It still counts as an animal!
On honeymoon in Bali a few years ago, we were doing the usual things - bungy jumping, paragliding, jetskiing, as you do.

We went jetskiing with a couple of Balinese guys who knew what they were doing. Wifeys bloke was zipping her around and doing crazy stuff, and my guy was trying to teach me how to jetski properly.

Of course, I flodded the engine and the whole thing stopped. He said it would take a few minutes for the engine to cool down and unflood, then we could be off again. A wave hit us, then another, and before you know it we had unbalanced our stationary vehicle.

I fell in and started to tread water, not realising we were very close to the reef. I scrape my left leg across a coral, yell as the spines dig into my leg and foot, and move swiftly away.

We limped back to the shore, where I washed my leg off under a tap. Loads of little spines sticking in my flesh. The guys in the beach hut cover the wounds with iodine, and we go back to our room and call the hotel doctor. He appears and uses a syringe needle to lift out most of the spines - but some are embedded in the flesh. He says they'll come out of their own accord in time. I therefore commit the international crime of exporting coral out of a country on my way home.

I just also felt my ankle - there are still a few there. Maybe I'm Coral Man, and I have coral powers. Hmm. That was nearly 8 years ago.
(kiwanotree Meh, Thu 2 Jun 2005, 17:24, Reply)