The First Step Is A Doosey

This is very good advice to follow.

These little fellows (the same, but smaller, as the one that killed Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin) burrow in the sand just two or three feet offshore. And wait.

Not for big footed tourists, but for little grubs and stuff. But if you just splosh blindly into the water and happen to step on one.....sweet Mother Mary! The stinger will come around and rip your Achilles tendon and then inject some nasty stuff into you.

So I have always shuffled shuffled shuffled as I go in. People laugh because I look like an old man. Okay, look like an older man than I already am. But I often get the last laugh.

Both my downstairs neighbours had this happen to them recently (you think one would have learnt from the other). They both said extreme agony for a day and then lots of pain for a couple of months. Many others tell the same, sad tale.

This trip I saw two of them, just in the shallow water. [Sting Rays, not my neighbours.] Usually one shuffle and these guys bolt for the depths. I did a little shuffle near him. But he just backed off three or four feet.

Not nearly as far as I would have liked. I was thinking this shuffle thing might be a local joke. They actually attack when you wave your feet at them. Or maybe he thought my toe was a tasty little grub. Regardless, I was the one that backed way off.

So then it was off to the pool for me. La la la.....