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blender

Kenya - Mombasa

Well hello there. I'm back (don't look so overjoyed Rolling Eyes )... Kenya was good, only had food poisoning twice. Which is rather good by my standards.

So, about the diving... 1 rule of thumb, don't go in winter (June/July/August, tis the southern hemisphere) because in that period the visibility is comparable to say.... Finnart Pier?

We had 1 good day with a vis of about 10m, every other day averaged about 4m. The current was also very strong, without finning I'd be moving maybe a good 2 or 3 metres with every wave passing overhead...

Needless to say the wildlife is amazing. In none protected, random little reefs, the water already teem with little fish going from electric blue, to yellow, orange, red and everything in between. Lots of similar life as in Turkey plus the occasional fish you recognise from Finding Nemo... (look at that reference!)

I'd give you names and all except I only know them in french or in swahili...

In 4 dives I say maybe 7 or 8 blue spotted rays, a small bottom feeding shark, I guess it's their equivalent of a dog fish. Unfortunately did not spot any reef sharks, but that was not too surprising due to the weather. Also many eels and lots of funky nudibranchs (couldn't take any pictures for you Edd though).

I'll try and get some pictured up if they turned out alright, although i was using a crappy film camera, serviced to maybe 8 or 10 metres down at 18... And I'll have to scan them as well... We'll see...

Other than that, I witnessed the careless tropical diver syndrome again. An instructor took my two sisters and father for a fun dive. The smallest runs out of air before everyone.

By the book we all go up. In reality the instructor takes her to the surface.In Kenya, he inflates her BCD and watches her rapidly uncontrollably ascend from 20m after a 30 minute dive. Poor girls not going back in the water soon... (Oh and she complained about skin itching later Rolling Eyes )

On another dive, we were taken out 2h out at sea to a marine park, it was wonderful there, beautiful coral reefs and things id never seen before, absolutely huge groupers, fish everywhere, turtles (which I missed), etc. Unfortunately, surface waves were 2m high and everyone was very sea sick by the time we got to the dive site. Which meant that instead of taking my planned buddy, I accompanied a small 4/5m dive for 30m. But can'tcomplain was still nice and spotted dolphins on the way back.

Moral of the story:
Bring you own kit, go in december, don't go with a random club you find in the street.
Bring a nice digital camera, you'll hate yourself if like me you realise you didn't bring one...
charlie

Sounds like a great experience: thanks for sharing it Exclamation

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