It's perfect snorkeling conditions right now! But I have to get ready work.
I have this strong compulsion to go in... It's making me sad. Head and heart are not agreeing on things.
I just imagine myself going in regardless of work and seeing myself losing track of time. There's no chance of me sneaking in an exploring session without me being super late.
Gah! Look at it! High tide, a dead easterly. It's so peaceful. It looks like it would be fantastic visibility.
*sigh*
So sad.
But then again, it may not be safe to snorkel at dawn.
What a busy week you've had! Moonlight picnics, solo road trips, art session and a bday catch up!
Your road trip was filled with quirky sights! Any decisions about your future? The pig mowing the lawn is the funniest! How bizarre!
Christina's bird is beautiful! I loved how its feathers shined! The fruit tree was also very very pretty!
Where did you find your photo of Mr Shrimp? He is quite cool! Your drawing/painting of him is very cool! It reminds me of a Japanese animation. Keep posting! I do look forward to seeing what you guys get up to every week!
I've just been doing the usual thing. Morning runs, work, afternoon walk or indoor beach volleyball.
So when the clock ticked over to 5pm today, I was totally excited that the weekend had finally started! It was such a warm day, and Clem suggested that we hit the beach. It was such a great idea! The temperature dropped to about 27 degrees by 6pm, and unfortunately, we all arrived a little late to the beach.
By 7pm the wind had picked up, and the overall weather was a lot cooler. So we all decided to go for a quick run instead and head off to Hillary's for dinner.
However, after the run, we decided to have a quick dip as the water was actually quite nice.
Clem's first wave for the day
$5 worth of awesome crabby fun
A moment of sheer excitement while on a wave
Kev paddling out
Completely happy!
Sweet night out
Empty and peaceful
Weather forecast for the weekend looks nice and hot! I can't wait!
Yes! We both are doing very well with the blog posts! Perhaps it is because the summer's extended light has allowed us to do more things in a day that are blog worthy! I definitely know that for me, summer has allowed me to pursue the things I love outside of my working hours. Winter is hard, as I can't really do the things I want to do in dark and when its too cold.
As such, because yesterday (and today!) the weather has been P-E-R-F-E-C-T, I've been unable to resist the ocean. Yesterday morning I went out for a run to try out my new Vibram Five Finger shoes (as part of my barefoot experiment).
The Vibram Five Finger's Bikila shoe
It was great to finally have the soles of my feet protected from the harsh roads, little stones and twigs that I usually encounter on my route. However, the muscles in my calves and my feet have been a little sore from these runs, so it will be a while before I can give you my conclusion on this barefoot running technique. I'll keep you posted.
Anyways, on my run I checked out the water to see if it was good enough to snorkel. The first thing that I noticed was that the ocean blue was a lot darker than when I went snorkeling on Monday.
The water looks darker yea?
I wasn't enjoying the lovely weather alone!
I was a little unsure about the water as I had not snorkeled in it when it was this blue. From my observation, I noted that the swell was bigger than the swell on Monday (see my post about Monday's snorkel here), but it was still pretty flat. So I rang Kev to give him my assessment of the water conditions. He initially declined my invitation (as he probably heard the hesitation in my voice), but after our luck on Monday and hearing that I was going to give snorkeling a go anyways, he changed his mind and said that he would come too.
When I got in, I instantly realised why the water was bluer. It was because the tide was high and as such, instead of having to walk over the reef, I was able to swim over them! Also, because it was high tide, as soon as dived in, there were fish everywhere! My pleasure immediately removed all my initial fears of snorkeling alone, and I just lost myself in exploration!
Another Red Lipped Morwong
A huge school of tiny fish
More Red Lipped Morwong
As I snorkel more and more, I have started to remember the rock formations, learn more about the water currents and the underwater environment here. It's almost like learning the streets and directions of a new city! As this area is not monitored, and a lot of the times, there isn't any other people around, I have been super vigilant when venturing out alone as I know that there isn't anyone around to help me if something does happen.
