The Weirder Side of Life
It’s taking quite a long time to trawl through more than 1,000 photographs and lift out those (hopefully) worthy of cropping and posting, but hopefully it will be worth it.
The biggest challenge so far is finding decent underwater shots – many have been “duds” with out of focus or with a badly cropped (and usually fast-moving) subject. But there are a few more yet to go…
As the images in this post show, I’ve tried to make use of my “rest days” (non-diving days) for excursions around Phuket Island. The first two shots were taken at Phuket Butterfly Garden.
Sadly now closed, this attraction was a fascinating mix of butterflies and an intense distillation of the more exotic Thai plant life to be found on the island.
The third shot is a view from a vantage point above Karon Beach, looking west, whilst the last two shots are of Racha Yai island, seen from the east side.
A second selection of images taken from a dive to the artificial reef in Bay 1, on the east coast of Racha Yai island, just south of Phuket.
The reef consists of a large series of “open” cubes that have been scattered across the smooth, open sands of the bay and which now provide shelter and homes for teeming marine life. Not as wondrous as an all-natural reef of course, but an important boost to the local ecology all the same.
In this collection of images, I think my personal favourite has to be the Marbled Moray Eel – the one investigating my Dive Instructor’s prod. This is a relatively rare eel for the waters of Phuket [in 150 dives I’ve only ever seen this one] and the little fellow was smart, playful and adorable.
A small selection of images taken across the southern half of Phuket Island. Among this selection, my personal favourite is the gold elephant – taken at the Elephant Shrine found at Cape Promthep at the southernmost tip of the island – which appears to be touching trunks with a cloud elephant. Luck of timing or something more special? You be the judge…
