LillSting Ray Snorkel
September 7th 2008 10:22
We were dropped off on a deserted island near Hayman Island in the Whitsundays called Bali High with my friend Maxine. Swimming in open water was a new experience for me and I wasn't sure what to expect.
I was cruising along though looking for some fish to trail, and something big moved under me. I let out a yip that resonated out the snorkel pipe and kicked so fast to the shore I'm sure I scared every other fish away from that area for a while. What had been beneath me was a giant sting ray, and I mean giant! It had been on the rock below me. Flashes of how Steve Erwin died entered my mind which I quickly suppressed.
My friend Maxine is a very experienced diver, she was out to enjoy her day off and I was just tagging along. I got her attention and told her I saw a stinger. She was so excited she went looking for another one. She was gone again. I thought, 'I better get it together, right, I'm not their food, it's ok, be cool'. See I worked on a prawn trawler once and we used to catch stingers accidentally in the net. I wasn't scared of them on the boat, we'd just gently grab them in their ear holes and Frisbee them as gently as possible back into the water. But I was in their terrain now; this was potentially payback for all the belly slaps I had to inflict on them in the past.
Venturing back into deeper water I had a sharp eye out this time. I paddled out deeper and low and behold there were three stinger outlines in the sand just below me again. They bury themselves in the sand. Then something scared them, I saw Maxine out of the corner of my mask. And they were gone leaving a puff of sand in their wake. It was brilliant. I had moved past the fear and now was able to enjoy it.
Maxine wanted to swim around the whole circumference of the little deserted island. I was up for it too so we paddled along the rocks, there was a current and it was choppy. Swimming was had work and there weren’t many fish to see just rocks. When we finally got around to the side that was sheltered by the current the first interesting thing was a sea slug. Yuk right, well it looked like a land slug but was black with yellow thin stripes and it was the size of my head! It was huge. I'm not exaggerating on the size, Maxine said it was the biggest on she'd ever seen and she'd been diving for 20 years. On we went… stay tuned to find out what happened next…
I was cruising along though looking for some fish to trail, and something big moved under me. I let out a yip that resonated out the snorkel pipe and kicked so fast to the shore I'm sure I scared every other fish away from that area for a while. What had been beneath me was a giant sting ray, and I mean giant! It had been on the rock below me. Flashes of how Steve Erwin died entered my mind which I quickly suppressed.
My friend Maxine is a very experienced diver, she was out to enjoy her day off and I was just tagging along. I got her attention and told her I saw a stinger. She was so excited she went looking for another one. She was gone again. I thought, 'I better get it together, right, I'm not their food, it's ok, be cool'. See I worked on a prawn trawler once and we used to catch stingers accidentally in the net. I wasn't scared of them on the boat, we'd just gently grab them in their ear holes and Frisbee them as gently as possible back into the water. But I was in their terrain now; this was potentially payback for all the belly slaps I had to inflict on them in the past.
Venturing back into deeper water I had a sharp eye out this time. I paddled out deeper and low and behold there were three stinger outlines in the sand just below me again. They bury themselves in the sand. Then something scared them, I saw Maxine out of the corner of my mask. And they were gone leaving a puff of sand in their wake. It was brilliant. I had moved past the fear and now was able to enjoy it.
Maxine wanted to swim around the whole circumference of the little deserted island. I was up for it too so we paddled along the rocks, there was a current and it was choppy. Swimming was had work and there weren’t many fish to see just rocks. When we finally got around to the side that was sheltered by the current the first interesting thing was a sea slug. Yuk right, well it looked like a land slug but was black with yellow thin stripes and it was the size of my head! It was huge. I'm not exaggerating on the size, Maxine said it was the biggest on she'd ever seen and she'd been diving for 20 years. On we went… stay tuned to find out what happened next…
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