Dipsy Diving

Bit of a bad photo of Monterey Bay from my Iphone.

The girls like to call my holiday hobby Dipsy as oppose to Deep Sea Diving.  I think everyone prefers Dipsy, even the casual passer-by thought it better as the girls were skipping off to the aquarium with me correcting them whilst trying to get my kit on.

So while they went to look at the “static fish” as Divemaster Jim called them; I went out into the Ocean to spot them.  I’d booked a last minute trip with Monterey Bay Divers and for a change got a really lovely guide – the aforementioned Jim.  I’d try to get a boat dive but unfortunately all the boats were booked; it was the weekend of Monterey’s biggest Dive photography competition so all Jim could do was a shore dive.  Whilst I’m on the subject of underwater photography – I’ve tried it. It’s very difficult. Sorry no pictures.

My dive buddy was Jennifer from Pittsburg; she’d never dived in seawater before; only lakes with the visibility of an arm’s length, so it was nearly all new to her.  As we got in we saw a seal mucking around on one of the buoys, I was hoping he’d come and investigate us, and have a bit of a play but no….  I did see a heck of a lot of star fish and giant scary crabs in amongst the kelp. Kelp is a bit like a nursery tower block for small fish, all the young of the fish we like to eat hide in it. Kelp is also incredibly strong and wraps around you like rope so you do get a bit tangled as you’re going along.  We didn’t get too far on the first dive; we’d just got to the interesting bit when we had to head back – Jennifer was low on air.    

She decided not to do the second dive. I have to say it is a bit freaky trying to battle with kelp the cold (did I not mention the cold? Did I not mention the cold!?!  It was the most freezingest water ever!) ; and if you’ve never dived in the sea the force and currents can be scary.  

In between dives Jim told us about the previous days Diver. He’d taken out a Frenchman who worked at the embassy in Washington. He’d been busy on his phone during the dive break – important embassy business Jim thought. After the second dive he realised it had been important food business. Waiting for them on the beach was lunch. Table, chairs, china plates, wine, cheese, etc etc  and a couple of hotel staff to serve.   He’d actually been on the phone to his swanky hotel in Carmel and arranged a post dive meal. Wonder if he put it on expenses under “liaising with the California Dive community”.  

So it was just me n’ Jim for the next dive and it was excellent. We followed an old pipe on the seabed that was used by the canneries to suck the fish up from the fishing boats. Ironic that it’s a haven for marine life. The mouth of the pipe had a big fishy sitting in it and all along there were teensy tiny pretty sea sluggy things, tons of star fish and  a giant star fish with the body the size of a dinner plate and about 20 legs, he was more like a sunflower than a star. And he was blue so not a lot like a sunflower or a star fish ….   At the end of the pipe we went over to this amazing stand of strange anemone. If you can imagine very soft cauliflower on the end on a fat stalk about half a meter long sticking to a rock in clusters of 100’s. Very  very beautiful.  Unfortunately I was incredibly cold at this point so I did the “I’m cold” sign and we headed back.  On the way back down following the pipe we found some kind of underwater bunny. Jim said his latin name back on land, but its commonly known as a rabbit. It’s like no bunny I’ve seen – its red, bunny sized but has more slug features than a bunny.  When you stroke it, it kind of puts up its “ears” but there the similarity ends.

We made our way back to shore and dragged ourselves out like some tired elephant seals (more about them later) The thing about shore dives is it’s not that you see any less than on a boat, it’s just the walk to and from the sea with a huge load of kit and a tight wetsuit is a bit of a bugger.  And I was cold.

As per usual I had loads of air left, and if it had been warmer I could have stayed in for ages living out my “I am a sea otter” fantasy amongst the kelp. I have this habit of getting into some kind of relaxed low breathing or something when I’m diving – Jim joked “are you practicing not breathing?”  The amount of air left is a kind of sign of experience or that you’re not panicking and puffing away or something; I always have about the same as my Divemaster despite my holiday diver status. So I guess I’ve finally found something I’m a natural at. Breathing. .… it’s so easy I dunno what the fuss is about.

One more thing. I haven’t seen a sea otter….Gutted. But I have seen elephant seals – huge monsters!

Edited: August 13th, 2010

Nature

Nature

Yes I’m finally doing a post! Since Ian has covered everything chronologically I’ll just add in a bit about the wild life we’ve spotted.  Starting with Vegas lions!

Yes lions.  On a super hot venture out via the other casinos, we happened across the MGM lions. As per Vegas they were in an artificial environment, in the middle of the casino, sealed behind glass but with a sprinkling of natural light – lucky things. There was a glass tunnel we could walk under with the lions asleep on top; they were pretending not to notice the crowds passing underneath, but they knew.  I took Lily through the very crowded tunnel, she was “all scared” but funnily enough wanted to go back when I took Jasmine under.

If you can make it out there’s a picture of the male lion with his faced pressed against the glass. He looked quite cute. I guess it’s the only chance I’ll get to be 6inches away from a lion’s mouth.

Aside from the lions, nothing in Vegas could be described as natural – particularly some of the “enhanced” individuals wandering about.

On to the Grand Canyon.  And off to a great start with a lone boy Elk wandering through the campsite as we’re having breakfast. Like any teenager he was completely oblivious to the fuss he was creating – about 10 tourists pursued him with cameras. 

A top tip for spotting anything rare and interesting is to start chatting to someone with a scope. I ‘d spotted a hawk  flying past and perching on a branch so I pointed it out to a couple with a massive scope. They pointed out a couple of turkey vultures then just for dramatic effect a Condor comes swooping by. They’re incredibly rare only about 70 pairs in the US.  They do like the Grand Canyon though, and to the trained eye they’re easy to spot. I would never have spotted it. It’s a massive bird with a 10ft wing span but the Canyon makes it seem the size of a seagull.

