Well, that's it for my last full day in Australia. Tomorrow morning at 7 I head to the airport, and expect to be back in Halifax some 30 hours later. Woot! It's been a fun and educational experience. What really surprises me is how quickly new things become familiar. I have to actually pay attention to really see the tropical trees, for example. While at first all the vegetation here looked cool and different, now the trees all just look like, well, trees. I wonder if Nova Scotia will look foreign to me for the first few days?
I can hear my big comfy bed calling to me - I imagine it will seem so much nicer after short cramped little hostel beds! But I will certainly miss the nice warm weather, still getting highs around 25 or so here...
Ciao faithful readers. Until the next adventure that is! :)
Monday, April 18, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Chilling out
Not much to report since the Jenolan caves. I'm back in Sydney, just chilling out and nursing a cold (dammit, that makes 2 colds in 4 months). Spent a couple of days at Bondi Beach and went swimming with some cool fish (just with goggles). No other adventures to report on, just reading and walking a lot! Was going to go diving once more but of course that is not going to happen since I'm all stuffed up...
Four more days, then it's time to go home...
Four more days, then it's time to go home...
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Jenolan Caves - Orient and Lucas Caves
Went on a tour of two of the caves at Jenolan yesterday. The price of $82 includes the 1 hour drive from Katoomba to the caves and back as well as admission to two of the caves. Only some of the caves are "show caves". A lot of the other caves are not open to the public or access is restricted. This is primarily because even just bringing people in causes some damage, even if the people are respectful and don't touch stuff or, even worse, break off pieces and take them home. They actually go and clean the caves on a regular basis, vacuuming up hair and skin and sometimes washing the limestone formations. The formations grow quite slowly, and of course can stop growing entirely if no water happens to be flowing in that particular area...
The caves themselves were pretty awesome. An entirely different world, with an unbelievable variety of shapes. Not just the standard stalagmites and stalactites, but things like ribbons (literally a wavy ribbon of limestone growing down from the ceiling) or even stranger shapes. I took a few pictures (see below) but much better pictures are available online. And again I got that same thought I had when I first went diving, that people who create movie sets get inspiration from places like this.
Each tour lasted 1.5 hours. The guide also talked about some of the early tours a century or so ago. People went in with nothing but candles. In one of the caves, there is a long slope. In times past, the tour guide would set the visitor on a potato sack and send them sliding down the slope with their candle. weeeee.... Then you had to climb back up along a rope. It is certainly a lot easier and less adventurous now. The routes are fitted with concrete steps and railings, totally safe (and also to keep the cave safe from the visitors).
The first picture is a little hole about half a meter across, with all these crystals growing inside.
The second picture is just plain cool...
The third picture shows some of the more random, interesting shapes. There was one area in particular which had a lot of these white sculpted shapes.
The fourth picture is a good example of how large some of these formations are.
The caves themselves were pretty awesome. An entirely different world, with an unbelievable variety of shapes. Not just the standard stalagmites and stalactites, but things like ribbons (literally a wavy ribbon of limestone growing down from the ceiling) or even stranger shapes. I took a few pictures (see below) but much better pictures are available online. And again I got that same thought I had when I first went diving, that people who create movie sets get inspiration from places like this.
Each tour lasted 1.5 hours. The guide also talked about some of the early tours a century or so ago. People went in with nothing but candles. In one of the caves, there is a long slope. In times past, the tour guide would set the visitor on a potato sack and send them sliding down the slope with their candle. weeeee.... Then you had to climb back up along a rope. It is certainly a lot easier and less adventurous now. The routes are fitted with concrete steps and railings, totally safe (and also to keep the cave safe from the visitors).
The first picture is a little hole about half a meter across, with all these crystals growing inside.
The second picture is just plain cool...
The third picture shows some of the more random, interesting shapes. There was one area in particular which had a lot of these white sculpted shapes.
The fourth picture is a good example of how large some of these formations are.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Blue Mountains - Giant Stairway and the Three Sisters
A few days after the Kiana trip I flew down to Sydney and spent a few days in the city. Then I took a train to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains.
