I really love going back home to indonesia. It’s home and even though there are massive traffic jams, the pollution is terrible and one of the things I hate most in the world … smoking (my mum smokes and I hate it) is done by everyone without restrictions in pubs, clubs and coffee shops, there is only really one thing that I miss 🙁

That one thing is waking up at 6am in the morning everyday and driving to Cronulla beach to swim in the morning in the shelly beach rock pools. The smell of the ocean, the cool breeze, the morning sun … man, I miss it a lot and if I had to spend more then 2 months in Indonesia I would probably need to go to bali every weekend to get close to the sea. Right now since I know that I will be here only for a 2 month period the swimming pools will suffice, any longer and I would need to find an alternative.

I had a few of the friends message me from the morning pools swim asking how I am but one email in particular came from Ansje. She loves to take pictures and takes really beautiful ones of the ocean, the sunrise and some of the marine life and on one of the morning swimming sessions we had discussed putting some of her images and videos on my blog.

Yesterday I received an image from her with the picture of the famous octopus that resides in the shelly beach pools. Octopuses are really fantastic creatures and are the most intelligent in the family of molluscs. They have this insane capability to blend and in many cases can change their skin color to match the surroundings almost identically so for most predators, they would simple swim by and not even notice that the octopus was there ! They are the chameleons of the underwater world and do it with style.

This particular octopus resides in two places in the pool on the east end under some rocks or the west end. Sometimes though, probably when its travelling in between  it will blend its skin with its surroundings and in many cases when I have been swimming underneath the water I have bumped into it accidentally only to see it shoot of at break neck speed.

Anyway seeing this picture just reminds me of the morning swim I am missing out on, but thats OK, when I get back to sydney, the water is still gonna be freezing and coming from this humid sweltering heat and a place where 25 degrees Celsius waters  is considered cold, the 16 degree waters are gonna hit me nice and good.

Check out the picture of the octopus in full view taken by Ansje !

Thanks Ansje ! Don’t hesitate to send me more 🙂