zanzib-ahhhhh

Well I am now a fully qualified PADI Open Water scuba diver. I finished the training yesterday with my fourth dive. It is the most exhilerating thing to do - must feel close to flying. Once you have buoyancy in the water you 'hover' at any depth (well up to 18m for me) and control your ascent and descent purely by breath control. It is like having an inbuilt rudder system.

Have so far seen too many fish species to mention as well as stingray, a large octopus that I followed and watched as it changed colour and texture whenever it settled on the coral, moray eels, lion fish, huge sea cucumbers that look like massive rolls of bread dough, as well as swimming amongst a large school of fish who seemed completely unaffected by my presence.

I have been in Nungwi, a small diving/beach village on the very northern tip of Zanzibar, for about 5 days now. I finished the dive course in 3 days as it was one-on-one with the instructor. I still have a fair amount of time so am as yet undecided on where to go and what to do next. I want to do a couple of more dives at least - but Nungwi is a little too quiet for me. Nothing to do but sit by the sea on white sands and turquoise waters sipping mango juice watching the dhows drift by.

Will update on the trip when possible.

Here was the view from my cabin's porch last night.


picture posted purely to incite envy