined to stay out longer and remain calm, despite the somewhat choppy seas.

Perhaps a little morbidly I had already considered that one of life's great ironies is that somebody who gets into difficulties at sea, fears sinking to the bottom (i.e. drowning) and yet, if they do drown, their body floats to the top!

Today, I was calmness personified, and swam for about an hour taking in the wonders of the undersea world of the Red Sea.

Two major finds were had. Firstly. I got to meet Ray! He had tried to cover himself in sand and remained fairly motionless, but his blue spots shone through.

Secondly, we saw (admittedly because another snorkeler pointed it out to us) a lionfish!

Now I am sure that Confucius would have had a saying along the lines of "...it is a wise man who knows what he doesn't know and who doesn't try to touch a lionfish unless he truly knows that it is safe to do so!"

But I didn't read up on Confucius this morning and in fact, tried to touch every fish I saw. Fortunately I was unsuccessful on every attempt. Especially fortunate in relation to the lionfish as the Internet (which doesn't work very well underwater!) states: -

"...Lion-fish have venomous fin spines that can produce painful puncture wounds. Fatalities, however, are rare."

And I was worried about drowning!!!!

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