A new friend

When we first arrived back in Yamba I was exploring the flat rocks down on the beach in front of our apartment one afternoon when I heard a big “plop”. Some pools have been formed in the rocks where the softer stone has been worn away and some of them are 5’ across. The particular pool I heard the plop from was about 3’ around and 2’ deep and a nice tidal pool complete with seaweeds, sand and assorted life of which a big octopus was the main inhabitant and the source of the “plopping” noise I had heard. It was hard to tell how big he was because he was all scrunched in a corner of the pool, and tucked back up under an overhang of rock. When he saw me approach he slithered even farther up under the rock overhang. Over the next 4 or 5 days I pretty much visited him daily as I was concerned he was caught in the pool and what would he eat. Without being able to look up “octopus” in wikipekia I was at a lose to know anything about the creatures. Every time I went to see him he was pretty much hidden from view, and if you did not know where to look and what he looked like, you would not be able to see him. I could see at high tide the water would come up and wash into his pool. I even took Greg down there one day to see him, but he remained pretty hidden. It was obvious in my interaction with him over these days that he could see me because when I got close to the pool he would shrink away from me. The first day I saw him was the most activity I ever saw from him.

Today I wanted to go down and say goodbye to him, but it was raining fairly hard. I decided to go anyway even though the tide was pretty high (almost washing into his pool) plus it was raining. As I approached his pool he actually stuck two of his arms (I found out octopi do not have tentacles) out of the water and waved them back and forth at me. There had been big waves crashing all night and his pool was half way filled in with sand. I could see his whole body, which was sort of maroon with some orange on the undersides of the arms. Fully stretched out I bet his arms were at least 18” long, they were so delicate in their inquisitiveness. He sort of puffed out his body and slithered across the bottom of the pool to my side of the pond in a wonderfully smooth and graceful motion. I know he could see me, he even put one of his arms out of the pool toward my foot, and I was standing about a foot from the edge of the pool very still. He moved around the small pool with such ease and grace any notion I had that he was “stuck” in the pool was quickly done away with. Good thing I didn’t try to save him the same way I tried to save the hummingbirds from the bully hummingbird!!

I knew Greg was waiting for me and I was getting wet standing in the rain watching him, but I was fascinated with him. I stood there for probably ten minutes watching him and he never shrank away from me. As I quietly walked away from him I looked back and he was waving one arm out of the water goodbye.

All and all that was just an example of how magic the whole trip was for me. I cried to say goodbye to the beautiful clean water and my friends the dolphins. Yesterday I was bodysurfing at Main Beach and they zipped by to say their farewells, I told them we would be back. There was a bloke surfing on a board near me and he actually touched one of them as they swam by him.

Ps. After I got home I looked up octopus in Wikipedia and found out they are very intelligent creatures. They have both long and short-term memories and are good at solving mazes and escaping from their aquariums. They also have very good eyesight.