Snorkelling and Friendly Drunks

We had considered buying either a guitar (we are having withdrawl symptoms from not playing), or snorkelling gear. The snorkelling won and we now have a mask, snorkel and set of fins each. I (John) even had to shave off my beard, as advised, to give the mask a tighter seal and Ruth was so excited she wore her gear around the camp ground. Armed with our new toys we headed for some beautiful rocky bays, the first Lilly Pillys (this is where we called you from Penny, it was great to speak to you on your birthday). There was still a bit too much chop in the water here which churned up the sand making the visibility a bit unclear.. Our second attempt was the most fun. We went to a place a few bays down called Garden Bay. The water was clear and we saw lots of fish and urchins. After swimming beside the rocks on one side we decided to cross the bay to look at the rocks on the other side. Less than 10 metres across we were suddenly surrounded by jelly fish including Blue bottles AGAIN. There were hundreds and they were all around us, it happened so fast. Ruth noticed them first and shouted over to warn me but it was too late. I was stung across the chin, lip and one had wrapped around my neck. We were both stung around the ankles. The pain is quite intense and gets gradually stronger. We managed to peel them away from my throat and I must admit I did feel a little panicked for a while. Ruth went into lifeguard mode and found us a safe route back close into the rocks trying to avoid more jellies. After a good soaking in hot water the pain quickly subsided along with the swelling. There were a few other snorkellers in too who also got taken by suprise by the jellies sudden mass arrival. Thankfully we at least had our wetsuits on otherwise we'd have been covered in the stingers. We got so much advice on what to do: “hot waters what you need”,
“No that's not right it's cold water”,
“Nah mate, put some vinegar on it”,
“Lavender oil works best”.
In the end we found hot water to be as good as anything. Whilst nursing our stings we got chatting to some very drunk but incredibly friendly Aussies. Everyone offers you a place to stay. Or insists you at least pop round for a cuppa and a Yarn, but we never like to take up the offers when they've been given drunk as they might not remember making the offer.