12/9
We have a social event every Sunday. We were going to snorkel at lakeside beach and have a pool competition in a pub this week.
Lakeside beach is not a beach near a lakeside. I don’t think there would be any rivers or lakes in Exmouth. I remembered I had a section which was full of sand dunes. I told Tristan that I like the sand dunes because it made me feel like I was in a desert!! Tristan paused and said “ It is a DESERT!!”. From memory, if the rainfall in a place is lower than 100mm per year, it is a geographically desert. You hardly to see clouds in the sky and not to mention I’ve never see it rain in Exmouth. It is a desert!! But it is a desert with countless marvelous beaches.
There was no current at Lakeside. The water was flat. It looked like someone put lots of colorful coral reef and schools of fish in a giant swimming pool. I also felt I was swimming in a big tank in the aquarium. The visibility was great, I could see the bright reflection of the waves that caused by the sun on the write sand 2 meters deep below me. Unlike Turquoise Bay, Likeside seemed to be friendlier to the people who snorkel in her midet. Although it is beautiful in Turquoise Bay, I always feel tense because I’m afraid the current will take me far away from the shore. I couldn’t enjoy it because I have to check where I am every five minutes.
The reef and the coral in Lakeside are arranged separately from each other. It is like in an art museum, you can appreciate one painting first and than another. I followed the waves and enjoyed different views form different corals. Some of them were as big as a truck while some were as small as your pillow. But each of them was surrounded by schools of fishes just like the movie star surrounded by the crowd. It is amazing to see hundreds of thousands of fishes eating and roaming next to you.
I followed a school of fish; each fish was about 80 cm in length. There were between 60 to 80 of them wandering through different corals and reefs. The only thing I could think was that I should buy an underwater camera. I really want to show what I had seen to you guys. When I thought this, I felt something was wrong with the fishes. They swam very quickly past me just as if someone had disturbed them. But I realized it’s not “someone”; it’s “something”. It’s a SHARK!!!!!!!!! Holy shit!!!!
There was no one but me in the open water! I didn’t want to be a nice meal for a 150cm long shark! My heart almost jumped into my mouth when I saw it. I wanted to swim away as quickly as I could to gather with other people but I was also afraid that if my movements were too big that would gain the attention of the bloody creature. That’s a dilemma. To swim or not to swim, that’s a question!!
I decided to swim as fast as I could after a quick thought. I felt like a lamb seeing a lion in the prairie somewhere in Africa. I had to run as fast as I could to survive. But I think the shark could easily catch me in the water if it wanted to try human being for it’s lunch. Fortunately, the shark wasn’t interested in me and didn’t come after me. That’s why you guys can still read this article.
I will write another article about the pool competition and the picture I drew on Patricia’s birthday card.
