A quick risk assessment. Safe. I collected myself, took two confident steps forward… and jumped.
After breakfast and this view:
… we’d quickly piled on to the boats, people suddenly appearing from nowhere, and we were off into the beautiful waters of Cambodia’s southern coast.
First stop was snorkelling (at Koh Praeus?).
Grabbed some googles, jumped in and promptly choked. As a sprint swimmer I’m conditioned to “explosive breathe” when I’m in the water: inhale quickly, hold my breath (this aids buoyancy), then exhale quickly before the next inhalation. Doesn’t work with a snorkel, it just makes you splutter. Ok, I thought, better teach yourself how to snorkel. And fast. It took ten minutes to retrain a lifetime of breathing 🙂
And I was off. But without a waterproof camera so here’s what I saw, courtesy of Google images:
A leisurely lunch stop followed at a beautiful beach with clear water:
A hammock:
Fantastic views (note the cow):
And a ton of litter:
Or rubbish, really. To me, litter implies a bottle or two, but this was like fly tipping. It’s everywhere – beaches, streets, people’s houses. Cambodia is one big rubbish heap.
Back on the boat, we pulled up here:
Everyone fell silent, not sure what was happening. Snorkelling again? “Jump”, said the guide in his basic English. Err, what? People started looking round at each other. “Oh no, I didn’t sign up to this,” said a voice behind me.
But we did it! Almost everyone had a go. Standing on the top, I could fully experience how the kids I teach feel standing on the poolside, toes curled over the edge, trying to summon up the courage to jump in for the first time. I also knew that the longer I contemplated my fate, the more difficult it would be. So I checked that the water was safe to jump, collected myself, took two steps forward… and jumped.
I was in the air for ages – we guessed it was about 7m high. And didn’t do what I teach (keeping your feet together – it’s really difficult when you’re falling). Let’s just say that it wasn’t the most elegant water entry I’ve ever made. But I did it (no photo – I was otherwise engaged). And I felt a real sense of achievement 🙂
One final snorkel stop (not good visibility as last night’s rain had churned things up here) where we spotted this beggar floating nonchalantly around us:
 … and then back to the number we first thought of tired, happy, wet and very very sandy. A quick shower and back to the beach for sunset.
