Here we are at the tree ready to get into it! As it's a frigid 17 degrees Celsius in the cave, they give you a hot water bottle to put your feet on :-)
Here is Amanda learning about the various white grapes Italy has to offer.
As you can see, it got a bit chilly so jackets were donned, but the wine also helped with warming us up.
This was our favourite wine of the evening from the Verona region, so we have their website and address and plan a visit in a couple of weeks!
One of the many interesting things I learnt is the grading scale for Italian wine. If you look at the picture above under the word Valpolicella, it says Denominazione di Origine Controllata which we need to simply remember as DOC. It is the highest grade for wine in Italy. The next grade is DOCG, then IGT and finally Table Wine. So as a rough guide, we'll read each bottle for an idea of how well made it is, although in many places the locally made table wine maybe better than a DOC wine. I guess we'll have to try them all to find out! One big drunken experiment!!!
Onto the jellyfish, or should I say Portuguese Man o' War which aren't true jellyfish. In fact, jellyfish aren't fish so it should be sea jellies but I'll let the technicalities pass for now....
We are jinxed. On our planned snorkelling trip in Laamu, the night before, a large storm blew in hundreds of Man o' War, 3 people were stung and the trip was cancelled. Well would you believe it... we awoke today, after a stormy night, to perfect conditions. The sea was calm, the wind was a slight breeze which cooled you nicely and the visibility was crystal clear, as you can see from this picture taken this morning from our sun deck.
But there they were, those damn little blue devils! Set to ruin our snorkelling trip again! as there weren't many we went anyway as the numbers were way lower than in Laamu. So we got to our reef, kitted up and were in. The coral was as colourful and vibrant as I have ever seen. The fish came in all shapes and sizes and the whole experience was simply magic, until Amanda was stung on her waist, then hand and worst of all, her ear. Myself and the guide waved the boat over whilst Amanda's stung areas burnt like they were on fire. When the boat finally arrived we swam to it and got Mindy out, where I was then stung!
Before we knew it, the group were racing towards the boat where a girl had stings all over her arm and body with the nematocysts (stinging tentacles) still attached and had to be pulled off. One other poor girl had a reaction to the stings and became blotchy and puffy. Half of the people on board were stung. Needless to say, the snorkelling was cancelled and we returned to shore.
For me, it was great! Amanda and I are both fine, I wanted to know what a sting was like, and we got a free snorkelling trip out of it as all payment was cancelled! To compensate for our pain, we bought a bottle of NZ Sauvignon Blanc which certainly helped :-)
Have a look at my video here. I caught a Man o' War to show you all what they look like.
Here's another video for you. I got in with the sharks to give you a bit of info about them. I see them every day and it never gets boring. I love it!
And for my fact. Did you know that venom and poison mean two different things? For example, you can't have a poisonous snake. For something to be poisonous, it means it affects you by you touching or eating it, where the toxins are not directly administered by the animal itself, such as with the cane toad. For something to be venomous, it delivers the toxins to you via spines, fangs or a sting. So spiders, snakes, bees etc. are all venomous and not poisonous.
So, the most poisonous animal in the world is a species of poison arrow frog called the golden dart frog. The most venomous animal (although it is difficult to judge based on the different types of toxins and how they effect you) is the box jellyfish. Thankfully the Portuguese Man o' War don't make the deadly list!
Cheers,
Dave Canavan MSc
www.thechingchokhunter.com
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