Day 2 ：Menjangan
After having breakfast. I was waiting for Luca. He came to the hotel before long. We are going to Menjangan island for diving today. The island is located off the northern coast of Bali at the very west end, and it takes 30 minutes by boat from the nearest port. 10-minute drive brought us to the port. We got on a boat after the registration.
Bat cave
The first dive was Bat cove. Visibility was good, more than 20 meters. Water temparature was 28 degrees Celsius. This site was a drop off of which soft corals were quite beautiful, and I was impressed by its sea fans that were seen all over the site. I admired the corals and damsels in the sea for more than 1 hour before the exit.
Anker wreck
The second was Anker wreck. Although you can see the objects that seems an anchor of a wreck, this was not a wreck point but a site of beautiful corals. Corals cover all over its reef. It is a very relaxing sight. I encountered a green sea turtle when I moved deeper along the slope. 76 minutes. A satisfying dive.
Coral garden
The last dive today was at Coral garden. We swam along its drop off seeing sea fans. A massive school of fish or something was looming out of the water ahead of us while we swam along. It was a huge school of Indian mackerel. I like to photograph a school of fish because I feel a sort of power from it, and it never stay in one shape, I never get tired of it. The school emerged many times while we went along the drop off. I enjoyed taking photos so much the dive was over before I knew it.
I crossed the sea between the islands and returned to the same hotel after the third dive. I relaxed at the hotel and took an enough rest for tomorrow diving.
Day3: Menjangan again
We are going to dive at Menjangan again, but with macro lens today.
Bat cave
Although the first dive was at the same site as yesterday, we moved though the sea with completely different eyes. Pygmy seahorse, pink squat lobster, square spot fairy basslet and many kinds of crustaceans, we spotted those interesting creatures and photographed.
Anker wreck
The same sites as the yesterday second dive. I spotted creatures which are popular for divers, such as beautiful shrimps, colorful sea squirts, clown fish, and Amblyeleotris randalli.
There was a shockly loud thunder and an heavy impact like a sound “boom” during the diving. Luca explained to me that it was dynamite fishing at Java island. I felt the impact although it was done 10 kilometers away. There is no wonder that fish near the blast get knocked out. I don’t want to feel this impact again, that was a rare experience. I hope fishermen will abandon that way to fish someday.
Mimpi channel
After the second diving, we backed to the Bali island and dived the third near the port. Luca suggested that we can see Lembe sea dragon in the site.
Lembe is a small island located off the coast of the very northeast end in Sulawesi island, whose shape is the letter K. It is a diver’s heaven where you can see many kinds of rare small creatures. He said that we can spot that sea dragon named after that island in the site, Bali too. I couldn’t imagine what was the sea dragon like because I had never been to Lembe and seen the creature, and I was so interested that I decided to dive there.
The bottom was very muddy. I was cautious not to swirl up the mud while we were going ahead.
Derek, the guide pointed with his finger. But I could only tell that the thing he pointed was some kind of thin seaweed covered with mud. I though that there was a very tiny creature on the thing and look closely, but I didn’t see anything seemed to be a living thing. I didn’t understand where that was. It was while I was staring around the sea weed that one of the two sea weed suddenly bent by itself. I realized it had eyes at last. The whole of what was like seaweed was the sea dragon. The other seaweed with mud was real. I had never thought that there is a creature that simulates such a thing. It was a perfect simulation.
Once my eyes accustomed themselves to the creature, I realized that they were here and there in the area. However, photographing was difficult. The environment they lived in was not so beautiful. Taking photo without clear ideas made photos unsatisfactory for both art photo and illustrated reference book. I regretted that I couldn’t come up with the ideas during this dive while I was excited by seeing such an interesting creature. I will try again next time.
I packed my baggage after returning to the hotel. We are going to Singaraja, north of Bali tomorrow.
Luca’s diving service：http://www.underwatertribe.com/
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