I noted that on the Monday snorkel, there were areas where I wanted to swim to, but because I was still getting comfortable with my new surroundings, I did not dare to swim into that unknown area. I psychologically psyched myself out (it didn't help that the man that I had spoken to mentioned something was swimming around and that I started thinking about sharks!).
I've also realised that I prefer the water when the tide is high. Because when it was as low as on the Monday snorkel, the waves would push me into the reef and as such, I was a lot more cautious around the reef and stayed away from swimming over them. With the high tide, I noted that I was free to swim over the reef and the waves (though bigger) were not as rough; as they did not push you into the reef, but merely rolled over them.
When Kev arrived, he swam up to me while I was busy snorkeling and caught me unawares. Luckily, he came when he did because through the cloudy waters, I saw a dark figure lurking towards us. I then started making noises through my snorkel to get Kev's attention to have a look at this:
Stingray!
After this experience I was buzzing with excitement! Especially because Kev saw it this time! I was a little sad that the water was murky (not to mention I needed to get more shampoo for my goggles as they were fogging up!). We both swam after the Stingray, but it soon disappeared into the reef.
We then continued to snorkel some more.
Lots of fish!
Pretty purple coral!
Pretty sea anemone spotted by Kev.
Kev doing a 'Superman' pose.
Messing around!
Kev and I started to get tired, so we started to swim back to shore, when out of nowhere this fella swam up to us!
This guy was HUGE! His head was round and prominent. Gracefully flapping his 'wings', it swam up to us without a care before swimming off into the deeper water! Both Kev and I gasped "WOW" through our snorkels!
After that, we decided to go back in.
Here are some close up shots Kev took:
Abalone galore!
More sea anemone.
Back on land - please ignore my mask indent. It remained there for a few hours!
Our exploration gear!
I just can't stop gushing about my experiences at my beach. It's such a wonderful place and just around the corner! Being able to walk here and see the things that we have seen this week just leaves me buzzing and on a high for the rest of the day! I just want to keep on exploring and seeing who else lives here! Speaking to some of the other beach goers that I've come across, apparently some octopi live here too! Also, I see cuttlefish cuttle washed up on the beach so I assume there are some cuttlefish here too! Hopefully one day we will be able to see them!
Also, I think I get so excited because the things we see are completely unplanned, and I know that it is not every day that you will get the perfect mix of sun, swell and wind to give you great snorkeling conditions, PLUS the rare opportunity to see various marine life.
And now, I let out a long sigh. Back to work again...
Awwww your drawings are so beautiful! I especially like your Rodent and Christina's lion! There is something about coloured pencils that is so beautiful. I think I really like how the texture of the paper comes through. I also love how adding water can change a drawing completely! It really changes the colours and the picture to something completely different! I can't wait to see what you guys complete this coming Wednesday!
As for your long weekend, it looks like you had a lot of fun! The bushwalk looked quite adventurous! How was the weather? Were you guys out for the whole day?
My Australia Day was pretty full on. In the morning I did my run and house chores and then met up with Kev to head to Anaconda to buy... wait for it... $5 boogieboards! I saw them in the brochure and knew that I had to get some because when we went to Mullaloo with Clem the last time, we all were thinking 'damn, we so should get some cheap boards if possible!' We also got Clem a board but he opted for a $50 which was of a superior quality by far! Our cheapy boards were made of foam with a crab drawn on it! I unfortunately do not have a photo of it, but it's quite a funny board.
After that, Kev and I went to an Australia Day party/housewarming party where by we pretty much just chilled out, drank cider, beer, vodka jelly shots and ate. It was a pretty relaxed night!
The next day, Kev and I took it easy and went shopping at Mountain Designs where I bought a winter jacket which I can compress into a small ball and is super light! But I will do a separate post about that! :)
After shopping, we called up Clem and went to Mullaloo Beach to RIDE THE WAVES! It was sooooo much fun! We had such an exhilarating time on our boards; reading the waves and then hopping onto our boards into the barrel when the time was right! Kev and I were super proud about our $5 rides! However, by the end of our long session (almost 2 hours of boarding) Kev cracked his board. Clem's board definitely stood the test of the waves. Perhaps if Kev and I board more we will look into getting better quality ones. But for the time being, we will be rocking our crab boards (even if we do share the same boards as the majority of the kids at Mullaloo beach).
