The snorkelling is very good here as the coral is in good condition and there are plenty of fish. One of the most exciting places is The Rip which is a channel where the sea rushes through a low part of the reef between two islands and into the lagoon.

This gives an idea of what the weather was like.

There are beautiful types of trevally that we have had difficulty identifying, some could be Indian threadfish but there are lots of different trevallies so we’re not sure. The one above we are fairly sure is a blue-fin trevally with the distinct dark mark running from the tail to midway along the central line

At a cleaning station, the spotted sweetlips are waiting to have their skins and scales cleaned by the tiny cleaner wrasse. These wrasse will even clean the mouths of larger fish which resist the predatory instinct to eat them in order to benefit from the service provided of cleaning away any damaged tissue as well as parasites. The wrasse can pull really hard making its customers flinch from time to time.

A big moustache trigger fish hovers about watching, it will bite if it has a nest nearby and its teeth are fairly toxic.

White tipped reef shark about 5 feet long always are lazing about in the flow. They just swim away or stick their heads under a shelf of coral if they see you swimming nearby. They seem very territorial as they can always be found in the same area.

The water is gin clear. There is no litter on the islands or debris in the lagoon; there is some flotsam and jetsam on the ocean side of the Islands, mostly natural driftwood and coconuts with the odd flip flop or bottle but other than that Cocos is as clean as a whistle.