I thought I'd pop back in and tell you all what a wonderful couple of dives I had at LDR. I arrived later than planned as my flight was delayed and then we were sat on the runway waiting to depart as Bali airport was closed....then we were delayed landing and getting off the flight. So a flight I had taken to get me in at a reasonable time ended up with me arriving at LDR at 00.30. :-(
Regardless, I loved my first dive at the wreck and was astounded at how full of life it was. I will say though that the big trigger fish and the other rather large species of fish (I'm not sure what they were) made me a little nervous...! The corals growing on the boat and the swim throughs are fantastic though. Some of the smaller swim throughs again made me a little nervous but were fun to do regardless. I saw an amazing pink leaf scorpionfish, an electric clam which I thought I was filming but wasn't, a big map pufferfish among others.
My night dive was highly unenjoyable though and I doubt I'll do another one. I found the lack of vision very unnerving, the idea of all those big fish swimming around without me knowing where they were was also a little unsettling (sort of like a spider that you know is in the room but can't see) and then the current picked up and I was really overwhelmed. Then my guide led us back to shore without me fully realising what was happening until we were doing the safety stop and had managed to calm back down. All in, I'm sort of glad I've tried it but not keen to repeat the experience. As a new (and somewhat anxious) diver I should have left my camera behind and just focussed on just diving in the dark. Live and learn right?!
However, the next morning we went to Seraya and I had the most amazing dive. I have just done my EAN course so used Nitrox for the first time. We saw harlequin shrimps, an orangutan crab (I love that this exists!), a whip coral shrimp, a frogfish, loads of nudis and some tiger shrimp. This was all before 9am and made me so incredibly happy! I'll have to try to get some photos on flickr to share as I am beginning to get the feel for using my new TG5 for macro photos.
LDR was a great place to stay and I'm glad I took your advice WW! I would happily go back there for more (daytime) diving.
I'm now in Seminyak wondering what diving I might be able to do from here but not sure yet if I'll be able to....