The title picture in this post was taken beneath the waves on a dive site called Marsa Shouna somewhere near the coast of Abu Dahabi in Egypt in 2012.
It is one of those memories that I will never forget, and honestly, the rubbish dive camera I owned at the time does not do this Green Sea Turtle justice, although I've tried my best to improve the overall picture quality using a variety of colour correction, contrast and layering techniques in GIMP Photo Editor.
As we neared the end of our final dive of the day, time beat on in the warm shallows, the sun illuminating the green-flecked seagrass meadow that seemed to stretch on into eternity. As we zig-zagged across the underwater grasslands I spotted a dome of green-brown to my left. Slight plumes of sand drifted up from around it and my heart raced as I recognised the profile of a turtle.
My buddy had moved about three meters ahead and I finned wildly to catch her up and tugged on her fins. As she turned to me in irritation I put one hand on top of the other and wiggled my thumbs in the sign for a turtle. She asked if I was sure and I nodded insistently and pointed before starting away. In my dash to catch up with my buddy, I had lost sight of it but had not lost my sense of direction and within seconds the turtle hove into view.
We slowed and I breathed out slow and deep to calm myself so as not to disturb the grazing animal. I checked my buoyancy and dumped a little air from my BCD so that I hovered just above the sand on the wind of my breath.
I used my fingers to quietly creep closer to the turtle who was still oblivious and only a few meters away. I hardly breathed letting slow deep breaths escape through my teeth to reduce the noise of my regulators. Her eyes were gentle as I watched her chewing slowly on the grass. The turtle noticed me and I stopped dead my approach, now only two meters away.
She was nearly as big as me and much wider, her shell patterned like the sun shimmering through waves onto the sea floor. Her eyes made a mockery of my concerns and in them, I thought I saw the wisdom of acceptance, the epitome of living in the now, of just being.
I may have anthropomorphized this gentle giant, she might have just been happy to have found some food, but at that moment I was truly happy. I was smiling so wide that I nearly lost the regulator from my mouth. This was one of those diving memories that will never fade.
A true communion with nature!
After what seemed like an age but in reality, was no more than thirty seconds she lifted her head towards the surface and the turtle moved to disappear into the blue horizon.
Thanks for reading 🌿
All photos and media design used in this post are my own.
Camera: Samsung S7 Smart Phone. The poem pictured at the beginning of the post is my own work, published in 'Poetry Pool' anthology 2006.
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