Starfish – Outer Hebrides

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When you head out to snorkel, I feel like Forrest Gump kind of, you know, life’s like a box of chocolates. Never know you’re gonna get it. And it feels like snorkelling is a bit like that box of chocolates, because you just never know what you’re going to get. And we try and recce. When we’re snorkelling, I think about places that look like, you know, there’s not a lot of silt or sediment, maybe from a river or on an estuary or, easy ways to get in that aren’t across slippy rocks. And that it’s not too heavy on seaweed on entry, because sometimes that’s really hard to get through, and you don’t want to be kind of like, disturbing that environment, getting in.

So sometimes it can be quite a challenge. And we were finding that when we were staying on North Uist, on the Outer Hebrides, and we’d spoken to someone, we’d been out on a beautiful wildlife boat trip, and they’d recommended a loch to try, and sort of go down the sand of the loch. And we’d stopped at a little art shop, and then we chatted to the owner, and she’d given us some directions on the finer detail of how and where to get in. And without her directions, we would never have ever tried to get into this part of the loch.

However, because it was a low tide, it meant that we were walking over really sludgy mud to get in to the point where we were almost giving up because it was just getting unpleasant and ridiculous. And are we going to get in or are we have we just stirred up all this stuff now in the water and it’s going to ruin everything? Anyway, we persevered because this was the third time that day we tried to get in. and if you’ve ever put a 7mm dive suit on or not, dive suit sorry, freedive suit. You’ll know the pain that it is because they’re open cell which means that the wetsuit material, the neoprene like, just sticks to your skin. So you have to then, lubricate them to put them on. And that’s just slimy and cold and horrible. And so it’s so heartbreaking when you’ve gone through all of that situation to then find you’re getting in somewhere to snorkel, and it’s just not a viable sight for whatever reason.

So we were on the third site and we’re going through mud and thinking today is just absolutely not our day and then we managed to get out of the mud deep enough that we could get onto our backs and then start to float out. And as soon as you can do that you’re away, and it’s brilliant. And we did that.

We’ve got fins on. Masks on. Just flipped over, our faces and this starfish was right there. And it was just that moment of yes, this is why we do this because it’s so, so beautiful to see marine life that is so close to the surface and have those moments, seeing incredible things. And so it’s one of those things with life, isn’t it, where there will be those bitter disappointments.

But you’ve got to have a few of those to get to those, those jubilant and successful moments like this that just feel all the more richer because of the struggles that you’ve gone through to, to get to that moment.