Eventually of course, time went by and our work was done. It was time to move on again and say goodbye to my many island buddies. Good times we had and good friends were made and I for one, didn't want to go back to the real world. I liked my island, without traffic or noise. It was peaceful and pretty, and for the first time in a long while, I was healthy. I didn't want to pack my bags and get back on the buses. Our last night fuelled by the now familiar Monkey Juice (cleverly brought back despite the previous Long Beach carnage), we enjoyed some last games of cards and a good old singalong before we all began to comtemplate pastures new. For me, it was more of Malaysia where i'd hope to catch up with Kirsty and maybe Jane, and then Australia where Jamie, Ash, Claire and Emma were headed. Pete was off to Thailand whilst Nat, Philippa and Holly were on their ways home. We wished each other luck and all hoped for beers sometime soon in Sydney, Melbourne, Borneo or Hartlepool. excellent hosts Merv, Harick and the gang stayed glumly behind of course, whilst Johhny The Thieving Rat was close to tears, his volleyball days over and he didn't even have my T-shirt to show for it either. It was though, as I said so often, all good, for the end of one adventure means only the start of another, and as we sat quietly on the boat back to the mainland, I tried to think of this, and also thank my lucky stars that I was still alive...
My last afternoon had been spent with another group of friendly yet chaotic thrashing snorkellers, and once i'd got them back on dry land, I thought it was time to say goodbye to a few friends. I ran back into the water with my mask, snorkel and fins, and headed out to the reef. First up, always around and always happy, I said goodbye to Nemo and family. I dived down and he swam up to my mask in his usual panicked fashion before heading back into his anenome, Goodbye Nemo! Onward I swam, saying cheerio to the hoards of Parrotfish, Butterflyfish, Damselfish and Snappers. Then the grumpy Triggerfish, who never did bite me, and then of course the turtles. Not always around I was lucky one showed up for me and we swam together as I dived down again. Eventually I needed air and headed back up, only for my turtle friend to rise and surface with me, before taking a breath and descending back into the deep. All that was left now, were the sharks...
Usually around at feeding time, i'd spotted many a Black Tip reef shark over the month, and one soon appeared. Excellent I thought, cheerio old friend! But two things immediately struck me about this shark. Firstly, he was bigger than all of the others, not enormous, about 1.5m maybe, but big enough to cause damage. Secondly, he didn't swim away. They always swam away. Every shark i'd ever seen, had ALWAYS swum away. This lack of retreat caught my attention and I watched him closely as he began to circle me.
"Hang on, the shark is beginning to circle me, and it's feeding time, hmmm."
I thought back to our presentations from the previous week, where i'd advised the guests to always carry a big stick when snorkelling in event of a shark attack. I now cursed my own lack of planning. Big sticks had seen me right whilst tracking Rhino in Nepal and I didn't have one with me now. Then, the shark lined himself up directly behind me, and began his attack...
At this point, 2 thoughts entered my head. Firstly
"Hang on, you are now actually being attacked by a shark...Fu5king Hell"
and secondly
"For God's sake, try not to look like a seal"
I spread my legs and arms as wide as I could in a very un-seal like pose and hoped for the best. This made the shark think a little, and he veered off from his attack. He didn't go far though, and resumed circling me once again. I was clearly in another spot of bother here, a long way from shore and with no hope whatsoever of outswimming a shark. Then he attacked again...
"Erm, time for Plan B."
"What the hell is PLan B for surviving a shark attack? I haven't even come up with a feasible Plan A!"
Plan B, as it turned out, was blind panic. I thrashed my arms and legs around frantically, making as much noise and commotion as possible in an effort to scare him off. I couldn't see anything by now and suddenly wondered if i'd only succeeded in making myself look like an injured fish, as well as a sitting duck... the bubbles cleared, and nothing... he was gone.
I immediately embarked on the fastest front crawl known to man and made it back to the beach, exhausted. Dragging myself out of the water, I ran straight to dive guru Roni to explain my episode.
"Hmmm, you ever see other dive centres bring their snorkellers into our bay? mused Roni.
"Erm, actually no, I never have" I replied.
"No, that's because they are scared, too many sharks in this bay you see... oh, and by the way, the chef has just set his face on fire, can you go and check his first aid please?"
Enough of the beaches, it's back to the jungle for me.
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