It's Nice to be Rich!
Another nice day yesterday. After our diving, we cleaned up our gear and ourselves and had lunch. Surprising how very hungry you get from diving but really tired too. It was about all I could do to fix lunch and stay awake to eat it. My hubby did not. He was taking quick naps from the time we got back to the villa until well into the afternoon. Well, I took a few naps myself. Rained several times yesterday which made it cooler in the villa which was pleasant.
Totally forgot it as Thanksgiving back in the States until we got on line last night and saw everyone talking about it on Facebook. Opps. Hard to remember U.S. holidays when we are overseas as we usually get the host country holidays. So a late Happy Thanksgiving to friends and relatives.
Had a really nice dinner as we went to a different restaurant and I had Mexican Food – Seychelles Intrepretation – which could have been the best "Mexican food" we’ve had overseas. The restaurant was doing a promotional video which we asked not to be in if possible – dang papparazzi, but he did film our food being served so maybe there is a glimpse of us in there.
Then up again this morning to do it all over again. Saw something at breakfast that I couldn’t identify. Looked like it might be a big bird that was wading through the surf halfway out in the middle of the bay – right about where you lose the shallow bits and get into some serious water. Finally got my camera and the long lens to look and it was actually a person. He was wading in a very large circle around the bay. And just as I was looking at him, my hubby goes – “Look, a fruit bat” and I saw him fly past but not quick enough to get a photo. Supposedly there are a lot of them around but he’s the first one we saw.
Back to the dive shop and out on the boat for another couple of dives. There is a large boat anchored in the bay. We did not get close to it yesterday so we asked what it was today
. Remember Sheik Khalifa – as in UAE Sheik, UAE ruler, Burj Khalifa named after him, etc. etc. It was his boat but his boat in that it is just a helicopter pad and a storage facility for two large and fast speedboats. So when the Sheik comes down here, he helicopters to his boat, takes out one of the fast speedboats and away he goes. Then reverse when he comes back. Plus they told us that he has a very, very large house here on top of a hill so there is a view from all diretions. This house has 7m high ceilings on each of the three floors. But when the Sheik comes here, he doesn’t bother to go there but stays in the 4 Seasons Hotel instead. WOW, how nice to be so rich that you can ignore your homes, ignore your toys, pay someone to look after them all the time, and just use them maybe a month out of the year or less. Even winning the lottery wouldn’t make me that rich. I would hope I’d use my money for better things than that.
The first spot was Shark cave or Cove, never sure which one they said. There were several white tipped reef sharks there including one around 6’ long but the others didn’t want to be seen and swam away as soon as we approached. Also a nice turtle who also didn’t like us being there. Also saw a huge hump headed parrotfish. He was probably 3’ across from the top of his fin to his belly. Really, really big fish
. Again, unfortunately, I couldn’t get close enough to get a light onto him so my photos of him are really blue and don’t show his size. Whale sharks come here but our guide said only maybe 5% of the time they are diving on this spot. The 5% was not with us today.
Out of the water and into the boat and on to the next site which was Oscar’s Reef. This was much closer to Sheik Khalifa’s boat and they said when the boat first moored there, it dragged its anchor through the reef several times and several meters, destroying a good part of it. Geez. And UAE is still trying to project and advertise itself as ecology minded.
Down onto the reef and it was really, really lovely. Best dive spot so far. Tons of fish, a turtle, two moray eels, two scorpion fish, lots of sea cucumbers, plenty of soft and hard coral, a pipefish which was quite special because I wasn’t sure what it was and don’t think I’ve seen one in the water before, but also a broken trench through the reef where you can tell an anchor was dragged and also two crown of thorns starfish which are quite destructive to reefs. Still, a very lovely dive and we enjoyed it a lot.
But all things end so back to the shore, stopped at the grocery on the way home, back to the villa, have electricity today so we could wash the dive gear rather than just rinse it. When we walk into the villa we just sort of stop at the door and strip everything off so we do not track sand and such all around. That means a lot of nudity going on in our villa. In our absence, the maid has usually visited the room and opened up all the drapes and windows. So then it’s a race through the villa, in the nude, to pull all the drapes before anyone wanders around outside. We’ve made it each time so far but just by the skin of our teeth a couple of times. Ha ha ha. Won’t our daughter LOVE reading this bit! EWWWWW! And lunch and now for some down time and relaxation. Love this activity in the morning and lazing around in the afternoon.
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