The Blue Mountains get their name from the blue haze often seen in the valleys. I believe it is due to the eucalyptus trees. Katoomba turns out to be a great spot for sightseeing, with lots of spectacular scenery within walking distance.
On my first day I walked out to the cliffs at Echo Point. Here is a formation called the Three Sisters, basically three very large rock formations extending from the cliffs. Right beside them is the "giant stairway", about 900 steps cut into the sandstone and leading down to the valley floor. Total vertical distance this stairway covers is about 300 meters. It basically just zigzags down along the cliff face, essentially a vertical descent. Guardrails are installed or it would be insane to try and go down. I climbed down and back up, at which point I was pretty out of breath...
Over the next few days I did some more hikes along the cliffs, down along the Katoomba waterfalls, down the stairway again and across to the falls and back up, and so on. Can't handle much more than 7-8 km a day, but that's not too bad considering how much of it is up and down steps. Other than that I've just been working and reading...
It is interesting how most people take this experience in. When I got out to the Three Sisters, a lot of people where on the viewing platform by the tourist center, all taking pictures and walking maybe 50 or a 100 meters down one of the paths. Beyond this, the population thinned out to maybe 1/50th - so at most one out of every 50 people went further than a 100 meters from where they got of the bus. Going down the giant stairway, I saw one other person... It really shows how for most people this is a consumer experience. They pay, get taken to places like this by bus, spend maybe an hour milling about and taking each others pictures, and then leave again. I think they spend more time telling their friends back home about the trip than they actually spend here. I'll have been here at least a week before I leave, and barely feel like I know the area at all or have really experienced it.
Pictures: In the picture of the Three Sisters, note the walkway and tiny black mark of a person on the far left, for scale.
The picture of the stairway naturally only shows a tiny piece, but it was all like this. Metal steps where the sandstone ones had fallen down. In most places the handrail is followed by a vertical drop, down, down, down...
The third picture shows one of the rock overhangs on a path around the waterfalls. Lots of places like this.
The Blue Mountains get their name from the blue haze often seen in the valleys. I believe it is due to the eucalyptus trees. Katoomba turns out to be a great spot for sightseeing, with lots of spectacular scenery within walking distance.
On my first day I walked out to the cliffs at Echo Point. Here is a formation called the Three Sisters, basically three very large rock formations extending from the cliffs. Right beside them is the "giant stairway", about 900 steps cut into the sandstone and leading down to the valley floor. Total vertical distance this stairway covers is about 300 meters. It basically just zigzags down along the cliff face, essentially a vertical descent. Guardrails are installed or it would be insane to try and go down. I climbed down and back up, at which point I was pretty out of breath...
Over the next few days I did some more hikes along the cliffs, down along the Katoomba waterfalls, down the stairway again and across to the falls and back up, and so on. Can't handle much more than 7-8 km a day, but that's not too bad considering how much of it is up and down steps. Other than that I've just been working and reading...
It is interesting how most people take this experience in. When I got out to the Three Sisters, a lot of people where on the viewing platform by the tourist center, all taking pictures and walking maybe 50 or a 100 meters down one of the paths. Beyond this, the population thinned out to maybe 1/50th - so at most one out of every 50 people went further than a 100 meters from where they got of the bus. Going down the giant stairway, I saw one other person... It really shows how for most people this is a consumer experience. They pay, get taken to places like this by bus, spend maybe an hour milling about and taking each others pictures, and then leave again. I think they spend more time telling their friends back home about the trip than they actually spend here. I'll have been here at least a week before I leave, and barely feel like I know the area at all or have really experienced it.
Pictures: In the picture of the Three Sisters, note the walkway and tiny black mark of a person on the far left, for scale.
The picture of the stairway naturally only shows a tiny piece, but it was all like this. Metal steps where the sandstone ones had fallen down. In most places the handrail is followed by a vertical drop, down, down, down...
