Hi Everyone,

Actually,I've left Khao Lak,and am now in Kuala Lumpur(only one day,I fly home tomorrow--BooHoo!--mixed with Yippee,gonna see the family again!!).

Well,I did get that last couple of dives.It was out to Boonsung Wreck,by longboat (a local canoe type boat with a damned great engine strapped on the back!!!).

The poor dive guide got to the site only to realise that a cover for one of the air dump valves on his BCD (i.e. an inflatable jacket that divers wear to compensate for added weights.It is so you can stay at one level in the water when you are diving!!)--so ,basically,his BCD was useless.I persuaded him that the dive could be done,as long as he got rid of most of his weights,and controlled his buoyancy using the air in his lungs.He didn't look convinced,but I told him that I had managed on a previous dive,when my BCD valve decided to leak.Anyhow,he managed it (I think he was quite proud of himself!!). Second dive,one of his fins snapped in half--not his lucky day.Then,just to complete his day,I managed to gather 20 minutes Deco time !!(when you dive,the body absorbs Nitrogen from the pressurised air in the tank--normally not a problem,as you go to the surface slowly[with a 3 minute stop at 5 metres] in order to clear the Nitrogen from your system---on this occasion,I'd been skimming the bottom of the dive,looking for a Stone Fish[not found] and hadn't realised I'd added more stop time)

Anyhow,the outcome was,that I had to hang around at 5 metres for 20 minutes,instead of 3 !!! And he,being a good guide,stayed with me---both,desparately watching our air tank capacity (usually,you aim to get to the surface with about 50 bar{atmospheres} of air--we came up with...erm!...somwhat less than that).Still,all's well that ends well,Eh? That'll teach me to keep a closer check on my Dive Computer!! Thing was that it was a comparatively shallow dive(not quite 20 metres),so I didn't even consider the possibility of going into Deco Time-----a sobering erxperience!!

Anyhow,other than that,the dive went well,even without finding my elusive Stone Fish.On the wreck,were huge numbers of Scorpion fish,Lion Fish,Moray Eels and Nudibranchs--but the really spectacular part is the huge schoals of other fish,patrolling the outside---YellowFin Barracuda,Fuseliers,Snappers,Sweetlips,and several different types of Trevally.Basically--fish soup.....it's a shame,that it's so difficult to photograph anything underwater that is more than a couple of feet away----I take my hat off to these underwater Documentary cameramen!!!

Anyway,Alas! my journey ends (for the time being,anyway!!),----I will be adding more photos and video,once I get home and sort through the thousands of piccies distributed on various memory sticks----and I expect to be boring my near family rigid with them and a video from Sipadan,in the next few weeks--then,I guess,back to reality........is it REALLY snowing back in the U.K.?? Eeeekkk!!!!

Well,Cheerio for now,

Alec.