Today I went diving.  I had almost private diving again.  There was another guy diving and since we were different experience levels, they gave us two dive guides so that I could do deeper and longer dives.  Wow, I’ve never had a dive company do that before.  It was shore diving.  They drove us 20 minutes to the next town.  The shore operation was fascinating.  It was a 5 minute walk from the parking lot down a trail to a rock “beach”.  There were quite a few other divers.  There were porters that brought all the stuff down.  Woman would carry bags or bins of gear down to the beach on their heads.  I saw some carrying tanks on their heads as well.  Then there were guys that rode motorbikes down while carrying 4 tanks and weight belts.  I’ve seen a lot of things on motorbikes, but four heavy tanks of air balanced in front of them was just nuts.  Then, the whole process would reverse itself as they brought stuff back up to the parking lot.

Getting in the water was tricky as there was no sand, just rock and the rock moves as the water and your feet connect with them.  The rocks are all black and when you swam out to the sandy part, it was all black.  I’ve never dove blank sand before.  It looked so alien.  Because it’s so rocky, there is very little coral as it’s difficult for coral to attach to rock.  There is a wreck not far off shore which is full of coral and fish life.  The ship was the USAT Liberty which was a cargo ship that was torpedoed in 1942.  They were able to beach it on Bali and get the cargo off.  It stayed beached until 1963 when the tremors from a volcanic eruption caused it to slide into the water and sink.  This area is known for what is called muck diving.  Not a ton of big fish, but lots of tiny things hidden in the rocks, sand and the little bit of coral that has managed to grow.  There is a small royal blue fish about 1 to 2 inches long that I’ve seen on almost every dive everywhere around the world.  My favourite part was seeing schools of these swimming above the black sand.  The black background made the blue so sharp it looked like the fish were glowing with blue light.  I’m not a huge fan of wrecks, but this one was pretty cool.  The amount of coral and fish life was amazing, probably because there isn’t much else around.  The wreck was very large too.  Saw another sea turtle.  The second dive was like Easter egg hunting – swimming from one tiny bit of coral reef to the next looking for tiny creatures.  My dive guide was good at finding them.  He found an itty bitty sea horse about a quarter inch big.

After diving I ventured into town.  I think ‘town’ might be a big word for where I’m staying.  I think it was small enough that I actually walked the length of two towns.  There is basically one street and that is all.  It is lined with guest houses and homestays, restaurants, and dive shops.  It’s mostly still a fishing village.  I got a massage.  They use oil so now I’m just hot, sweaty, covered in oil and sand.  Everything is sticking to me.  I had dinner at a different place and wanted to stay out and check out the place with live music, but I couldn’t stand the oil anymore and I love the place I’m staying so the thought of a shower and then camping out in my wonderful bed won over live music.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore