I have been waiting my whole life to go snorkeling! As I think back, I can’t believe I have waited this long, because I love the beach and water. Three weeks ago I was on vacation, we were at the Indian Ocean in Kenya and my time had finally come.
The Masso family, Bethany, and Caleb from the Sudan team and Jessica and I started out pretty early in the morning. We all piled into the Masso’s little white pick-up truck two people lying on cushions in the bed. I hadn’t even had time to eat breakfast, so I munched some peanuts I had brought with me as we headed down the road. About 30 minutes in we were stopped at a police check point. Gaby and Caleb tried to hide under the cushions, but the legs hanging out somehow gave them away... the police man actually laughed. And was pretty quick to send us on our way. We arrived at the dock and were escorted out to the boat that we would be taking. Right away they gave us tea, fruit and mandazi (kenyan doughnuts) Which I also gobbled down (in retrospect this was NOT a wise choice). The crew were quick to tell us to put lots of sunscreen on our Muzungu skin and also passed out pills for seasickness. At this point I only had one memory of being seasick, which was when I took a ferry to Ireland in an all out storm and even then I didn’t actually throw up. It was a sunny day and I didn’t want to be drowsy, so I turned them down... another bad choice.
It was so beautiful as we set out across the blue water to make our way around the island to the marine reserve. But despite the sun the water was choppy and we were doing a lot of up and down motion. I started to wish hadn’t eaten all those peanuts... and mandazi... and fruit. I fixed my eyes on the horizon, even moved to the back of the boat but it just wasn’t helping. I did eventually loose all those morning snacks and I will not be eating peanuts in the near future, but the good news was I felt a lot better and we soon reached the place where we were going to do our first snorkeling stop. I donned my flippers, mask and snorkel and quickly jumped over the side before the seasickness plagued me again.
The view under those beautiful blue, choppy waves was incredible. I dove down over and over and was swimming through schools of colorful fish, staring in awe at all the incredible coral in various shapes and colors and sizes. After swimming around for about 2 hours our guide beckoned us back to the boat. When we had almost almost reached the boat we saw a pair of fins surface and then disappear. Our guide called out, “Dolphins!” I swam back out and looked down and saw the out line of about 6 dolphins, young and adult ones swimming below me. We followed them around for a while. At one point I turned around and a dolphin was right behind me, swimming up next to me. I could see scars on its back, I wanted to reach out and touch it, but I got scared. Later I was swimming behind a mother and a baby and even got to seen the baby nursing. So amazing! I could have stayed with them for a long time, but it was time to go, because some people were actually hungry.
We climbed back on the boat and made our way to the lunch spot on Wasini Island. About halfway there the motor started to smoke, I was starting to feel sick again and the smoke inhalation wasn’t helping. The motor eventually died. This didn’t seem to phase our captain very much and soon they were attempting to put up the sails. As the large wooden beam began to swing around I was not feeling very positive about this plan, but what do I know about sailing? They did get the sail up, but just as we were starting to move forward the sail ripped. Our plan B had just failed. And I was wanting to get on solid ground as soon as possible. Our captain radioed for another boat to come and get us and let us jump out and swim, because there is considerably less up and down in the water. Eventually another boat did arrive and we transferred all out stuff to the more sea worthy vessel to complete our 3 hour cruise. Upon nearing the Island we had to get into little canoe and eventually wade to shore. When we got there a lunch of freshly caught crab and fish was awaiting us. Fortunately, I had regained at least some portion of my appetite. After a tour of the island we headed back, tired, salty and sunburned. What a great great day. Who cares that the boat died, I threw up, and was sunburned. I had swam with dolphins in the Indian ocean. Thank you God for creating such a beautiful place full of amazing creatures!
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