Over the last couple of days I’ve been busy with the PADI course, which is coming along nicely. Day 3 (Sunday) brought two more scuba lectures and two more dives. Nearly everything we learn is a solution for a problem, usually occurring underwater. Problems such as air running out, masks filling with water, buddy’s air supply running out, needing to perform an emergency ascent, towing an unconscious diver etc are all simulated and the solutions checked by our instructor Imin and our dive master Stephanie.
The days here are long and extremely tiring. The usual routine is wake up (by cockerel method) at 6.30, breakfast at 7, lecture 1 at 8 followed by questioning and a quiz, down to the dive area to prep and kit up at 10, dive 1 at 11-12.45, lunch at 1, down to the dive area to prep and kit up at 2, dive at 3-4.45, free time until dinner at 7, lecture 2 at 8 followed by questioning and a quiz, bed around 10 by which time we’re shattered. Still not fully acclimatised yet so all of this is done in high temperatures and humidity. We stayed up last night to watch the England-Germany match which finished at midnight so have been feeling very tired today, but our first open water dives were sufficient to wake me up!
We had our first one at 11am this morning (day 4) where we practiced remaining neutrally buoyant before swimming off for 30 minutes on a tour of the reef. Visibility wasn’t amazing but the biodiversity certainly was. I lost count of how many different species there were down there. I saw huge sea cucumbers, lion fish (v poisonous), alligator fish, puffer fish, needle fish, parrot fish eating huge chunks of coral, huge vibrant blue starfish, quite a few crab species and innumerable species of less distinguishable reef fish. The second dive yielded much of the same, only with many more lion fish. After coming back from the dive I took some photos and videos of our hut and nearly collided with a giant fruit bat that fell out of a tree opposite us and flew directly towards me. Part of the wonder of this place is the fact that I’m coming face to face with hundreds of animals that I’ve usually only seen in David Attenborough productions. Just yesterday morning there was a 2m long monitor lizard (looks similar to the Komodo dragons but not as large) blocking the path to breakfast. Thankfully they seem more frightened of us than we are of them and it scuttled off as soon as I came round the corner. At the moment I’m sitting on our balcony listening to the chirping of the cicadas, the wind through the trees, the breaking waves, and the odd squawk of something that unfortunately falls prey to something else. Dinner is in 20 minutes so I’m going to head up to the lodge and attempt to post this online with some photos and maybe a video/sound clip of a bird that lives in our roof. I have my PADI written exam tomorrow morning so wish me luck - this time tomorrow I may be a PADI Open Water certified diver!
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