Wreck

On the recommendation of my hairdresser (source of all information) I went for a snorkel at the Omeo Dive Wreck. It must be 10 years since I last snorkelled, so I was looking for somewhere safe, shallow and protected. I am not a good swimmer and have never learned to put my head under water. This was the perfect spot for a novice to practice:

The people in the foreground are standing in the water.
The others are snorkelling over the dark shadow of the wreck.

I swam out twice. The second time I questioned a group of women my age as to the best spot. They told me that more fish were to be seen on the other side of the wreck, and not to be afraid of swimming over it (even though it seems as if you might get snagged on the rusting metal). The water is less than 3 m. at this point. A lot of the fish were well camouflaged, sandy brown in colour, and sought to hide in the remains of the wreck if they sensed a snorkeller above them. I saw one huge fish that refused to come out, and quite a few striped yellow and black tropical fish. 

The stairs go down right into the water.
You have to leave your belongings at the top.

I have been watching quite a bit of Michael Palin on TV recently. I was interested to see that he celebrated his 75th birthday in North Korea. He is an intrepid traveller! So at 76, I’m delighted to still be able to snorkel. Another programme showed him in Kathmandu down by the cremation ghats, so I dug out an old photo from my trip to that very spot in around 1983: