Flash back.
Here I am, 10 years old. As a summer treat we took the long treck into town. To go snorkeling at Bar Beach.
Picture to yourself that beach on that summer day. The smell and sound of the ocean was everywhere. The familiar scent of coconut-oil and sunscreen filled the nose, this melded with the smell of hot sand, which burned under tender feet. I had seen the ocean from the concrete embankment near the car just minutes ago, but it is now obscured from the eye. All that I can see in any direction is beach-towels and umbrellas, endless sand, topless bathers, adults, children and so many strangers of different shapes and sizes. Walking on and on, as if through the desert in the never-ending trek to find that perfect place for us to sit.
We find the spot and mark it with our beach-towels. Mum takes Katie Cheese for a paddle in the baby pool.
But not Dave and I, we don't do that. We are big now. Big enough to go.......... snorkelling!
We mask up. Put some salt-water in our goggles to stop them fogging up. But not too much, or you cannot see. We put the snorkels in, and become strange creatures from a Dr. Who episode, our breathing raspy, our mouths filling with the taste of old rubber, baked in the sun and the salt from the water we have washed it in.
I am taking my time to set the scene. I cannot think of what comes next...NO! I must think of what comes next.
Dad takes us out, one at a time. The sun dapples through the water, reflecting shadows on to rippling sand. Shells and mounds of rocks covered by waving green sea weed are passed. Almost invisible Whiting swim in small groups, sometimes only visible by the shadows that they cast on the ocean floor. More exciting than what we can see however.......are the things that we can't.
What strange creatures live there? just beyond our line of sight? Dad tells us of his previous adventures. Like when he and Uncle John went out and swam over sand, which looked just like the sand that we are swimming over now.............but as they swam, the sand moved! Out swam a stingray as long as my dad is tall! And twice as thick!
We swam for what seemd like hours. Until dad delivered me back to shore, then took dave out for a swim. I stood at the edge of the water, about up to my neck, and looked around, jumping with the waves, just minding my own business.
Imagine that young ankle, that young ankle jumping freely through the water. Until it was suddenly encircled by the maws of death.....
I often wonder what life would be like if that fateful day had never occurred.
