Well, we finally finished our PADI Open Water dive course. It's been a huge feat for the whole family. Our dive days in the ocean have had Peter, Sam and I gone for 12 hours at a time. Not to mention several evenings of classes. Simon has been the main person in charge of the kids, with neighbors and friends on back up. He's been great and the other kids have had to really pull their weight as well. Nothing like leaving a ten year old in charge of your seven, five and three year old - all day. Oh well. The things we do here; that we would never do any where else.
The salt in the Persian Gulf is out of control. Like acid. Part of the training is having to take our masks off under water, then put them back on and clear them. Oi!!! Talk about painful! Between the burning eyes and the nose and throat on fire - it's one of the worst things ever. Then there is the feeling of wanting to throw up while coughing your guts out into the regulator. I swear - it was bad. But as our nice little Filipino instructor likes to remind us; learning in the worst place in the world, makes everywhere else that much better. You can only go up from here!
Our first dive site, two weeks ago, the visibility was almost none. Like, a little scary. And there was nothing to see. Well, I saw a ton of little snails in cone shells making their way across the bottom of the ocean floor. There must have been thousands of them. When I say the bottom of the ocean floor, I mean like, 15 feet. The Gulf is realllllly shallow.
Our second dive was much better. Well, better and worse. The first was at a private resort beach, and was quite clean for standards around here. The second, while the dive was better, was at a public beach (if you can imagine that here), and was FILTHY! People just pull up on the sand and get out right there. Women get in, covered head to toe on their abaya's. It's no wonder people drown here. I guess they missed the memo about yards and yards of fabric draped all over you in water and pulling you under. Hm. At any rate, it was a little unnerving being in 'public' trying to put on my dive suit over my swim suit. Luckily it was quite remote. Being the only female is always a little scary anyway.
Upon arrival, the first words out of my mouth were - "well, good news. we don't have to bring our own garbage - it's already here." And I mean garbage like you really can hardly imagine. I mean horrific. Just think of every gross and disgusting thing you can, and it's there. We had to tip toe and step over piles of yuck just to get in the water. Most disgusting sites? Raw, spoiling in the sun, huge chicken leg. Soggy, soupy containers of middle eastern food fare. Bottles, napkins, bags,...a salt shaker? Wrappers soaked in shwarma sauce, wet tissues, and so on and so on. Oh yeah - and poop.
It was bad.
Granted, it was on Saturday. Friday is the day that all the locals head to beaches and parks and 'picnic'. Which means they bring a lot of food and goods, then just stand up and go home. This is absolutley the standard practice. Not even one effort made to pick up after themselves. It's so disheartening.
I was really worried the water would be swarming with garbage as well. And while it wasn't exactly clean, it was much better. (I'm going to attribute this to the wind, currents, and the giant floating garbage dump somewhere in the middle of the ocean) The temp was nice and warm up top, and by the time were down to 15 or 18 feet, it was quite chilly. It's crazy to to feel the thermocline. Weird.
At this particular site, the government has sunken some trucks and what not, as artificial reefs. And as far as wildlife around these parts, I wasn't disappointed. We saw hundreds and hundreds of sliver and and yellow small fish. Maybe four or five inches long and tall. Lot's of 10 in, purple angel fish. We saw several bottom dwellers and one big-for-here crab. (hard to compare crab sizes to the pacific northwest giant crabs) Another of our instructors, Mohammad (the minnow - I refer to him as he is SO tiny!), brought flat bread to feed the fish. It was SO fun to see them just swarm around us. Sam got to feed them some of the bread, and as far as I can tell he was in heaven.
I realize that there are much lovelier places in the world to dive; but for outdoor fun here, this was pretty darn fun.
Sam collected small round oysters along the way, hoping to find a pearl. Once we were home and opened them, besides a lot of muck and smell - we found nothing. Some awfully pretty mother of pearl and lots of fun were the catch of the day for us.
The salt in the Persian Gulf is out of control. Like acid. Part of the training is having to take our masks off under water, then put them back on and clear them. Oi!!! Talk about painful! Between the burning eyes and the nose and throat on fire - it's one of the worst things ever. Then there is the feeling of wanting to throw up while coughing your guts out into the regulator. I swear - it was bad. But as our nice little Filipino instructor likes to remind us; learning in the worst place in the world, makes everywhere else that much better. You can only go up from here!
Our first dive site, two weeks ago, the visibility was almost none. Like, a little scary. And there was nothing to see. Well, I saw a ton of little snails in cone shells making their way across the bottom of the ocean floor. There must have been thousands of them. When I say the bottom of the ocean floor, I mean like, 15 feet. The Gulf is realllllly shallow.
Our second dive was much better. Well, better and worse. The first was at a private resort beach, and was quite clean for standards around here. The second, while the dive was better, was at a public beach (if you can imagine that here), and was FILTHY! People just pull up on the sand and get out right there. Women get in, covered head to toe on their abaya's. It's no wonder people drown here. I guess they missed the memo about yards and yards of fabric draped all over you in water and pulling you under. Hm. At any rate, it was a little unnerving being in 'public' trying to put on my dive suit over my swim suit. Luckily it was quite remote. Being the only female is always a little scary anyway.
Upon arrival, the first words out of my mouth were - "well, good news. we don't have to bring our own garbage - it's already here." And I mean garbage like you really can hardly imagine. I mean horrific. Just think of every gross and disgusting thing you can, and it's there. We had to tip toe and step over piles of yuck just to get in the water. Most disgusting sites? Raw, spoiling in the sun, huge chicken leg. Soggy, soupy containers of middle eastern food fare. Bottles, napkins, bags,...a salt shaker? Wrappers soaked in shwarma sauce, wet tissues, and so on and so on. Oh yeah - and poop.
It was bad.
Granted, it was on Saturday. Friday is the day that all the locals head to beaches and parks and 'picnic'. Which means they bring a lot of food and goods, then just stand up and go home. This is absolutley the standard practice. Not even one effort made to pick up after themselves. It's so disheartening.
I was really worried the water would be swarming with garbage as well. And while it wasn't exactly clean, it was much better. (I'm going to attribute this to the wind, currents, and the giant floating garbage dump somewhere in the middle of the ocean) The temp was nice and warm up top, and by the time were down to 15 or 18 feet, it was quite chilly. It's crazy to to feel the thermocline. Weird.
At this particular site, the government has sunken some trucks and what not, as artificial reefs. And as far as wildlife around these parts, I wasn't disappointed. We saw hundreds and hundreds of sliver and and yellow small fish. Maybe four or five inches long and tall. Lot's of 10 in, purple angel fish. We saw several bottom dwellers and one big-for-here crab. (hard to compare crab sizes to the pacific northwest giant crabs) Another of our instructors, Mohammad (the minnow - I refer to him as he is SO tiny!), brought flat bread to feed the fish. It was SO fun to see them just swarm around us. Sam got to feed them some of the bread, and as far as I can tell he was in heaven.
I realize that there are much lovelier places in the world to dive; but for outdoor fun here, this was pretty darn fun.
Sam collected small round oysters along the way, hoping to find a pearl. Once we were home and opened them, besides a lot of muck and smell - we found nothing. Some awfully pretty mother of pearl and lots of fun were the catch of the day for us.
4 comments:
So glad you are back to blogging about your adventures there. I have missed reading them. Keep them coming.
I'm so glad I found your blog since I left the other social media place! So fun on the diving, always wanted to certify! And way to go Si!
This is so fantastic. I miss you. And hey, I got off Facebook too! I feel free!!!!
Woof. That's all I have to say. You'll have to go to Australia to dive.
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