SCDC goes to Sri Lanka
Rob and Ineke, making a guest appearance Brian, Vivian, Alexander Keith (the manta was THIS BIG, and I saw 10 of them) along with Jan, Eleanor and Kate (who did a great job of looking after Jack and Joyce). Tam Dominic and his wife, Dai Xia Marc and Sheren John and Jan Neil, Louisa, Joyce and Jack Roger and Jenny (Y - Divers) Roger and Susan Andrew and Marcia Andrew (brief appearance)Down for breakfast remarkably early considering how little sleep
we'd all had. I suspect this was only because it had already been
paid for. Keith wandered outside and nearly got arrested a number
of times for pointing his binoculars the wrong way. He was told he
could only look at the sea. He also found out that the military
were all so jumpy as they were expecting a large bomb in Colombo at
around midday. By the time he had told the rest of us it was 8
p.m., and we were 150 miles away. In fact the bomb went off in
Kandy s major temple instead. I had a walk around and within half
an hour, I'd been offerred various massages, a nice girl, and the
opportunity to become a benefactor of a school for the blind, which
seemed to be run by a very shady character, and his deaf, mute
companion. There was a big military presence, with not very well
hidden machine gun posts all over this area.
Roger and Susan had had a worse experience snorkelling. They came back covered in oil after one of the fishing boats had discharged a small slick. They went and complained to the hotel manager, who said that he couldn t do anything in case he upset the fishermen. Apparently he d rather upset his guests than do that.
We went to the nearby Chez Frank s for dinner, which took 2 hours to arrive. In the meantime we were treated to a virtuoso performance of "It s a small, small world" by a mechanical centipede, for which Jan W. had made the mistake of donating the batteries.
I got up early this morning for the newly created 7 a.m. dive. Unfortunately so did 10 other people, and there was only room for 8 on the boat. Later, most of us were caught out by the impromptu change of breakfast room, but not Tam. As he described it, "I just saw food, so I went in."
This morning s second dive was on Yala Rock again. Visibility wasn
t as good, and there were fewer fish. However Brian and I did come
across a black lionfish, whose spines became a mixture of black and
white after Brian annoyed it. At lunchtime Sheren made the mistake
of ordering spaghetti. It turned up complete with a large quantity
of ants. Since they weren t moving she almost finished the
spaghetti before complaining. The waiters stood around looking at
it for some time, while Marc pointed out that he hadn t ordered
antipasta !
In the evening we had a Chinese New Year barbecue out on the beach. The hotel had even cooked some reasonably authentic Chinese food as per Tam and Louisa s instructions. It was a pretty good evening, and ended in the bar. Here Keith put forward his theories on underwater photography, which included the belief that a 15mm fisheye lens has a 270-degree field of view. Rob and I were a bit skeptical. Imagine the budding young photographer getting his photos back from the shop only to disappointedly remark: "Oh no, I ve gone and got both my ears in all the pictures again!"
In the evening we had a Chinese New Year barbecue out on the beach. The hotel had even cooked some reasonably authentic Chinese food as per Tam and Louisa s instructions. It was a pretty good evening, and ended in the bar. Here Keith put forward his theories on underwater photography, which included the belief that a 15mm fisheye lens has a 270-degree field of view. Rob and I were a bit skeptical. Imagine the budding young photographer getting his photos back from the shop only to disappointedly remark: "Oh no, I ve gone and got both my ears in all the pictures again!"
This morning s second dive was on Yala Rock again. Visibility wasn t as good, and there were fewer fish. However Brian and I did come across a black lionfish, whose spines became a mixture of black and white after Brian annoyed it. At lunchtime Sheren made the mistake of ordering spaghetti. It turned up complete with a large quantity of ants. Since they weren t moving she almost finished the spaghetti before complaining. The waiters stood around looking at it for some time, while Marc pointed out that he hadn t ordered antipasta !
In the evening we had a Chinese New Year barbecue out on the beach. The hotel had even cooked some reasonably authentic Chinese food as per Tam and Louisa s instructions. It was a pretty good evening, and ended in the bar. Here Keith put forward his theories on underwater photography, which included the belief that a 15mm fisheye lens has a 270-degree field of view. Rob and I were a
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