Still enjoying the wildlife in the Maldives. We went snorkeling this morning, which isn't something I have done very much before, but it was worth the occasional mouth and nose full of salt water to be down amongst the fish who get to live here for free and have all the fun. Though most of them, it becomes clear stay beneath the water and don't show off at all. It's sensational to get close to these less attention seeking marine dwellers, and they seem totally unperturbed by our presence. Some of them seemed to be deliberately swimming towards my face. I could have reached out and grabbed them. And I really wanted to with the ones that look like Everton mints. The Homer Simpson in me nearly had a go, but then I realised that because of my snorkel I wouldn't be able to get them in my mouth. Of course Homer Simpson would have just stuck them in the end of his snorkel and sucked them in, with the hilarious consequence no doubt that they would become stuck and he would drown. It pays not to be Homer Simpson.
Later on as we walked past the bar towards the pool I spotted a large sea-bird standing so still on the edge of the decking area that I wondered if it was a model. It looked just like one of the stone herons that my parents use to scare actual herons away from their fishpond (it doesn't work incidentally). But this one seemed too life-like to be manufactured and yet too still to be real. And what was it doing here, in human territory. It was holding its wings at a most peculiar angle, like it was preparing for some kind of martial arts style attack or it was doing some bizarre ovine tantric yoga. It was only a slight movement in its neck and a mad look in its eye that betrayed the fact that it was alive. It was a bit freaky and it had a sharp yellow beak so I didn't want to get too close. The beak was perpetually open too, making him look a bit daft, but also more dangerous. What was he up too? This is where the birds start taking the world back in honour of their dinosaur ancestors. I have rarely seen such calmness and fearlessness in an animal.
He was gone later though, when we headed round the island to watch the sun going down, though we saw more birds like him, though they weren't standing at the jaunty angle, as well as loads more of the giant and terrifying bats. We're very vulnerable to insane animals here.
The sunset was pretty impressive. I wrote about watching the sunsets when I was in Thailand in 2007 in my blog and in my book. I realised with a start that there have been well over 1000 sunsets since then, though I haven't watched more than a handful of them myself. That's a lot of time passing without me having the time to stop and watch it pass. Where will we all be in another 1000 sunsets?
It blows your mind when you think about what the sun is and how come after all the time it's been up there burning it still hasn't managed to consume all the hydrogen and stuff that fuels it. When you have a bonfire it pretty much burns up all the rubbish on it in a night and a bonfire is nowhere near as intense and hot as the sun, so how come it doesn't burn itself out more quickly than the billions of years it's been up there? Come on science, you can't answer that. There must be a God chucking on new hydrogen and some twigs and old newspapers to keep it going all this time. There is no other explanation. It's an amazing chance or accident (or design?) that the sun is just far away enough from us to allow life to flourish on this planet. I wondered today if it was conscious and could look down at us and see what we're up to whether the sun would be happy with what it had achieved. Thinking of all the rubbish that mankind is up to, I guess not. Though if I was it I would be well chuffed to have created the right conditions for the still, kung-fu seabird.
And the most impressive thing about all this is that I am not on drugs when I am thinking these things. I am scarcely even on booze. I had half a bottle of wine yesterday evening, but apart from that and the two cocktails it's been a sober time for me. I think this rubbish up with no artificial stimulation. Sad really.
