A Dose of World Cup Fever

In common with the rest of the planet, World Cup fever has swept across Australia. Since qualifying via penalties against a cynical Uruguay in November, anticipation has been building to a crescendo, and, prior to the first game against Japan, the country was about ready to burst.

I know this will sound pretty mundane to those north of the equator, I guess the excitement here is a mere ripple compared to the tidal wave which has swept the streets of England. But, bear with me, in Australian terms it is remarkable. The country has no real tradition in football and has only qualified once before for the finals (in 1974) and nobody can remember that as they didn’t even score a goal and came home very shortly after they arrived.

Suddenly though, the whole country is footy mad, the streets are decked in green and gold, the politicians have taken their seats on the bandwagon and the man on the street is an overnight expert, sagely discussing Angola’s chances against Mexico.

After a deflating 80 minutes (sound familiar?) against Japan, the Socceroos banged in three goals from absolutely nowhere, surprising everybody including themselves. On a normal day, watching Australia play soccer is only marginally more exciting than watching grass grow, so this was a an incredible moment in their soccer history.

So, in the blink of an eye, the excitement swept straight past optimism and confidence and has now become something resembling their usual sporting swagger and cockiness. The creaky bandwagon soon sprouted wings and jet engines and now resembles the De Lorean in Back to the Future.

After this morning’s plucky but fruitless stab at the Brazilians we will wait and see how the mood changes. I will keep you informed.

Meanwhile, I am suffering from my own World Cup fever as my body tries to adjust to the contortions that my sleeping arrangements need in order to catch a 1.30am or 4.00am kick off. And I am in good company. The whole country is suffering from sleep deprivation and there are plenty of bewildered looking people at Adelaide City Council. They all work in community development.

Meanwhile, as the party got under way in Germany, Mandy got dealt some bum shifts over the weekend and I took the chance to disappear up country for a couple of days.

My new diving club had planned a weekend on the Yorke Peninsula, a 250 mile drive from the city and a great chance to see a bit more of the country.

Aside from being a good place for fishing, not much else seems to happen on the peninsula. It is a big and very, very flat piece of land with small towns scattered sparsely about in order to break the monotony of mile after mile and field after field of sheep.

The towns themselves are typical examples of Australian country settlements. Not being short of room, they manage to make a tiny place spread and sprawl with wide roads and big spaces between the buildings. However, being pretty small, (the word ‘town’ is a relative one in Australia), the places are generally over before they have begun and it’s back to the sheep.

Anyway, weekends away diving in Australia are very similar to those in the UK, which is to say that if you are not in the water, you are probably in the pub. The club boat was being fixed so we jumped in the choppy, murky water and explored under some of the numerous angler infested piers.

Diving under a jetty is always interesting as they tend to act as artificial reefs and, over here at least, the legs of the piers are covered in corals with a great abundance of life and junk to investigate.

It turned out to be my lucky weekend under the pier as I bumped into a creature unique to South Australia and while not particularly rare, very difficult to find, the Leafy Sea Dragon.

As you can see from the picture, it is a little like a special forces sea horse, it doesn’t move very fast, is about 8 inches long and spends it’s days pretending to be a piece of seaweed. And a very cunning disguise it is too. It is not uncommon to see divers pointing animatedly at phantom Leafys which turn out to be clumps of seaweed.

They can be frustrating, but they are amazing creatures and it was my first confirmed Leafy find after making a fool of myself more than once by waving my arms wildly near big lumps of seaweed! So I’m happy now.

Have a good week

M&W