Holiday

So we took a holiday! I loved it - the beach was white and sandy, the waves were perfect and the sun was warm and bright. Alastor taught me to surf - both as a human and as a wolf. You'd be surprised, but it's actually easier in wolf form. Needless to say I fell off countless times. But swimming was good - it's just as easy as swimming as a human. Except it's easier to keep my head up. Wedge really enjoyed being able to swim - she was under for ages. At first I thought she was drowning, and so I started to panic. Alastor couldn't help but laugh. Wedge then rose her head out of the water, seaweed draped over her head and dangling off her horns. Turns out Wedge can hold her breath for a very long time, and even breathe water if she has to. My response was just "Damn, that's cool." For some reason Julian and Alastor thought it hilarious.

One thing I hated though was the sand. It got EVERYWHERE. I thought it was bad as a human, but as a wolf - arg, it got stuck in my fur and grated against my skin whenever I walked. It was awful - since I was all wet, even the dry sand stuck to me. And of course it was a vicious cycle: I'd leap into the water to get rid of the sand, but to get out of the water I had to go through the sand. Apparantly this was also hilarious. I wasn't that impressed, but all in good humour. I think in the end Wedge lifted me out of the water, blew me slightly dry and left me up a palm tree to dry off.

Julian investigated the rock pools and things in the sand, when he wasn't sunbaking with Wedge. I didn't know how he could stand lying in the sand - until I found out about their rand removal device thing. I can't remember what it was called but I loved it. I would have loved it more if I had been able to use it the day before. But from then on I actually enjoyed the sand because I knew I could get it all off whenever I felt like it.

Oh and the most amazing thing - I got to swim with the dolphins! Seals, turtles, even a couple of whales! Wedge called out to the dolphins, and because they were part of the marine genetic experiments, had the intelligence to understand. There was one of them that could talk with Wedge (in dolphin-like language I think) which was why their pod (do dolphins have pods or is it just whales?) came up and swam with us. The seals were cool too, but they left early. They didn't like the tropics very much. I was surprised at just how big the humpback whales were. There was a mother and calf there - it was so cute. I got to ride the mother for a bit...so exhilarating. And seeing them all dance about in the ocean with Wedge was just brilliant.

Wedge really likes the noises they make, their 'whale song'. Julian loved the whales and dolphins too, but Alastor liked the sharks. Big surprise there. But honestly, I loved the sharks too. I was scared at first, but Alastor took me gently and we swam with them. The sharks must have been able to understand something they said, since they didn't try to bite us. There were all sorts-  from little ones to huge ones. I didn't see any great whites, but Wedge said they stick to around Australia. I couldn't believe how gentle they were. I had always seen them as vicious killers, so thought they'd take my paw off if I reached out to touch them. Alastor did say to not go near them in human form, since it makes them confused or something. We fed them after we went swimming.

Last thing - we went to a reef, and saw all the brigth colours of coral and fish that lived there. It was amazing! So intricate.... Julian tried explaining how it worked, but I couldn't keep up. I did have some kind of breathing pressure suit on so I could have a really good look, so I didn't have to keep going to the surface.

Great holiday. But we're back to business now. Will post about it soon.