Treading Water

Do you know what I hate? I hate treading water. After reading the post about dog attacks I thought I'd share this fear with you. When we were young my parents used to always take us kids to the beach and we'd really enjoy swimming and getting tossed and splashed by the surf. In fact, once in, we never ever wanted to get out of the water. However, ever since I saw Jaws, I just can't find the strength to get into the water. The thought of a shark just terrifies me and I can't explain the fear that it brings on to me. The worse thing about all this, is that I grew up and live in one of the nicest places on earth, along the Great Ocean Road, at Lavers Hill, Australia. And I have to add, there've been many shark attacks along the Australian coastline. Sent in by Kylie.....Lavers Hill, Australia Thanks for sending in your fear Kylie and yes I'm sure that many will share this with you but again while sharks are very terrifying and while there have been a number of shark attacks, like the earlier post about vicious dogs is there another side to this story? Sharks are beautiful animals and have survived for a long, long time. I really do appreciate their beauty..... but for some reason, it's just when they're above water as shown in the following awesome photographs kindly supplied by Wade, diver and diving instructor, of ScubaCulture, that they terrify me. And by the way, if you're game and want to get a close up view simply click on the photos.

They are truly amazing shots of the Great White shark taken near Dyer Island and as Wade of ScubaCulture says "I think these shots are pretty awesome, really get a feel for the amazing power these beautiful animals have." If you'd like to see more great photographs of these beautiful under water creatures taken during shark dives along the coast of South Africa and including dives with the Tiger Sharks then visit ScubaCulture. If you're a serious adventure seeker or after the thrill of a lifetime, then you might like to think about diving amongst these giants of the water. Just head down to places like Aliwal Shoal, regarded as being one of the top 10 dive sites in the world, or Protea Banks, known as being one of the best places in the world to dive with sharks.

I lost my nuts!

Do you know what I hate? I just hate it when I loose things. But, what's worse is when you do loose something somewhere in public, perhaps in the back seat of a cab, and it just never turns up again.......Now I'm a dentist and this happened to me very recently when after a night out with my wife I lost my nut, my Coco de Mer (meaning coconuts of the sea). Maybe you can help me, and besides, there's a reward out for my nut. Now thanks to wikipedia here's a picture of what my nut looks like and if you're game then click the image to enlarge.

The Coco de Mer is sometimes referred to as a Double Coconut or Coco Fresse or Seychelles nut and as you will read here, the Coco de Mer palm produces the largest seed in the world and is endemic to only two of the 115 Seychelle Islands (the islands of Praslin and Curieuses). What's really interesting is that the plants have separate sexes and thus there are male trees and female trees. These large seeds may weigh up to 50 pounds and have historically been found floating in the Indian Ocean, being known to explorers long before the parent plants were discovered. They were originally named only from floating seeds; erroneously thought to have originated in the Maldive Islands, they were assigned the scientific name "maldivica". In days of old it was rarely found washed ashore on the coast of India and viewed as the female counterpart to the shankara stones on Hindu alters. It was also used as a medicine and as an aphrodisiac. Today, the seed is so valuable and coveted by so many that it's chances of being allowed to fall into water and drift away have to be extremely small! Sent in by SM, Melbourne, Australia