I had to lie a bit.. But I did manage to get Genevieve to turn up to an appointment early. Our transfer was at 8.20 am. So I told Harry it was at 8.00 am. And he told Gen they had to leave their apartment that’s 20 mins away, at 7.00 am. Finally, we have found the winning formula!
Today we went scuba diving. It was the first time in a year and a half for me and longer for Gen. Aimi and Harry had only dived once between them so we all did a fun dive together. This gave me and Gen a bit of a refresher to get back into it.
The boat was massive and it was only us and 2 other guys on there so we had the place to ourselves. Andrew, a half Scottish, half Turkish lad introduced us to the kit and showed us how it all went together while the boat made its way out of the harbour. Luckily, we had chosen the flattest day on the water, it was barely lapping at the rocks. This was good because, even though I had thought about bringing my sea legs pills, I had totally forgotten them in the kerfuffle of packing.
Our dives started from the beach. Its awkward but a whole lot lighter weight to put on the tank and BCD in the water where its buoyant. I tried my best to run through the checklist I had been taught, but it was a long time ago and I couldn’t remember the acronyms. All the clips were done up and comfy, the tank was full and regs and BCD working. I was pretty happy with everything and the instructors sort of let me get on with it.
Once under the water it took a bit of time to get back into the swing of things but I got there. I relaxed a bit as the techniques came back to me and I started to really enjoy it again. The water was incredibly clear and blue, we must have had 30-40m visibility, which is incredible. It was like a shiny wobbly jewel, so incredibly beautiful. I had my go pro camera with me, but it just can’t capture the vast field of white sand, shimmering under the wavy sunlight.
After a lunch of spaghetti bolognaise we lounged around on the top deck in the sun. Aimi seemed to have a knack of spotting sea turtles and saw one bobbing a way off the front of the boat. Instantly, Harry and I grabbed our fins and masks and dove into the water in pursuit. It would have been amazing to swim alongside a magnificent beast like a sea turtle. But it was not to be. It must have heard us flapping and panting to catch up and dived right to the bottom of the sea. We could just about make it out but it must have been 20m down. With just snorkels there was no chance of getting down that far.
Our next dive was a bit longer and now I was feeling a bit more relaxed, a lot more enjoyable. The first one I was breathing heavily and remembering how to deal with the buoyancy and maneuvering underwater. This time I was a lot more controlled and could focus on getting some good photos and videos of us swimming around.
We got down to the sea bed at the bottom of the cliffs above and followed them along getting deeper. Just beyond the back of the boat, at around 7m depth we turned and headed across the small bay “on the bottom of the beautiful briny sea“. The visibility was just incredible. I thought the scuba diving in Thailand was good, but while there was not as much marine life, Turkey’s water was amazing! The little marine life that was around, was all visible from so far away, we didn’t disturb it at all. It was very surreal floating along in mid air water like slow little space ships exploring the martian surface of the sea bed. Its so detached from reality down there, especially because I found it quite easy to forget that you are in water and not air. It looks exactly the same, except the water has a bright silver surface that looks like a ceiling on the atmosphere. Weird.
I made sure to get some good photos and videos of us all down there. Gen was not enjoying dealing with the buoyancy so Andrew was sticking close to here while Aimi, Harry and I followed the leader. It was quite funny when Harry all of a sudden freaked out about gently touching something in the water he was convinced has stung him. Other than that it was a very relaxing dive. We even got to see a little octopus hiding next to a rock!
This evening, after we had gorged ourselves to the point of bursting, we headed into town to meet with Gen and Harry at a bar and play some pool. I seemed to start strong but after a couple very strong and manly mojito’s I lost my edge. Harry tried some of Aimi’s Strawberry Daquari and was on them for the rest of the evening (while we were in our corner playing pool)
After a short while, we could hear a terrible warbling coming from the terrace outside the bar. They were doing Kareoke – Aimi’s worst nightmare. We seated ourselves outside and enjoyed some terrible renditions of songs that, had they been sung properly, would have been quite enjoyable. 3 mojito’s down, tired from the days strenuous activity and fed up with crap kareoke, I stepped up to the plate to show them how it was done with a strong manly song; A Whole New World (The Aladin Theme Song)
I was truly AWEFUL… Even the barman said I was shite. I’m sure the video may make its way around the internet as a definition on how not to sing. There were unexpected key changes, courtesy of my voice breaking. Swapping melodies half way through as I got lost. Mumbling along till I remembered where I was and then belting out the 3 words that I knew landed in that order. Turning to face my beloved Aimi, for added romantic effect, I’d loose time with the words. She cowering, red faced, behind her hands, all the while Harry laughed his head off and videoed the whole thing for posterity… I’ll not live this one down in a long time…