And She's In!

I did it. It has taken eight weeks but I have at last crossed a major hurdle in my battle to overcome my fear of All That May Kill Me In The Water. I fully immersed myself in the ocean and I have the photo to prove it. Okay, so you can’t really tell that it’s me in the picture – you can blame The Husband for that – but you’ll have to take my word for it. The figure almost completely submerged in the Indian Ocean is indeed me, and I’m even smiling! Honestly, I am, I zoomed in and saw a definite grin. I don’t think it matters that as soon as the photo had been taken I jumped up and hot-footed it up the beach to the safety of my towel. Nor do I think that we should pay too much attention to the fact that I am only lying in three feet of water. Okay, maybe two feet. No, what is important is that I did it at all. I lowered myself into the tumbling waves and put myself at the mercy of anything that might be lurking below, wanting to bite or sting me. I pushed aside my fears and let whatever might happen, happen. And of course nothing did. Although to be fair, I didn’t stick around long enough to find out. It may not be much, but it was a first step. And you know what? I actually enjoyed myself, even if it was only for ten seconds. The water was deliciously cool and there’s nothing like swimming (or just bobbing) in the great open ocean, the sky huge and blue and cloudless above you and the horizon stretching out into the far distance, where the sky meets the water in a collision of cobalt.


I’m slowly building up to the level at which I’m happy to swim out over the rocks and go snorkelling – at the rate I’m currently going that will happen just in time for Christmas. The problem is that in just a month we are off to the Ningaloo Reef, Australia’s largest fringing coral reef and home to the largest fish in the world, the whale shark. I’m going to have to up the ante if I’m going to be ready to swim out from the shore, purposefully seeking out marine life of all sorts. Maybe the only way to do it is to get it all over with in one go, just jump in and force myself to stay out for half an hour or so. Perhaps then I’ll realise that not everything in the ocean is out to get me, that it is perfectly possible to go for a swim and not lose a leg to a shark in the process. Well, either that or I’ll limp back up the beach in agony having been stung by a giant jellyfish. I’m hoping it’s the former, obviously.