Watching whales splashing their fins near your boat on a bright warm day can be one of the most inspiring moments of your life. But watching these large creatures indulging in love plays or just indolently surfing and diving can become an infatuation that will bring you back, time and again, for more.
It was on my holiday to Madagascar that I first got the opportunity of watching whales. That whale watching tour off the coast of Madagascar has possibly run in my mind more times than any other holiday in my life. But not until I went to Belize and saw the beautiful coral and the coloured variety of the underwater world on a snorkelling tour in the Belize Barrier Reef did I actually became interested in diving.
My partner has been for many years obsessed with running, until quite suddenly she found herself unable to move. She was diagnosed with sciatica. Then one day she returned from a doctor's appointment and said plainly, "I need to go diving."
"What makes you think of that?" I asked.
"Well, the doctor says so. Evidently, it is a great form of exercise that doesn't put any strain on the joints and it takes you into another world, where you can de-stress."
FREE TRIAL DIVE
At the hotel in Belize, I checked at the reception if diving lessons were available. "Oh yes, Sir, you can book yourself for a free trial dive," and the receptionist guided me to the swimming pool. It was absolutely amazing and within a few days, we were able to make a trial dive and enjoy the beautiful corals off the Belize coast.
We were hooked. Soon, we were taking bizarre courses and buying equipment and drooling over dive magazines, admiring photographs of leafy sea dragons. We were spending all our holidays in more and more distant tropical hideouts searching for the perfect coral reef.
THE SILENT WORLD
Everyone is doing it. I am a mountaineer but most of my friends are divers. And who would have thought that John Prescott, Ken Livingstone, David Jason, Brian May and Natalie Imbruglia share a secret passion? The latest converts are Princes William and Harry. But why?
It all started 60-odd years ago, when a clever young Frenchman called Jacques Cousteau teamed up with Emile Gagnan, an industrial gas-control engineer, to produce the aqualung. The aqualung introduced the world to scuba (SCUBA - self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) diving and soon more sophisticated diving equipment was developed to make sport diving safe and memorable so that we could, with relative ease, descend beneath the surface of the sea into 'the silent world'.
We now know this 'silent world' from watching wonderful documentaries on, for example, the Discovery and National Geographic channels. Through the eyes of David Attenborough and other skilled and inspiring commentators, we have penetrated the surface and entered this different world that has such a profound effect on most people. The photographer David Doubilet - the Ansel Adams of the underwater world, who has done more than anyone else to bring this mysterious other place to the public's attention through the pages of National Geographic over the past 30 years - clearly remembers the first time he crossed the threshold. "It was like entering my very own wonderworld. I looked back at the surface and saw the light sparkling, shifting and moving. It was very emotional - going through the looking glass into a different universe. To this day I still feel the same excitement about crossing into the world below."
But hours on the sofa watching someone else's underworld adventures can't prepare you for the majesty and beauty that wait below the waves. First, you are weightless - floating like an astronaut (Nasa trains its recruits underwater) - and with a few dives you become remarkably graceful. You glide through the water with a minimum of effort, and herein lies another attraction of diving: do as little as possible. Cousteau said in his book The Silent World, published in 1956, that if you look underwater, "civilisation ends with one last bow". Until you experience it yourself, it is hard to explain how alien this world is.
Newcomers worry about the huge quantity of gear that seems so cumbersome on the surface. But surprisingly, once you are underwater, you are literally weightless. The gear is perfectly adapted for underwater mobility. A burst of air into the stab jacket and we glide gently upwards, a delicate tug on the dump and we start to descend. In between we fly. Slowly taking in our surroundings, we seem to have arrived in an underwater botanical garden.
DIVING IN GOD'S GOLDFISH BOWL
Once you are underwater, your world changes for ever. Unlike a wildlife safari, where days of searching may or may not win a prize view of a lioness hunting her prey, this magnificent world allows you to view the hunt in the open. Life, death and sex go on all around you - lion fish stalk their prey; silly clownfish defend their homes against all-comers, however large and weird; little slugs and snail-like creatures that would make you run a mile on the surface have you transfixed. And all you do is watch. Some people take photographs, but most just enjoy the sheer wonder of it all, return to the surface, and try to explain to the rest of us why it is so special. Someone on the boat mentioned that diving is like swimming in God's goldfish bowl and I am beginning to see what he means.
ZEN, MEDITATION AND DIVING
As a beginner it is natural to struggle with cumbersome equipment and movements but as you acquire experience and confidence, you arrive at a state of Zen-like aplomb. You do nothing, just drift on the current, conserving your air so that you can stay down longer. I was snorkelling on the shores on Belize when I noticed a local diver dive down and stay there for what appeared to be hours. He just stayed and floated gently moving his fins while I was struggling and yet getting nowhere. I felt he was at such peace with himself and the environment around him that I decided it was time for me to try some meditation.
Diving can be another form of meditating. It soothes your nerves and calms your mind. What is interesting is that women are as good at diving as men, if not better (they tend to be better at conserving air and often have better thermal insulation). Enveloped in your own silent world, you are totally focused on the sensual delight of your own experience. A dive generally lasts for about an hour and during that time, you are truly immersed. You don't have to be a marathon runner and strong. All you need is a burning desire to travel and a whim for an adventure.
Brak komentarzy:
Prześlij komentarz