We find ourselves flying into a 15 knot headwind, heading south. “It feels like we are moving in slow motion!” she shouted from the back seat and indeed it did.
We finally got our break to fly but the picture was anything but rosy. A thick band of cloud hogged the eastern horizon while a small streak of cumulous clouds blocked our way towards the south – tt was looking more ominous by the minute.
At take off it looked as though we had a short spell of clear weather towards the south and I figured we might have enough time to survey the southern parts of the island. We had been getting some whale sharks activity from that area and it would be valuable to see if the sharks were still there. Of course, the dark horizon moved in faster than anticipated and after thirty minutes we were back on the ground.
“That felt like ten minutes!” remarked Dominique, her first flight in a microlight being more than just a calm flight over the ocean – very often the nature of this kind of work. While sieving fuel into the tank I was reminded about how Rolf Harris blows on his didgeridoo.
“Do you know Rolf Harris?” I asked. “I love Rolf Harris!” she replied excitedly, completely unpretentious. “I actually have my own didgeridoo at home but have never played it” Anticipating my next question she continued, “The local aborigines believe a woman should not be allowed to play the didgeridoo and if she does she will become sterile and I want loads of children so am not taking any chances.” She was smiling showing that she knew this was totally silly yet serious enough for her to actually have honoured the superstition.
It was then that I remembered her remark from the morning when I picked her up from home, “Oh, I maybe shouldn’t be telling you this, but just before I got into the car a black cat jumped across my path” It makes more sense now. Of course, with my kind of work it pays not to be superstitious but I allowed Dominique to continue.
“When I was younger I wanted to have six babies. Then I met my boyfriend and he wanted to have four so we compromised – now I want four” This kind of unbridled conversation was a rare privilege and while I continued to fiddle with the fuelling I kept an eye on this beautiful young lady while finding it hard to suppress the joy I was feeling for being a part of this moment. “Compromise” I said dryly while raising my eyebrow and looking at her. Unperturbed she continued, “Now though, I only want two or three because I have found out that hospitals only allow you to have three suzerains at most” I was being led along a conversation path such as I have never experienced.
As to the reason for the aversion for natural child birth I ascertained that it is not always beneficial for young teenagers to get shown these kind of things in explicit detail. At least it certainly did put many off early sexual activity which might have been the intent in the first place!
While taking pics of Dominique posing on an old army tank for her boyfriend who apparently loves tanks, I wondered if he knew what a great tank girl he’s got.
Yup, it is not always all about finding whale sharks!
