In an attempt to minimise the cost of lunch I attack breakfast with some purpose. Omelette with chillies (phew!), continental breakfast, a small cakey and, of course, a pancake.
We break through a crowd of Japanese preparing for a dive outside the dive school to rent some snorkelling gear. One of the Japanese is wearing an army camoflage coloured wetsuit. It seems remarkably inappropriate for the water as [beyond the obvious] green is one of the least common colours underwater.
We splash out and amongst other things Helen spots an octopus hiding in a hole. We plan to come back after lunch. We play a game of tennis (a bit sore on the bare feet on the hot concrete court) and table tennis. We manage to keep lunch down to just a double portion of chips and a portion of fruit. A snip at US$ 8 for the two. After watching a stork fish for a while in the harbour a small (eagle?) ray flaps in then underneath the decking we're on.
I head straight back into the water and search for the octopus. He's a bit shy though and barely peeks his head out. A couple of orange striped triggerfish seem to take a close interest in the octopus and there's a wary stand-off whenever the triggerfish approach. After an hour(!) he moves far enough out that he can wiggle a tentacle but not put it out. You can see his gill (or bladder/valve as it appears). It looks like he's built up his hole with bits of stick like coral so we were hoping he'd hop out and get some more. Alas not. He has a remarkable ability to change his skin to match the variegation(?) of the surrounding rock: dark splotches and veins over the surrounding light grey.
Tonight at dinner I think we get all the courses in the correct order. Sadly, I don't get a refill of my coffee and my stomach is still full. A final reflection on today, I don't think it rained!
Giravaru N4.19916 E73.41219 Elev. 3m.
Copyright 2002 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.