Bali Dive Blog

One of the best things about being a diver and living in Bali is the ease of spontaneous dive trips. You wake up on a Sunday morning and think “Diving would be nice.” A few hours later, there you are, communing with the fishes.

Tom, Mia and I recently became PADI Assistant Instructors. Not that it really confers much, but we thought we’d test our new skills on some of Tom’s friends from Jakarta.

Thea, Gregor and I left Kerobokan for Tulamben Saturday night so we could be in the water early Sunday morning. We drove up with Tom and Mia caravanning. We knew we couldn’t make it all the way to Tulamben without dinner, so we stopped in Candidasa at Vincent’s which had recently been recommended by quite a few people.

As we weren’t in a hurry, Vincent’s fine dining was well appreciated. The food was good, the jazz music wafting from the stereo relaxing, and the artwork thought provoking. Gregor didn’t make it through the meal without a temper tantrum, but otherwise it was lovely.

We arrived late at Matahari Tulamben Resort. Run by Pak Oka, this has become our favorite place in Tulamben with its helpful staff, small pool, yummy food and affordable prices.

We woke in the morning to Gregor’s little butt inching itself off the bed. It was just dawn, but he was eager to see the ocean. So up we got! The sun was rising over Lombok’s mountains, outlining Mt. Rinjani. The water was perfectly clear and calm with the waves just lapping at the stone beach.

I grabbed a cup of coffee and waited for Tom and Mia to join me. Their friends weren’t up yet, so it was time for an early morning fun dive. We went to the Drop-Off. Tom and Mia had both managed to leave their dive computers at home (OOPS), so we ended up following mine. It was a good dive with good vis and good critters- some nice Nudibranchs to shoot like Chromodoris magnifa and hundreds of teeny baby nudis

We got back to the hotel to find everyone awake. While Tom and Mia got their friends sorted with rental gear, I ate breakfast and watched Thea and Gregor go for a snorkel. It’s hard on Thea not being able to dive while she’s pregnant, but Gregor’s developing snorkel skills keep her in the water. They reported they saw Nemo and starfish.

We took three novice divers with us on our second dive. Wanting to wow them, we brought them to the wreck. I was with Ardi, Tom was with Witono, and Mia brought Yanti. Tom reviewed the basics (mask clear and regulator recovery) on the bottom before we explored the wreck. Ardi was fine, so I let him follow me as I hunted for suitable photo ops (Chromodoris atromarginata).

They surfaced beaming (as most divers do), and we walked back to Matahari for lunch before the third dive of the day. Gregor was happily playing with other kids in the pool and impressing everyone with his junior snorkeling skills.

A quick nap and we were ready for dive three, this one to the Drop-Off again. While the novice divers were not nearly as impressed as at the wreck, Tom spotted a teeny tiny baby clown anglerfish nestled in the sand that we oohed and aahed over for quite a while. You could see Ardi wondering what all the fuss was about. Lucky for me, he was okay on his own while I spent minute after minute shooting the fish. He was about as big as my pinky nail… and my macro lens could just get him in focus. We also saw lots more Nudibranchs, including a Barthella martensi.

I took Ardi swimming back with me to Matahari in the shallows. When I surfaced I saw that Gregor and Thea had just finished another snorkeling session, so I dropped my tank and went back in the water to snorkel with Gregor. Thea and I saw an octopus, but we’re not sure if Gregor could figure out what it was.

We finally headed back down South, this time with three cars. We met up with Wolfgang and Marta at Arena for dinner. Wolfgang had ordered us a pork knuckle one day in advance. We were not disappointed, it puts the one at Mama’s to shame. A nice meal and a few beers to complete the day. We fell soundly into bed.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 17th, 2005 at 15:32 and is filed under SCUBA Diving, Bali. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.