Halloween by cylume-light

With much excitement, we jumped into our cars one Friday afternoon and quickly made our way to Marico Oog for the weekend. So maybe jumped is a bit of a euphemism – there wasn’t much space to do anything to squeeze into the cars with all the dive gear, camping stuff and food. And if I have to admit it, quickly was also an exaggeration - 90mins we were 40km into a 200km journey! However, the only other time we stopped was at one of those stop-go’s – and I think the other people in we queue were only too glad when we moved on (3 girls singing ABBA out loud in the middle of a dorpie… I think they may ask us to come back – or not! But think we provided better entertainment than the discussions on hydrogen as an alternative fuel source and psychological analysis (Dan did Dustin in 15mins?) that went on in the other car.
And then we hit (literally) the dirt road. The road was in shocking condition but we finally made it there, with cars in 1 piece (quite an achievement – a car before us left the contents of its sump on the road!) and started putting up tents. It was then we realised that the girls were far more organised than the boys :) (Don’t worry boys, what goes on tour, stays on tour! Moobies, girls opening cylinders and all! Oops – sorry did I say that?). So while 1 girl (aka Liesl) unpacked the cars (plural!) the other 2 (Karen and I) managed to put up a tent and then contributed to setting everything out – while 3 boys (Dan, Dustin, Duncan) couldn’t even get 1 tent up! Determined to prove themselves, they then pumped up Liesl’s mattress – and promptly complained about having stiff arms! Hardy arrived back from a brief, enforced visit to Zeerust (to get parts to fix the above mentioned sump) and after devouring an amazing amount of food we hit the sack. Well, Hardy hit the floor first after falling through his hammock but the idea is the same!
EARLY the next morning, we were woken by those-that-left-the-contents-of-their-sump-on-the-road as they hit the road again. Read 1 x Grumpy me. Even after coffee. In bed. Rolled over and attempted to go back to sleep… But by 7:15, coffee was calling (again) and we headed onto the pontoon and watched the world wake up - in other words we slowly, with the influence of caffeine, became aware of our stunning surroundings. We finished setting up camp (hammocks were deemed to be very important, especially after someone fell through his the night before) and eventually headed to the water for some free diving (and diving). As usual, Hardy showed off, closely followed by Dan, Dustin and Duncan who swam around quite happily while I was just SUPER excited to get to 10m and back with neither ears nor lungs exploding! Stunning diving though! Although I did make mental notes NOT to breathe through my snorkel after putting it in the water (choke choke). SCUBA gear was then donned and we went off for a dive to the bottom and through the floating reed beds – amazing!
Back out the water, we all did some much needed relaxing/reading/dozing in the sun. And then ate. And the relaxed/read/dozed in the sun. And then ate. Again. And relaxed/read/dozed some more. And ate AGAIN. Wait, maybe there wasn’t space for that last eat. Anyway, see a pattern emerging?
Eventually we headed back to the Oog – but more to cool down and relax than dive though Hardy and I did test our cameras – his battery went flat and mine leaked, Big time. = unsuccessful! And then I forgot my mental note about not breathing through submerged snorkels. So we got out and while Karen, Dan and I headed off to get the Donkey lit so we could have hot showers later, the others got things ready for the night dive. Which was AMAZING! Sitting on a grid at 5m blowing bubbles and looking at them through torch light. Incredible. And no torch light. Spectacular And I had a new fancy schmancy new torch that actually works! We saw tonnes of freshwater shrimps, including ones whose eyes glowed in the dark! I was having such fun, I really didn’t want to leave, but was underweighted with an ally so it told me it was time to come up after about 20mins!
While the boys started the fire for the braai (despite not being able to put up a tent/pump up mattresses/open cylinders etc., they do have their uses!), the rest of us went to shower – only to find the donkey had gone out. I must have somehow had extra oxygen in my lungs coz one or two puffs later, there was a roaring fire – and hot water. Magic! And we emerged “good and clean and fresh – tra la la la”. And food was already being cooked! Bonus. After eating another extraordinary amount of food, the question became what to do with cylumes on Halloween? Or alternatively, how do 7 “adults” occupy themselves on Halloween when we have glowsticks? Well play with settings on cameras and draw pictures of course! And so followed a couple of hours of deciding what to draw, drawing it and excited squeals when it worked out! And a couple of shots of Dustin attacking himself!
The next morning it was time for the swim-through-the-fence dive to the more substantial reed beds – but on the unfriendly neighbouring farmers property. Again – wonderful. Although battling with buoyancy (I was now using 5 weights!), it was still fun swimming through all the caverns formed by floating reed beds – well at least until Dan lay on the floor and Dustin tried to catch up with someone with tiny fins (= swam hard) and both kicked up silt – compounded by me floating near the top. We decided it was time to get out of the reed beds and went back to the main pool where we did saumersaults and star jumps and cartwheels at 7m. Want a good laugh? Watch someone try to do a cartwheel in full SCUBA gear. We explored some more and saw “pretty fishies” (that’s all I can tell you about them!) and shrimps and crabs and and and…
And then it was time for more food - a huge cook up brunch. When we literally could eat no more and could barely move we starting packing up. And after fitting everything back into the cars (not much more space despite giving stuff to Hardy), we decided we didn’t really want to leave so went and relaxed on the pontoon for a while again. Two engineers + spare time on a raft = competition to push each other in. Until of course they figured out that the two girls swimming and diving off the raft were in bikini’s which were likely to shift position when entering the water. And then followed push Liesl into the water and when she goes in easily, chase her so she can’t get out!
Eventually we got out and started the drive home.
Not wanting the weekend to end we decided to stop in Magaliesburg for a wimpy coffee milkshake. Dan’s car kindly agreed by getting a puncture as we drove into the town (on decent, pothole-free and tarred roads?). So we found somewhere to get it fixed and watched in amusement as the engineers repositioned everything to their standards. As soon as the tyre was back on (supervised by said engineers of course) we headed for a much anticipated milkshake.
I think that this has to be one of the best inland dive sights – the dives, the venue and the great people always make this a relaxing, fun and enjoyable weekend filled with happy memories and laughs.
Some pics (also courtesy of Duncan and Hardy) are at: http://picasaweb.google.com/lancasterjenny/HalloweenByCylumeLight?authkey=Gv1sRgCM7oj8S_6_fRRg#