Lately my weekends have been spent wandering around town. I would walk down to George street and then south (I think) to chinatown. Recently I just discovered a huge market / mall in the area. Full of cheap souvenirs, little remote control helicopters (they call my name as I walk by) and local produce. Its kinda crummy looking down there on ground level, but just walk up a flight of stairs to the 2nd floor and you would think you walked into a fancy asian mall. Looking down at the dusty soot covered market from the stainless steel and glass balcony above, it reminded me of a sort of dystopian future where I would look down on the lower class from the comfort of my flying condo. Feeling uncomfortable and out of place, I went back below and had another lap around the market among my people. Pricing out the Helicopters with every lap I took. I eventually left, empty handed (thankfully).

I recently returned from a day trip to Manly beach. I would hop on the 324 bus from outside my hotel, but I seem to always miss these busses by mere seconds. Half an hour later, another bus arrives and takes me rather quickly to Circular Quay. I think this is the main human transport harbour in Sydney (downtown). To the left of the harbour is the Sydney Harbour bridge, where cars drive over the bay and people pay to walk OVER the suspension rails themselves (the large arch that holds up the road). To the right is the famous Sydney Opera House. I heard no opera as we floated by in our vessel who’s name escapes me. The short trip around the bay took about 25 minutes, until finally we arrived at Manly Harbour. This place already had a different vibe than that of the city. Pedestrians wandered at a slow pace as did the cars. I walked down to the beach and to my surprise, it wasn’t very busy. Plenty of space to park yourself on the beach and plenty more space to surf or just swim and not bump into anyone. This was great I thought, but I was on a mission. I was to find a dive shop and get myself some snorkeling gear and finally play among the fish. After walking in circles for 30 minutes I finally find the shop, quite far from where I was to swim. I bought myself a nice mask and snorkel and proceded back to the harbour to find some lockers. Now apparently, there are no public lockers. Despite what the research I did before hand had turned up. Down the road (back towards the scuba centre) was an internet cafe with a luggage storage area. I dropped my bag off there and then walked back to the harbour and beyond to this spot I was told about.

I run into the water, it was quite cold, but I cared not. Put on my mask and stuck the hose into my mouth, I was among the fishies. My mask quickly filled up with water and my eyes are submerged in seawater mixed with dishwashing detergent ( I had washed the mask to remove the chemicals inside that fog up quite easily). A few minutes later, my vision returned. Next time I go diving I must remember to shave my moustache or cover it in Vaseline for a better airtight seal. What I saw was not too exciting at first. Alot of seaweed and kelp and a few fish. I swam about, looking at the kelp, the rocks that they grew on, the coral that may be there. I came across a field of happy little barnacles, waving at me from their rock. I waved back before I realized they were just scooping up any organisms that flow past them in the current. The more I watched these happy barnacles, the more I started to notice. Immediately to my right a large rock starts to move. Upon closer inspection, it was a giant sea snail. Cool! Right next to that was another little fish that had been sitting on the rock all along, staring at me with me staring right though him the entire time. Then a family of happy yellow and black striped fish came by and started eating the barnacles. I though they were kinda jerks, but thats life. I really need to invest in some sealife books, because it would be nice to know exactly what it is that im swimming with. Moving on I dive down below to see what may be under the rocks. Lots of very big sea urchins and a … CRAB!! oh wait, its just a corpse. More swimming now…. oh look, a Jellyfish. A massive tentacleless jellyfish! This thing is HUGE….oh wait, its very small and half a foot from my face. You can’t see these things coming until its too late. Now that I noticed it, I see them everywhere. No avoiding them, but I don’t think they sting very much anyway. Otherwise I’d be in severe pain by now. A few hours of being a fish has taken a toll on me, I was freezing cold and thought its about time I get outta there. On my way back I come across another strange fish. It didn’t have any exciting colours, but had these massive lips to kiss the rockface with and a big spike coming out of its head. The spike retracted and his friend’s spike went up. They go back and fourth having a conversation, I wondered what they were pointing at. Anyway, Out of the water I go.

The ride back to Circular Quay was less exciting than my ride there. The outside decks were already full, so I had to sit on the inside with less of a view. This was a good excuse to catch up on some reading (thats right , I CAN read).

I hope to have some more excitement in the coming weeks and dive even deeper next time. Pictures will be coming, flicker doesn’t seem to like me uploading full resolution images. At least not from this burger joint.

siyonara suckers.