The unerwaterworld
Trip Start
Jul 12, 2005
1
6
Trip End
Sep 19, 2005
Nusa Penida/Lembongan, Indonesia
Saturday, September 3, 2005
Since our last update we have been busy completing an open water diving certificate. Our first two dives were really cool and we saw some dangerous sea animals. During the first exercise a poisonous sea snake was trying to nibble our dive masters ankle - luckily they are very scared of anything so it swam/wiggled away quickly. Next we spotted two white tip reef sharks - they are amazing creatures to see so close up - so graceful but obviously trained killers. Every little sound underwater is amplified so when a boat goes over its really loud - we could see lots of boats above our heads, and the next thing I saw underwater was a fishing hook dangling around my arm which belong to the fisherman above - I avoided being 'caught' and bet I would have given the fisherman quite a shock if he had reealed me into his boat!!
For our next two dives we got some people together and got a 'high speed boat' over to the islands Nusa Penida and Nusa Lembongan. Nusa Penida is a limestone plateau with white-sand beaches and views over the water to the volcanos on Bali. Nusa Penida was formerly used for the banishment of criminals but now the main activity is seaweed farming. Smelly!.
On our first dive we went down to 27.7m (10metres deeper than you are supposed to do in an open water certificate!!) and saw some amazing undamaged coral blooms and gardens. Suddenly Lolo our dive master grabbed my arm and pointed towards a dark looming shadow.... So we swam really close to the coral and sneaked up on the huge shadow...which turned out to be the rare ocean sunfish, known in Bali as the 'Mola Mola'. It migrates through Bali from February through to November. It was a memorable sight.
We did a drift dive next at 24 metres. The current was strong and moving so fast it was hard to get a good look at anything underwater. The best way to slow down was to keep as close to the coral as possible without being shredded and I noticed places where all the large fish were 'hanging out' so I swam into crevices with them. We did see a large sting ray but no more scary big fish. Towards the end of the dive James was having difficulty breathing when he realizes he has ran out of air - luckily we were not far from the surface so he had to do an emergency swimming ascent.
The boat ride to and from the island was quite eventful - the swell had picked up and we were getting air in our flat hulled boat, and had to hang on for dear life for over an hour due to the rough sea and the driving skills of Lolo, a complete speed freak. We were also being overtaken by loads of flying fish on the way - I have never seen fish fly, it's a strange sight!
The day before the trip we went to local fishing tackle shop and purchased some fish lures which were supposed to be for catching tuna. When we proudly showed the indos our purchases they creased up laughing as we had been sold squid catchers!! Nethertheless between dives and lunchtime we tried fishing for squid...we didn't catch anything but I did master casting.
No more news:
the price of steak has stabilized,
the police are accepting us on the roads and have only been stopped once more without a fine.
