Rottnest Part 2 of 2

The second and final place we snorkelled at Rottnest was "Little Parakeet Bay". I didn't see any Parakeets at all, let alone little ones. No matter. What I did see was about 30 young people, lounging around on the beach. They were skimming stones, laughing, and talking amongst themselves in calm voices -- all the things a snorkeller hates. There is nothing worse than gently floating along the bottom, watching a sleek grey Trout swimming ahead of you -- and suddenly some teenager comes diving down in his $200 Ripcurl shorts, holding his breath for longer than you, and flexing his artificially enhanced musculature and scaring away the fish. Sick of it.

Handsome underwater explorer! Gray makes love to the camera.

Anyway, the first challenge was negotiating the beach without falling. Everything on Rottnest Island is sloped. There is literally no square metre of ground which is flat. The beach was about a 45 degree angle. I'm pretty sure one of my towels rolled down into the ocean and floated away. Eventually, I hit the water, and it all seemed worth it ...

At this bay, the water is about 1 foot deep for a while, then suddenly drops straight down to a few meters and you find yourself face-to-face with friendly little fish.

Here is a shot of me. Brilliant.

This was also the first time I've had room to dive down deep enough that I get terrible pain in my ears. Conventional "science" will tell you that this is due to the pressure differential at depth, between your inner and outer ears. But I will tell you that it's the coral. It is a well-known fact that coral isn't actually a plant, or an animal -- it's somewhere in-between. Basically, we understand nothing about this plant/animal hybrid, or "planimal" as I call it. And it doesn't want to be touched by humans. Damaged coral can take centuries, or even years, to recover.

It is my theory that when coral senses a non-fish life form nearby, it emits a wail which is out of the range of human hearing -- but it causes intense pain. Like a dog whistle. The only solution is to rise a few feet above the coral. My tests proved that this stops the pain altogether. I didn't save a picture of any coral, but you can see some lurking ominously in the background of this photo. In the foreground is a "zebrus angelica", or "Zebra Angel fish":

Finally, here is a very short video of me duck-diving. The water isn't very clear (it's 3:30pm in this vid).

Thanks for reading and stay wet!

-Gray