Tuesday, December 07, 2010
Be afraid, be very afraid!
Sadly a 70 year old German tourist was killed by a shark, whilst she was swimming just 20 metres from the shore at the luxury resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. We will be going on holiday to Egypt next year and you will not be getting me into the sea. There are some very real dangers all swimmers face when they decide to go for a swim in the sea. I enjoy swimming a lot on my holidays but all my swimming is done in the hotel pool. Life is about managing risks and I can't see the point of putting yourself at unnecessary risk by swimming in the sea, when you can have a far more enjoyable swim in the hotel pool. I get far more pleasure from swimming in a hotel pool than swimming in the sea. This is without the risk you encounter in the sea from pollution and nasty creatures taking bites out of you. Some swimmers also get caught out at sea by the depth and current which can result in drowning, a fatal risk that is avoided in the hotel pool.
I am not alone in my opinion about not wanting to swim in the sea. Dominic Lawson writes a very good column in the Independent today...
Similarly, one must not say of the 70-year-old German woman who last weekend was mauled to death by a shark in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh: didn't it occur to her that if a few days earlier two tourists off the same beaches had lost significant parts of their anatomy (respectively, a hand and a leg) to two different sharks that it would not be very sensible to swim out in those waters?
...So, there you have it, be afraid - be very afraid! You have paid a lot of good money for your holiday, so do the sensible thing and only swim in the hotel pool. The three Russians and a Ukrainian tourist who were mauled last Wednesday got off relatively light, the 70 year old German paid the ultimate price for not learning from other people's misfortune.
Sadly a 70 year old German tourist was killed by a shark, whilst she was swimming just 20 metres from the shore at the luxury resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. We will be going on holiday to Egypt next year and you will not be getting me into the sea. There are some very real dangers all swimmers face when they decide to go for a swim in the sea. I enjoy swimming a lot on my holidays but all my swimming is done in the hotel pool. Life is about managing risks and I can't see the point of putting yourself at unnecessary risk by swimming in the sea, when you can have a far more enjoyable swim in the hotel pool. I get far more pleasure from swimming in a hotel pool than swimming in the sea. This is without the risk you encounter in the sea from pollution and nasty creatures taking bites out of you. Some swimmers also get caught out at sea by the depth and current which can result in drowning, a fatal risk that is avoided in the hotel pool.
I am not alone in my opinion about not wanting to swim in the sea. Dominic Lawson writes a very good column in the Independent today...
Similarly, one must not say of the 70-year-old German woman who last weekend was mauled to death by a shark in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh: didn't it occur to her that if a few days earlier two tourists off the same beaches had lost significant parts of their anatomy (respectively, a hand and a leg) to two different sharks that it would not be very sensible to swim out in those waters?
...So, there you have it, be afraid - be very afraid! You have paid a lot of good money for your holiday, so do the sensible thing and only swim in the hotel pool. The three Russians and a Ukrainian tourist who were mauled last Wednesday got off relatively light, the 70 year old German paid the ultimate price for not learning from other people's misfortune.
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