Next day we did a little walk in the forest. The girls were constantly asking “are we going to see any bears?”  and we kept saying “I hope not….” We did spot a huge bug with orange wings – he kept Jasmine a mused for about 2 minutes – she loves orange.  Way more exciting was a lizard me and Lily found. We went to investigate a big green plant in the middle of a charred patch of forest; and out scuttled a lizard. I chased him to a log and carefully lifted it so as not to squash him. He was lovely; just sat there trying to stare us out. Me n Lily got some great; pictures for scale he was about 25cms.  According to Tom the Jeep man he’s a collared lizard on account of his turquoise neck collar. Lily loved him but I don’t think he was impressed with us; he looks a little angry no?

Ian’s already posted the pic of the Elk we spotted on our jeep tour so I’ll skip over to our stop off in Inyokern. I have to say; I was preparing everyone for an overnight stay in an RV park that looks like a car park but we were pleasantly surprised. We pulled up into a tree shaded spot (it was a cool 39degrees) and we had cute bunnies for neighbours.  We gave them a couple of carrots and some left over apple and they joined us for dinner, they hopped over for a munch while we ate pasta.  They ran off quick when Jasmine showed them her knife & fork. I think its genetically imprinted  into them to run at this point.

Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of our next nature spot. He was too bloody fast. Here’s a picture though– looked just like him, well sort of… bit more dusty brown than blue and he didn’t say meep meep!  He did run off down the road…and then back up the other side in true comedy style.

“Road Runner Road” -  the stunning view of the Sierra Nevada Mountains from the back of the RV.

I was going to end my post there but then we moved on to Mammoth Lakes (near to Yosemite National Park) and we just keep bumping into impossibly cute chipmunks. Here’s one who performed for us at breakfast.

Here’s another up by Rainbow Falls. This one was a pro, working the crowd for bits of apple, crisps, nuts etc. He was a bit more brave, he’d fliff his tail about if you ignored him.  Lily has been keeping a chipmunk count; she thinks we’ve seen 28 but its way more than that. You’d just walk along a few paces and the just pop out and run along with their tails in the air. Stupidly cute and I love them.

End of 1st post…. phew!

Edited: August 6th, 2010

Out of the wilderness

Yes, we’re still alive! We’ve finally descended after 3 days in the 10000ft Yosemite wilderness to the joys of running water, electricity and WiFi in a trailer park at the back of the California State Fair in Sacramento.

Hopefully we’ll have a chance to fill in the blanks once we get back from our day at the Raging Waters park round the corner.

Edited: July 30th, 2010

Sunny Sunday in Mammoth

Mmmm… a lovely Sunday morning in Mammoth Lakes. Just grabbing a coffee in “The Village” before we head up to Twin Lakes. Need some refreshment after cycling a couple of miles uphill at this altitude (8000ft?).

Edit: Ha! And then a mere couple of hours later we were savaged by mosquitoes and then trapped by a huge thunderstorm. Idyllic!

Edited: July 25th, 2010

Up and away

Woke up this morning and was gutted to find it was still overcast and rainy, but at least there was no storm raging, so decided to trudge back to the Grand Canyon airport in the rain and see what the situation was.

They weren’t flying, but did say they planned to ‘re-assess’ at 9.30, so I decided to stick around for the hour or so and see what happened. Luckily the sky cleared and it was go, go, go.

It turned out to be brilliant; a smooth ride, no vertigo and a fantastic view of the canyon in the newly arrived sunshine. In fact, it was just like being in a video game, except for the fact that the pilot didn’t jump out in mid-flight a la Bob in GTA. It was a bit short (they were obviously trying to catch up with their schedules) but at least I got to do it. A very cool birthday present. I’ll try and upload some of the video soon.

Back on the road

Time to hit the road again. We need to head back towards Las Vegas and into the Mojave desert in order to get towards the Sequoia national park, so had to get back behind the wheel and hit the tarmac. To be honest we were all dreading the heat; the girls wilt as soon as they step outside in the 40+ temperatures, and the generator in the RV that powers the air-con when we’re not hooked up gets a bit unhappy too.

We broke up the journey by stopping off in Williams, about 60 miles south of the Grand Canyon park. It’s part of the historic Route 66; the bit that’s essentially an Americana theme park after the road itself was replaced with interstate highway. We got lunch in a pukka diner, complete with random bits of cars on top (a whole car on the roof), inside (hubcaps and old petrol pumps) and in the toilets (a complete car door as the urinal divider). The food wasn’t bad either; if you like it consisting entirely of minced beef or being deep fried. Like I say: pretty authentic.

Setting off again on the longer section of the drive we were treated to the sat-nav’s accurate but slightly depressing instructions to “turn right, continue straight on for 178 miles”. As we got back towards the desert the temperature rose and the patrol gauge fell steadily. The RV drinks like a family of thirsty Londoners in the desert. During the journey we descended several thousand feet from the lofty 6500ft elevation of the Grand Canyon, snaked across a couple of mountain ranges, and eventually arrived in the attractively-named, Needles.

By this time it was dark, but nobody had told the temperature that. It was still hotter than the hottest summer day in London, and it wasn’t helped by the fact that the outside of the RV was so hot it felt like it had re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere (during the journey, Jen had to put paper on the footwell to avoid burning her feet). So we basically slept in a hot tin box, with the air-con valiantly trying to cool it down from the inside out.

Edited: July 21st, 2010