So the main reason for the trip (aside from escaping life for a while) was of course to go scuba diving. The best chance one can have to see the adorable mola mola or sunfish anywhere in the world, is in Bali during the month of August! So this was our main target! Aside from seeing the rare and elusive mola mola, diving in Bali is just so so. (compared to Sipadan and Manado)
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| mola mola a.k.a. sunfish (Hubby took this pic) |
The mola mola are usually at deeper depths and so they are hard to find. However, in the month of August, cold waters from Australia will encourage the mola to come up closer to the surface for cleaning. They have cleaning stations where smaller fishes will eat the parasites off their bodies. This is the best time to see them, when they come up and keep still for cleaning. So we were forewarned and prepared extra vests and hoods to protect ourselves from the cold temperatures which were expected to go down to around 19*C sometimes!
On the first day, we went to Sanur beach to take a boat out to Nusa Penida. The first dive was to be done at Manta Point at Nusa Penida. I forgot to take my sea sickness pills and thought I would just try going without them first! (SIL had some with her but I hadn't been on a boat for 2 years and had forgotten how bad I could get!)
So, by the time we reached Manta Point, I was pretty sick and forced myself to suit up and jump in anyway! Underwater, I tried not to turn my head around too much and was very close to removing my mouthpiece to puke! (yes, underwater!)
But it was worth the pain, as we saw two huge mantas swimming by almost immediately! The water was clear, but not as clear as the water was when we were at Manado or Sipadan, and the mantas were a distance away, so the effect wasn't as I had expected. I dunno, maybe I was expecting a magical moment swimming with gentle giants perhaps? But this was more like watching them on tv! Lol!
It was still a cool moment, as this was the first time I have seen real life, huge, wild mantas up close. However, I was still not feeling well, and the moment we surfaced, I promptly removed my regulator and puked into the water!
So the second dive was out for me. I decided to take a couple of pills and sleep on the boat. Oh did I mention it was cold as well??!! So I was cold, tired and sea sick and just had to take a nap.
The boat moved on to Crystal Bay, where we hoped to catch a glimpse of the mola mola. We had scheduled 3 days of diving here, in case the mola eluded us! So Hubby, SIL and Tzarina went down for the second dive, leaving miserable me on the boat, trying to keep my pills down.
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| That's Hubby going after the mola! FYI you're not supposed to do that! |
And guess what? They saw the mola almost straight away! Two of them!! It was amazing! I was so excited for them! But when they came up, everyone was shivering and complaining of the cold! The temperature had gone down to a freezing 17*C!! Everything had gone right; the temperature was cold enough for the mola, and there wasn't any current to deter the divers!
I felt better after my rest, and the mola sightings had me energized, so I suited up for the third dive. Tzarina decided to sit this one out, as it was too cold for her taste!
This time however, we did not see the molas. The temperature was down to 19*C where we were, and I was gritting my teeth and clamping down on my regulator mouthpiece!! I was shivering and hugging myself while diving!! The dive master went deeper to look for the mola, but the current had started to get strong and we decided to surface.
So I was the only one who did not see the mola, but I did not mind at all! I didn't think it was worth braving the cold to try again!! Everyone agreed and so we decided to change our diving schedule and move to a different location the next day! Enough swimming in refrigerator water for us thankyouverymuch!
The next day, we went to Tulamben, a good site with a shipwreck, USS Liberty, just 10m out from the shore. The only downside is it is a 3hr drive one way, and we have to do shore dive, meaning walk out from the beach, not jump in from the boat.
We have never done shore dives before, so this was something new for us. The beach is a rocky beach, consisting of black volcanic rocks, so going over the rocks with all our heavy equipment while being battered by the strong waves was really difficult and super tiring! We were losing our balance and falling all over the rocks!
But the dive site was excellent, with a huge shipwreck teeming with reef life, and to the right of it a black volcanic sand field good for muck dives, and then even further left, a reef wall good for wall dives!
We did two dives at the shipwreck, where we met a turtle and found pygmy seahorses and saw creepy garden eels which came out really far from their holes in the ground!
The last dive of the day we did a muck dive and found many macro creepy crawlies to photograph!
The next day we did Tulamben again, one muck dive near the shipwreck, a wall dive at the reef and another muck dive at Tasik Point further down the road.
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| nasi campur lunch break: warming up in the sun after a cold dive |
Diving Tasik Point was easier, as it was volcanic sand and not volcanic rocks, so we didn't bounce about in the waves when going in and out!! I guess we were also getting the hang of shore diving. Anyways, muck dives are always very relaxing and slow paced as you dig around for tiny, tiny things to see!
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| Hubby shooting away |
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| nudibranch: a favourite of underwater photographers as they come in a myriad of colours and pretty much keep still while you shoot!! |
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| Nudibranch eggs! Amazing right?? |
Can't wait to start planning for next year's dive trip!! ;) Maldives? Komodo Island? Philippines???
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