Adventures in Asia: Lombok, Indonesia (part 2)
The very unglamorous solo travels in Asia continue (read part one here)
I finally departed Sekotong, South Lombok — the first stop on my trip — after a 10 day stay. I extended twice and even cancelled some plans to visit waterfalls in Tetebatu to stay and do more dives. All I can say is that it was well worth it!
Sekotong is a beautiful and remote corner of Lombok island and the Dive Zone resort in South Lombok feels a little more like a farm than a beach resort. There are resident cows and calves, chickens, dogs and cats (sometimes even a goat wanders in). Some of the resident characters are Licky Mouth the cow, who loves to lick you, especially after diving when you are nice and salty, Waggy Tail the dog, who gets very excited to eat leftover dinner and Ginger, the cat, who was born without a tail and always demands cuddles.
Two days before I finally left, one of the cats gave birth to four beautiful kittens. I was there to see the first one pop out and I continued to look after mama cat and babies. I even named all four of them (yes, they’re mostly named after me)! Izzy is short for Isbjørn, Corona is the male version of Carina and Little Madam was what the instructors called me teasingly.
When I first arrived in the land of scuba, apprehensive and a little clueless, I didn’t know what nudibranchs were and why everyone loved talking about them (they’re awesome). Turns out they, and any sightings, are a little like underwater Pokemon (gotta catch em all!) and people like to document their sightings in log books and on camera.
I completed my Open Water PADI course in 3 days on 20 October and took a chill day to snorkel and get a massage at an island beach resort (heavenly). The next day I started on my Advanced Open Water course after other divers at the Dive Zone centre convinced me it was a grand idea. I was so very unprepared for how much fun it would be!
For my five adventure dives in the Advanced course, I did a deep dive, drift dive, underwater navigation, night dive and peak performance buoyancy. My initial response to buoyancy was not a great one but I soon learned to love trying different techniques and honing my skills to stay buoyant underwater. My instructor and I played various games which was great fun. I even managed to hover vertically upside down on my first try but was horrible at running underwater. I used a lot of air laughing on that dive!
Perhaps the thing I dreaded most was managing safety stops after my first attempt at one failed. These 3 minute stops at 5m are an important safety measure to give the nitrogen that my body absorbs underwater at pressure time to dissolve (to avoid decompression sickness). In my first fun dive after the Open Water course I got tangled in the surface marker buoy (SMB) line and ended up skipping the stop. Luckily after that I’ve completed my stops perfectly! Sometimes I use them to practise skills midwater as a way to pass the time.
The night dive was incredible and freaky. Visibility was rather poor and everything feels different underwater in the pitch black. It requires a bit more focus as it’s important to use the torch correctly, not to blind the other divers and sea creatures unnecessarily. A real highlight was swimming in the bioluminescent water, with glittering blue diamonds of light erupting around me as I moved through the water.
The deep and drift dives were great as I got to try negative entries, something I got right first (and every) time. I much prefer it to the positive/buoyant descent as you just meet below the surface to start the dive. On my deep dive I went down to 30m and got to experience gas narcosis — feeling high from being at such depths is strange! My instructor had brought an empty coke bottle which he filled with air and took back to the surface where the air was compressed at 4 bar!
In between the adventure dives I also did some fun dives and I was super lucky to be diving with two instructors and a dive master trainee (DMT) most of the dives. I also got great experience with the unusually bad 5m visibility and strong currents that are not common in the South Gilis (I’m told). After one of my dives, I was the body used for practising the DMT’s rescue scenario. I was even lifted into the boat and scared the other guests a little who didn’t know we were rehearsing saving an unconscious diver!
All this led to the opportunity to dive at Belongas Bay, at dive sites renowned for being difficult. The conditions were uncharacteristically brilliant on the day, with very little surf and surge and calmish currents at the change of the seasons. Many fear the strong down currents at The Magnet, the first dive site, where we hoped to see hammerhead sharks (unfortunately didn’t see any). Cathedral was beautiful and the scale of the reef and the almost-ornate looking vistas took my breath away. The final site, Gili Sarang was filled with so much sea life that my eyes didn’t know where to look. The sightings of the day that stood out most were a day octopus, a large lion fish, several olive sea snakes, baby white-tipped reef sharks and a large school of barracudas. I had a couple of issues with my mask fogging and flooding and on the final dive my weight belt mysteriously fell off — luckily I managed to catch and reattach it.
To have had the experiences and sightings I’ve had in only 10 days makes me realise how lucky I am. I wasn’t sure I’d be into this diving thing but it didn’t take long for me to be hooked!
I’m definitely a little sad to leave, though I’m excited for the next stop: Nusa Lembongan (yes, for more diving)!
