El Andalous - Swimming

Cleaner Fish Entering Mouth of Porcupine Fish

Surprisingly, when I got back to El Andalous this time, I found that I’d lost my confidence in swimming. I’m really not sure what happened. When I went to Zurich, I didn’t have as much time for swimming as I thought – I think it was perhaps partly a function of my studio being quite a long way from work meaning that if I went swimming near work, it would be quite a long time until I reached home, which was quite a disincentive.

Moreover, I was hugely disappointed because when I did go swimming, I found I could no longer do 1km front crawl; I was struggling again to do 50m. I don’t know if it’s a psychological thing of coming to the end of a length and thinking that’s it, or if it’s something to do with the difference between swimming in salty, buoyant water and swimming in a chlorinated, essentially freshwater pool. Or maybe I swam faster in a public pool because of the pressure of people behind me and that just wore me out. I’m used to having the whole sea virtually to myself!

What was more disconcerting was that when I got back to Egypt, I had no particular desire to swim. It was strange. I’d also sprained my thumb, so I couldn’t do front crawl as it put too much pressure on the sprain. Breast stroke was fine, but it was hard for me to muster the enthusiasm to get in the water. Moreover, breast stroke, which I generally think I could do forever if it were possible, seemed quite a struggle. I even felt a bit nervous about swimming a long distance. Really, I don’t know how this happened. My confidence had just plummeted. Maybe I had got a bit out of shape and I was in a downhill spiral. Or perhaps I was just tired and needed a rest?

I forced myself to continue swimming, though, and now I’m back to wanting my regular swim every day. My thumb has more-or-less healed so I can do front crawl, but I’ve yet to return to doing the distances I was doing before; I’ve been keeping mainly to breast stroke, but a breast stroke at a pretty good pace and at a longer distance than before. Admittedly, I’m fantasizing as I swim about leading a fish safari and stopping at the various bits of coral and explaining what all the fish are. Maybe even selling a few books!

I’ve been snorkeling a few times, when I’ve had enough time (when I swim, I’m dipping my head in the water with just my goggles on and no snorkel). I was even out of condition with my cycling and the first time I went over to the Tropitel to snorkel, I found the bike ride there a real struggle. This too was very disheartening, but when I next went out on my bike and tried to change gear, I realized that the bike seemed to have stuck between gears, so I think that was a large part of the problem. Although I did pass my cycling proficiency test when I was at school, I could really do with a few lessons so that I know when I’m doing something wrong! I still feel a bit clueless on a bicycle.

I had the privilege of seeing a cleaner fish cleaning a porcupine fish – the porcupine fish opened its mouth, the cleaner fish swam in and then exited via the gills of the porcupine fish, then went in again via its gills, and then scooted over its back. It’s amazing how much trust there is – the porcupine fish could have closed its mouth and gobbled up the cleaner fish, but it just stayed there motionless with its mouth open while the cleaner fish worked.

Over near the Baron hotel they are building a stage to host the Arabic version of Ninja Warriors – apparently, it’s going to stay there in the hope that maybe the international finals can take place in Sahl Hasheesh. That would be pretty cool. You might see me swimming past in the background with my bright yellow swimming cap!

At the Baron I saw a sixstriped soapfish for the first time and there seem to be quite a few baby crown coris. But generally, at least in El Andalous beach, it seems to be the season for mullet. Well, that’s what I think they are, as I’m not too sure. There’s a huge shoal of them just drifting about at the moment. They aren’t very interesting fish individually (just silver and fish-shaped, if that makes any sense), but it’s pretty impressive when you see a hundred at a time!