After boarding we went to Hillary's and had some awesome fish and chips! YUM!
Today
Today I woke up and went out for a run. It was a little cooler than expected and there was quite a breezy easterly wind. As I made my way down the usual route I was greeted by the brilliant turquoise ocean ahead of me. I took a detour to the beach entry and this is what I saw:
Breathtaking!
I got super excited and called up Kev (accidentally waking him up!) and told him to come down ASAP as the water is so good that he had to try! Previously, I had told Kev that I wasn't ready to take him out to snorkel near my place as the water was a little difficult and the reef made it hard to manouvre safely. As such, I wanted to be confident about the area (and in my knowledge and skill) before showing him around. So you can imagine how wonderful the water was if I was willing to forget all of that!
Unfortunately Kev had things to do, so he told me that he wouldn't be able to make it. As I ran back to my house to get changed I messaged him the above photo in hope that I would change his mind.
When I returned, that man that you see standing in the water with the black pants in the photo, was still standing there! I got my gear ready, waded in and asked him if he had swam beyond the reef yet. He told me that he had not, and I said 'well, perhaps you should give it a go!' As I climbed onto the reef he followed me, which was a little encouraging because there was a part of me that was a little scared about what had happened the last time I tried snorkeling beyond the reef. However, once we jumped into the water, it was beautiful! It was so blue blue blue and so clear and the water was perfectly cool. I felt like I was in another country!
Me in the middle of nowhere! I love the sail boat!
It was such a wonderful day Chia! I can't express how happy I was! As I was exploring the reef I was able to find a few little marine friends:
Recognise this guy from a previous post? It's a Red Lipped Morwong!
Jellyfish. I don't like these guys. I actually got stung by one on my arm which has left a little red scar.
When I had a little break I saw that there was someone waving at me on the stairs up on the shore. It was my mom! She had come down to see what I was getting up to (as she is frequently witnessing me rushing back home in a flurry after a run, changing into bathers, bringing my snorkel gear and running off again). I decided that after snorkeling for about 30 minutes with visability decreasing, that I should call it a day.
However, when I came upon shore and talked to mom I saw a familiar person approach behind mom!
Hi Kev !
Kev said that he was convinced after seeing my photo! Ah-HAH! It worked!
After that, I was re-energised and knew that I had to show Kev all the things I saw! Not only that, as we were getting back into the water we saw the biggest Stingray! He was flapping his wings at the top of the water as he was getting caught up in the shallow pools in and around the reef. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a photo :(
Here are some shots of what we saw:
Interesting limestone formation
I'm riding a dinosaur!
Big fish - I need to classify this in the future
Recognise this fish too? The Angel fish from a previous post!
Lots and lots of fishes!
This fish seemed a little trapped in this limestone formation
For me to classify later!
Here's a video of the fish we saw:
When Kev and I finally left, we spoke to a couple who were also leaving. I asked them if they saw the Stingray, and they said 'Yes!'
I also told them of a little incident that happened earlier with the man who I had convinced to go beyond the reef. After I had been snorkeling for a while, the man called out to me saying that there was something large in the reef. I swam over to him as he had gotten out of the water and was standing on the reef pointing to an area ahead of him. He said he saw something swimming around that was grey and large. I asked him if it had fins and he said he replied saying that he wasn't sure. I was curious so I had a little look around but slowly my own mind started to freak me out (was it a shark?). It was then that as I looked around I saw Mom waving to me and so I decided to head back.
However, after telling this story to the couple, they said 'No! It was a dolphin! There were two!' I was flabbergasted! I can't believe I missed out on swimming up to it!
It was an amazing day for snorkeling at my beach! I was invigorated and excited for hours after!
Anywho, that concludes my long weekend. Back to work tomorrow!
