I can’t sleep, I’m too excited about today – snorkelling with turtles, sharks and rays. It’s the first time I’ve been deep water snorkelling, you can’t touch the floor and we are going straight off the sides of the zodiacs but I really can’t wait, already have an adrenalin rush. The sharks are friendly, no cages, just us and the sharks so I thought I’d post this now, just in case they don’t turn out quite so friendly.
Success, I’m alive. What a day, it started at 5am, I seem to be making a habit of waking up at 5am so I thought I may as well see the sunrise. I was so early that I scared the bar person, I don’t think they get many others sat in the bar at 5am. Today we are at Floreana, home of the infamous baroness story, she is still lost, we didn’t find her. But we did find lots of other things.
Zodiac ride to the island, then a walk over to the white powder beach, complete with stinging rays. We passed the flamingo lake, complete with just one flamingo and one Great blue heron. We saw lava gull, turtles, ground finches, Sally lightfoot crabs, seals, sanderlings, sharks, boobies, wasps and bees.
Then it was time to leave, I left Ali on the beach while I went back to the ship to don the wetsuit and snorkelling gear. The 20 minute zodiac ride to Champion Island was the best yet, with the chopping water, we sped across the Pacific ocean to the island. It was very chopping, and we were told that we should only do it if we were confident. But there was no going back, off the sidew of the boat into the unknown. As soon as we went in, there were two white tip sharks beneath us, so elegant.
The shoals of bright coloured fish, with the sea lions hunting made me swallow gallons of sea water, you just couldn’t look away. It was surprisingly deep, the seals played with us and scared me when it swam directly for me then underneath me twirling around. It was such an amazing experience, so glad I did it but gosh the water was cold, it took me a long time to warm up again.
After lunch we watched the BBC film ‘Galapagos’, and what was very amusing was that everyone fell asleep! We just looked around the room as people’s heads nodding up and down, the people with their head back and mouth wide open, the people trying to hide it but there was more people asleep than there were awake. Not a reflection of the great film.
Then back on the zodiacs for a tour of Floreana’s sea life, this time above the water. We saw the black sea turtle, the Galapagos penguin, the only penguin to live on the equator, the white tip shark resting in an inlet and the semi plamated plover. It’s no wonder this tour comes with a fitness warning, Ali and I are shattered and we are the youngest by about 20 years.
No comments:
Post a Comment