Bali 5 - Snorkelling!

First time ever snorkelling and I'm hooked like a fish! But fish like I've never seen before. There were so many things I didn't know and hadn't seen.


Even though I've been told that the white pieces of coral one sees on someone's ornament shelf along side pretty shells and ceramic bowls were dead and just the bones of the creatures, still, it didn't really sink in. The truth is, I've held in my mind's eye a picture of a coral reef as a tangle of white boney shapes with some fish swimming through. Not a garden of shapes, colours and textures! The ones that surprised me the most were the big flat table corals, like giant mushrooms spreading out. There were shapes like fans and snaky tangles with hairy bits. Then the brain corals looking for all the world like brains and spongey things and weird blobs of all sizes. The corals were red, green, purple, lavender and many subtle gray-browns. I was very surprised that they weren't all connected. I thought that was what a reef was. Instead I could see the sandy ocean floor. And then the fish! Of course I've seen lots of tropical fish in aquariums, but what a thrill to see them living their fishy lives right there in front of me! Amazing shapes and colours. Neon blue, stripy yellow and black ones, fish with beautiful curvy fins, fish in large schools - oh my oh my! And then everything surrounded by the most beautiful turquoise sea.





















I felt as if I was in a dream world. Along with what I was seeing, was the lovely sensation of floating in the sea. It is all so amniotic. Fairyland of a different sort. (There are many Fairylands in my consciousness!)

I think what I liked most was the delight of something so new and different. It shook up my sometimes jaded eye.

Tech Notes and Credit
If the technology is working properly you will see some wonderful photos here of the coral reef I've been describing. It was great fun chasing a fish to try and photograph it - often the subject swam right out of the frame just as I clicked. As you can imagine, many were deleted. Although the pics here are the ones that I shot, I must give credit to Peter for researching and organising the technology for us to do this.


We are using our Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 with an amazing housing made by Panasonic specifically for this camera. We call it the Carapace. It allows us to manipulate all the camera controls underwater and has (as you can see) this amazingly clear plastic right in front of the lens. It also has a superb gasket sealing the whole thing. Glorious piece of technology.

Speaking of Peter, if you aren't already doing so, you might enjoy reading his take of our Bali trip:

http://uhclem.livejournal.com/


- Posted using BlogPress from his iPad

Location:Amed, Bali