Blue Bottles, Sea Lice, and Sharks... Oh My!

Our ocean training continues to be anything. but boring. They've begun to break the group into two 'pods' - beginner / intermediate and advanced. The main difference being that the advanced group does an L shaped swim out through the break, over to the side of the beach, and back again while the beginner / intermediate group goes in and out of the surf.

At first I was very reluctant to join the advanced group as I wasn't sure if I was up for the long swim, however given the creatures which were hanging out in the surf I am very happy I did. The other group was battling blue bottle jelly fish and sea lice which were all being washed into the shore. Now for those people how haven't braved the waters of Australia and who don't know what blue bottles are - they are more of an annoyance than a serious danger. As with all jelly fish they have those lovely strings which sting and burn, however they are not as poisonous than many of their cousins. (see picture below) One of my friends was saying he somehow managed to get one in his swim trunks...

Like many jelly fish - they may look pretty but they have a nasty sting

In addition to the lovely floating fish, there were sea lice. Now at first I thought the people talking about these were joking or making something up - because I sure hadn't heard of anything like this before. But after feeling the itchy feeling and doing a bit of research I can confirm they are real and they are nasty little buggers! I wanted to find out a bit more about them and found the following pictures... ugly!!

This is a picture of someone with Sea Lice bites

Like I said... ugly!!

So far we have swum over 35 Ks in preparation which is equal to over 750 laps in the pool!

Thank you to those who have helped support our fundraising, at last check we have raised nearly $2000 total which is half of our goal. :)