Bali Dive Briefing - October 22, 2011

Bali update…better a bit late than never.

Apologies for the lateness of this post but things (flood water, school closures, a bad case of food poisoning, evacuating the city) happened to get in the way. But have no fear, the moment you have all been waiting for has finally arrived! The Bali Dive Briefing starring yours truly – everyone’s favorite candidate for Best Dive Job in the World- Joe Zeiler and everyone’s favorite dive resort in Bali – Blue Season Bali!

Living only a few hours flight away from Bali, I have been fortunate enough to have dived with Blue Season Bali before (and even more fortunate to have spotted the Best Dive Job in the World poster on the shop wall). My last experience with Blue Season was this past July where I spent 3 days on a “Mola-Mola Madness” dive safari which put me in close quarters not only with magnificent Mola-Mola but also with majestic Mantas (both black and white versions), hawksbill turtles, lion fish, swirling schools of trevally and jacks, tiny crabs, and a huge variety of technicoloured nudibranchs (among a million other fish that would take me a lifetime to list).

So you can imagine my excitement as Blue Season picked me up at my hotel at the crisp morning hour of 7am. My guide for the day was Wayan, an incredibly knowledgeable and well skilled dive guide who, as I was soon to find out, clearly had an inside line to Mola-Mola central. There was only one other person in my dive group, Mr. Adachi from Japan.  I think I was put in this group because I can speak Japanese and in addition to Wayan’s Mola hunting skills, he is also a fluent Japanese speaker. So it was decided that we would conduct our day in Japanese, a language all three of us were confortable in.  I have rarely had the chance to speak Japanese since I left Japan so it’s always nice when I have a chance to speak it, strangely, it only seems to be when I’ve diving that the opportunity arises. 

So we pulled up to the Blue Season centre, had our morning cup of coffee, sorted our equipment (which consisted of not one but TWO wetsuits for wimpy me!) and we were off to the dive boat.  The trip to Nusa Penida took about 40 minutes and the water was glass smooth.  Our first dive site was Crystal Bay, a lovely little bay with….you guessed it…crystal clear waters.  Unfortunately, as with a clear winter’s day. The clearer the water, the colder it is and I was none too prepared for the rush of 17 degrees that seeped into my wetsuit. Note to self – invest in a hood and some gloves when I get to Bali!

The dive was great, beautiful fish too many to name, ribbon eels, moray eels, garden eels, nudibranchs, crabs, a banded sea snake and the beautiful corals that crystal bay is known for. A too many moments to counts I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was swimming in a giant fish tank. It was breathtaking (…or was that just the freezing water leaving me breathless?).    All in all it was great dive but alas…no Mola Mola this morning L

Our second dive was at Tugu, a drift dive site about a 15 minute boat ride away.  The currents were unpredictable and we had to wait a bit while things settled (somehow Wayan could tell the shifting currents simply by looking at the surface of the water).  After we got the all clear we were in and landed almost right on the head of a grazing Hawksbill turtle! After a short visit we drifted on to visit with some lovely lionfish and ourangutan crabs as well as schools of surgeon fish, sweetlips, red toothed triggers, clown triggers,  tuna…you name it! ….but alas…no Mola Mola yet again L

It was now time for lunch (everyone’s favorite part of a day of diving) and a return back to Crystal Bay for a last ditch attempt to spot the elusive Mola-Mola.  As we descended on our 3^rd and final dive I was pleased to see that the water temperature has risen from 17 to 22 degrees and I wasn’t freezing through my neoprene any longer. About 5 minutes into the dive we turned a corner of the reef and all of a sudden we come face to face with a massive Mola Mola! 3 meters fin to fin in absolutely crystal clear waters, no sediment, no plankton, no thermaclines….nothing.  She (or he) was clearly a fish in search of the spotlight since she seemed to be more than happy to just hang in mid water and pose for the eager (and slightly flailing) photographers and divers who were bumping into each other as they tried to get the best shot/look at her.  We were lucky enough to spend 20 full minutes in her company before another group of divers decided that they would swim right towards her which of course made her hightail (ha ha…even though she doesn’t really have one) it outta there.  The rest of the dive we spent poking around the reef where I spotted yet another fish that I was been itching to meet in person – a horned cow fish!! So cute! So…horney!  Me and him spent some quality time scooting around and then sadly it was time to ascend and time to say goodbye to Nusa Penida until next time (hopefully right after I WIN Best Dive Job in the World!)

Cowfish! MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 
Hello there Ms. Mola-Mola

The ride home was a bit bumpier than the ride there but the smiles on the boat were from ear to ear as we were informed that that was one of the best Mola visits they had had in a long time! As the day came to an end I was left with the feeling more than ever that I was born to do this! Joe Zeiler was made for this job.  Here’s hoping!!!!

( I did not take the above pictures by the way....I'm far too crap at taking underwater pics for that...thank you to google images for helping me out)

Cheers from the fish tank
J