Following my four-day dive package at Komodo, I returned to Bali to meet up with my dive buddy @outofofficebrb (Jen), who had been diving at Triton Bay, West Papau.
I had overnighted at the airport Novotel on my return to DPS, and the driver from Villa Alba (VA) picked me up first before we headed to the Arrivals to meet Jen, who was flying in from Jakarta.
The three-hour drive to Tulamben passed fairly quickly.
On arrival at VA, which was early for me for a change, both dive and camera gear was assembled for the first dive the next morning.
I am beginning to lose count of the number of times I have dived with VA, needless to say I feel at home here, and the staff are fantastic, plus the dive guides excellent and supportive.
The most unusual animal we found was definitely the Mototi octopus, and of course there was the usual plethora of nudis that did not disappoint.
We also came across some of the tiniest frogfish ever, and one of the ugliest warty frogfishes I have ever seen.
We were joined by another couple of friends a few days in and I also had a reunion underwater with someone I hadn’t seen in years, one of my original UAE dive buddies Carole Harris, who now lives in Sydney Australia.
Water temperatures were a constant 29C, with a few dips to 28C, and after Day 1 I opted not to wear a wetsuit, something that came back to bite me at the end of the week.
Doing three dives per day does suck the heat out of you, and by Day 5 I did feel fine. That day I opted to do a night dive at VA House Reef, it was windy and a bit rougher that what I would have preferred, but went ahead anyway. I was cold!
The following morning, we did two dives at Sidem, I was chilled after the first dive and sat in the sun during the SI to warm up before heading back in. After lunch I felt okay, but in retrospect should have bailed on the third dive or at least donned my wetsuit for more thermal protection. I was really chilled on that dive, and didn’t feel great later, having some loss of appetite and feeling exhausted.
This resulted in cancelling my last day of diving, which was to do some wide angle photography at “Drop Off”, but hey, another time.
This is the first time I have dived continuously without wearing a wetsuit and I should have known better, at least wearing my 3mm on the afternoon dives, if not for all of the dives, so my own fault, and lesson learned!
I felt very exhausted for over a week after my return and had a really annoying cough for most of that, as well as a poor appetite, but happily recovered now and back diving locally in nice warm 31C water this morning.
I had overnighted at the airport Novotel on my return to DPS, and the driver from Villa Alba (VA) picked me up first before we headed to the Arrivals to meet Jen, who was flying in from Jakarta.
The three-hour drive to Tulamben passed fairly quickly.
On arrival at VA, which was early for me for a change, both dive and camera gear was assembled for the first dive the next morning.
I am beginning to lose count of the number of times I have dived with VA, needless to say I feel at home here, and the staff are fantastic, plus the dive guides excellent and supportive.
The most unusual animal we found was definitely the Mototi octopus, and of course there was the usual plethora of nudis that did not disappoint.
We also came across some of the tiniest frogfish ever, and one of the ugliest warty frogfishes I have ever seen.
We were joined by another couple of friends a few days in and I also had a reunion underwater with someone I hadn’t seen in years, one of my original UAE dive buddies Carole Harris, who now lives in Sydney Australia.
Water temperatures were a constant 29C, with a few dips to 28C, and after Day 1 I opted not to wear a wetsuit, something that came back to bite me at the end of the week.
Doing three dives per day does suck the heat out of you, and by Day 5 I did feel fine. That day I opted to do a night dive at VA House Reef, it was windy and a bit rougher that what I would have preferred, but went ahead anyway. I was cold!
The following morning, we did two dives at Sidem, I was chilled after the first dive and sat in the sun during the SI to warm up before heading back in. After lunch I felt okay, but in retrospect should have bailed on the third dive or at least donned my wetsuit for more thermal protection. I was really chilled on that dive, and didn’t feel great later, having some loss of appetite and feeling exhausted.
This resulted in cancelling my last day of diving, which was to do some wide angle photography at “Drop Off”, but hey, another time.
This is the first time I have dived continuously without wearing a wetsuit and I should have known better, at least wearing my 3mm on the afternoon dives, if not for all of the dives, so my own fault, and lesson learned!
I felt very exhausted for over a week after my return and had a really annoying cough for most of that, as well as a poor appetite, but happily recovered now and back diving locally in nice warm 31C water this morning.
