Snorkelling in the Indian Ocean

This was our last full day in Kenya. The weather was sunny and bright with a few clouds on the horizon and a constant sea breeze. I took the opportunity to go snorkelling in the afternoon with a company based by the beach, not actually part of the hotel. Nick decided to remain and read – swimming isn’t really his thing!

Before boarding the glass-bottomed boat which was to take us to the Coral Reef, 0ur instructor Mohammed gave us a short briefing on safety and what to expect.

We waded out to the boat moored just off shore and were introduced to Captain Peter and Crew Samson. There were about 16 who had signed up although some didn’t actually want to go in the water. We motored south for about 20 minutes before stopping over the Nyali Coral Reef.

Mohammed and Samson got in the water and started feeding the fish with bread, leading them right under the boat so that we could look through the glass bottom and see their colours and markings. First there were the “zebra” fish – although later I learned that they should have been called “Sergeant Major” fish. The male were small with black and white stripes, the females were larger with blue and yellow stripes. Then came small black fish, similar in size to the Sergeant Major – these were black damsels.

Those of us who wanted to snorkel got on our masks and climbed over the side of the boat – there were about a dozen of us. We were given strict instructions not to tread on the coral or the sea bed and also to keep fairly close to Mohammed or Samson. One or two chose to wear lifebelts but I didn’t – the sea is so salty and buoyant – the hard thing is remaining below the water!

Once I got used to the strange sensation of having my head underwater and still being able to breathe, I absolutely loved it. Seeing the Sergeant Major fish up close was fantastic as they weren’t afraid of us at all. I loved the Black Damsels and saw other fish too: small shimmering blue fish which were possibly Blue Damsels and larger black fish with wispy fins – possibly Black Angels. It felt wonderful to be inhabiting their world like one of them.

There were two sorts of Sea Urchins – one with long black spines which would be very painful to step on barefoot and also the Cake Urchin which looks like a pale peeled Satsuma with prickles. Mohammed later explained how Sea Urchins emit zoo-plankton, which is eaten by marine life, big and small. The zoo-plankton which doesn’t get eaten eventually develops into....Sea Urchins which sink down to the ocean floor and the circle of life starts all over again.

There were two types of Coral that I saw – Brain Coral which is like a large smooth rock with brain markings (rather like mackerel); also Solid Coral (Porites Solida) which is another stone-like coral, good for reef building. Much of Fort Jesus at Mombasa was actually made of this (remember it was built in the 16^th Century!)

There were different types of seaweed: pale green rosettes as big as dinner plates, brown woolly "towers", green fronds on stalks (like a bunch of grass), Tufted Seagrass (like hair) and Cylindrical Seagrass (like string).

After snorkelling for half-an-hour, we got back on the boat and chugged another 10 minutes to the Nyali Starfish Garden. There was a huge number of large starfish here, almost plastic looking, like sort of “bad taste” garden ornaments. Some were brown with orange spots, some were black with blue spots and there were various other hideous colour combinations. Mohammed asked us to report back how many “amputees” we could see. It was a trick question because the answer was “none”. Starfish have an amazing ability to grow back limbs that have been lost to another marine animal.

More attractive were the Speckled Sandperch and Sidespot Goatfish. The former was a slender torpedo shaped fish with white-ish body and grey stripy markings, the latter was a white-grey fish about 12 -15 inches long with pectoral black blobs.

Less natural was a large amount of roof tiles! There was a shipwreck here in 1975 in which a boat carrying roof tiles went down!

Snorkelling was such a beautiful experience, I can’t understand why I haven’t done it before – and I would love to do it again!

Please note: apart from the first photo, the pictures in this posting are all taken from the internet as I don’t have an underwater camera. I shall take one next time though!