For Easter I was lucky to have a five day weekend and found a relatively cheap flight to Dubai. Given I was in need of some underwater time, I went to Oman for a few days of diving.
I met three Welsh people from Aberystwyth at the airport who were staying and diving with me so I naturally buddied with one of them. Her name was Lin and she a BSAC instructor who likes to take things easy and go nice and slow and look at loads of stuff so I got REALLY lucky there. We hit it off underwater really well and she was fab to dive with. We had a ball. Green sea turtly on nearly every dive. Some torpedo rays and a whipray. The other two Welshies, Kath and Mick, got to see Leopard sharks twice but since I seem to be a shark repellent, I'm not surprised we didn't get to see one. I can't say enough how nice it was to be back underwater. My gear worked fine although it did take a bit of getting used to my low pressure inflator. Mainly on deflating. Unless I heard it or started to feel myself dropping, I struggled to trust that I'd let any air out. and it is thoroughly weird to reach down to press something when ascending. Sort of felt like I was forgetting something. saw a heap of fish I'd never seen before such as Arabian angelfish and Arabian butterflyfish and some beautifully coloured feather stars down at about 28m. Lin and I were the same on air which was fab. Dive time was limited to an hour and one dive we talked them into letting us stay down 70 minutes so, since we were in first each dive, we got nice long dives. One dive had a drift at the start reminiscent to me of a moderate drift on Deep Freeze and Idrifted over a rock and nearly crashed into a turtle. Poor thing, didn't know they could widen their eyes further.
It was just so nice to be underwater again. But also to be in the sun and warmth and out on a boat.
I had dinner each night with the Welshies which was lovely of them to take me in. I really enjoyed their company and hope to see them in Aberystwyth. Must take my chockie cake CD and show them that there is actually a song by an Aussie band about Aberystwyth. I don't think they believed me.
