Saturday Morning Adventures - Attack of the Jellyfish!

Venue:     Mount Lavinia Beach

Adventurers: Avanti, Bambi Asiri Wickramasuriya, Lashika Weerasinghe and Dinuk Senapathiratne (the others were onlookers)

This was also a part of my life’s adventures, so I thought I should document it…

On one of our usual Saturday morning fitness/swim mornings we were feeling particularly adventurous, that when Bambi suggested that we swim to a rock island a little bit off the Mount Lavinia Beach, some of us agreed.

So me, Lashika aiyah, Bambi and Dinuk took off. About 2 minutes into the swim, Dinuk had fallen back, as he couldn’t swim anymore. A few minutes later, Lashika aiyah suddenly shouted and started swimming back to the shore at top speed. He didn’t even stop to warn me and Bambi! We didn’t know what was wrong, but thought that it might have been jellyfish. But we thought it wouldn’t be too serious, and so we continued our swim.

I kept on chatting and laughing as we swam, and only later realised that Bambi was unusually quiet coz he wasn’t used to swimming as much as me… but he was very good, as he kept up with me AND replied to my questions and laughs. (sorry, Bambi!!)

Finally, (after I have NO idea how long!), we finally made it to the rock! There was a fishing boat stopped close by, and they showed us where to get onto the rock from… They couldn’t believe that we swam all that way! And while we were nearing the rock, we heard some of them say, ‘anna, kellek enawa!’ ('look, that’s a girl who is swimming')

Anyway, we got on the rock, and it was sooo cool! We waved to Dinuk and Menthi, who were our look-outs back on the shore. (we didn’t see Lashika aiyah, but hoped he was ok!) We walked on the rock for abit, and looked at some men collecting oysters that were all over that rock. Some were snorkelling and fishing too! It was cool.

After awhile, we both decided to jump off the rock back into the water… which was FUN! I dove right in… but Bambi took some time to make sure he didn’t knock his long legs on the rock under the water. And we began our swim back… This time, I think, it was easier for Bambi, coz he was chatting and stuff too. It was a totally awesome swim!

Once we got abit closer to shore (almost at the same place Lashika aiyah stopped), I also suddenly felt a burning sensation on my hand (like a current), and I jerked my hand… and then Bambi felt something on his butt too!! :) It WAS jellyfish, so we quickly swam away from there.

Back on the shore, Dinuk welcomed us back, and congratulated us for achieving that… and told us that a jellyfish had stung Lashika aiyah and his hand had swelled up. Even my hand was slightly swollen now, but it wasn’t hurting so much – just a mild sting.

We found everyone else near the cars, but Lashika aiyah seemed cool about it, and was ok with it… it wasn’t serious. (but later, he went to the doctor, and was asked to put some cream etc on it. But he has some mean and ULTRA COOL scars!)

That swim as abit of a risk (and I got into abit of trouble for it), but it was totally worth it!! It was TONS of fun… and I am glad I was able to do that. THANK YOU, Bambi… you are the coolest person who will always adventure with me!! :)