LETTER

“She’s such a water baby!” family friends would exclaim as they watched me do handstands and cartwheels, somersaults and backward dives in and out of the pool for hours at a time when I was a child.

When you think about it, though, I guess we’re all water babies initially, but once born, some of us become decidedly terrestrial, while others still retain that amniotic affinity to water. I was one of the latter.

The greatest indignity of my young life was that we didn’t have easy access to a swimming pool, and instead I had to make do with running through the sprinkler (which, let’s face it, is still fun all on its own). In fact, I still remember the worst punishment my brother and I ever received for some or other bad behaviour – going to a friend’s birthday party and then NOT being allowed to swim when everyone else was in the pool. My parents eventually relented at the end of the afternoon, but it was a torturous few hours before they did.

Later – when we did finally have a pool of our own – I would get home from school during typically stinking hot ’Maritzburg summers, jump straight in the pool and often not come out until close to dinner time.Then – if you were lucky – mum would pronounce that really, there was no need for you to bath, so you could get straight into your PJs! On those afternoons, we often had a motley assortment of neighbourhood kids in the pool and Marco Polo was a favourite game. Although, I am still mortified by the memory of my mum popping out the veranda door, on several occasions, when it was my time to “be it” to say:“Boys, does Nicky really need to close her eyes? She can’t see without her glasses on anyway.”

“I can see enough to see people, Mom!”

As I grew older, I became somewhat more sensitive to the cold. So much so, that I once swam in the pool with my wetsuit on! Luckily, growing up in KwaZuluNatal, the sea was always warm, and came with the added bonus of waves to ride, shells to collect (bonus points for spotting a cowrie shell) and Wimpy softserve ice creams to eat.

When it comes to warm water, you really can’t beat Thailand. So I was in my element when I found myself on the tiny island of Koh Tao – baby brother to Koh Samui (a favourite holiday spot for European visitors), and Koh Phangan (a favourite spot for anyone wanting to experience first-hand the debauchery of one of Thailand’s famous Full Moon parties – but that’s a story for another time!). Koh Tao certainly has a few parties of its own, but its real claim to fame is being “the” place in Thailand to learn to scuba dive. And that’s just what I did.

For a water baby, there can be no better aquatic experience than being able to finally follow the fish you previously only watched while bobbing around on the surface with a snorkel stuck in your mouth. Finding them, and all the other weird and wonderful creatures who make the ocean their home, is the ultimate game of Marco Polo.

Then there is the wonderful feeling of calm and quiet you experience while you’re under the sea. No one can talk to you (other than in hand signals), no one can phone you, and for once you simply can’t get distracted by gadgets and messages, emails and work. Down here, you are completely disconnected from the overly-connected world.You have no choice but to be present and just soak it all in (pun intended). Listening to the sound of your own breathing, feeling the weightlessness of your body, and experiencing the solitude of your own thoughts . . . Well, that’s about as close to floating around in your mum’s tummy as you can get – a true water baby experience.

This all feels like a dream as we still have a month or more of chilly winter to go, but at least we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel, the palm trees at the end of the ice field, as it were. Summer is around the corner, so it’s only a matter of time before us water babies can swap our bath tubs for oceans, and revel in our fingers and toes going all “pruney” for all the best reasons.

Hang in there – summer is almost on its way!