The third picture shows one of the rock overhangs on a path around the waterfalls. Lots of places like this.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Kiana - Little Moments
On the 1st day we had first gone to Whitehaven Beach and then moored at another island. Just as we had finished mooring, 5 or 6 little swallows showed up and sat on a high spot at the back of the boat, chattering away and fluffing their feathers and being all-round adorable. Wonder what they were talking about?
At this spot, we also saw 2 goats high up on the cliff. What was even more entertaining is that a brief but lively discussion ensued, as to whether these creatures standing high on this rock overlooking the ocean were cows or goats. Imagine a cow hanging out on the cliffs! :)
I blinked, and missed what the guy beside me saw - a stingray jumping out of the water. Never did see a stingray on this trip, but my fellow traveler was shocked and awed indeed.
Sunrise on the third day - I was the first one up and stood way in the bow of the boat. With the boat behind me, there was nothing in the world except me, ocean, and a slowly brightening sky.
At this spot, we also saw 2 goats high up on the cliff. What was even more entertaining is that a brief but lively discussion ensued, as to whether these creatures standing high on this rock overlooking the ocean were cows or goats. Imagine a cow hanging out on the cliffs! :)
I blinked, and missed what the guy beside me saw - a stingray jumping out of the water. Never did see a stingray on this trip, but my fellow traveler was shocked and awed indeed.
Sunrise on the third day - I was the first one up and stood way in the bow of the boat. With the boat behind me, there was nothing in the world except me, ocean, and a slowly brightening sky.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Kiana - Day 3
Another early start to the day. I got up at 5:30 as soon as they started the generator (for cooking, etc.). Watched a lovely sunrise over the ocean. It was cloudy at first and then the cloud cleared and we had this lovely ball of fire hanging over the horizon.
Immediately after breakfast we went diving again, then snorkeling again while the new divers went on their dives. Saw this large lionfish on this dive:
Snorkeling this time was from the boat since there was little or no current to carry us away. Spent a long time, until they blew the horn for us to come back. For some reason I can't seem to equalize my ears when freediving (diving without scuba gear), so I only went down maybe 4-5 meters and then it hurt too much. So much coral, and again many different types of fish.
After diving/snorkeling was all done we took off right away. This time we were under engine and sail power. We moored at another island for lunch, then left for the last leg back to the harbor. During this time we also settled our bar tabs, packed, and the like. They turned the engine off for the last half hour, so that we were only under sail power and just gently cruised back. Then a little stop just outside the marina, so the captain had a chance to say thank you and farewell. The trip wrapped up around 3:00 pm. I spent most of the next day sleeping - guess I needed some recovery time!
Immediately after breakfast we went diving again, then snorkeling again while the new divers went on their dives. Saw this large lionfish on this dive:
Snorkeling this time was from the boat since there was little or no current to carry us away. Spent a long time, until they blew the horn for us to come back. For some reason I can't seem to equalize my ears when freediving (diving without scuba gear), so I only went down maybe 4-5 meters and then it hurt too much. So much coral, and again many different types of fish.
After diving/snorkeling was all done we took off right away. This time we were under engine and sail power. We moored at another island for lunch, then left for the last leg back to the harbor. During this time we also settled our bar tabs, packed, and the like. They turned the engine off for the last half hour, so that we were only under sail power and just gently cruised back. Then a little stop just outside the marina, so the captain had a chance to say thank you and farewell. The trip wrapped up around 3:00 pm. I spent most of the next day sleeping - guess I needed some recovery time!
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Kiana - Day 2, Part 2
After diving, we had a lovely lunch. It was really cool being out in the middle of the ocean, nothing but water all around. Right after lunch the new divers went diving, and the rest of us went snorkeling. There was a slight current, so we got dropped a bit away from the boat and basically just drifted back over the reef. In some places the coral was maybe a meter below the water, in other areas it drops down 20 meters to the ocean floor. This was a good chance to inspect some things a bit more leisurely, and of course you see a lot more color at the surface (the water absorbs light, starting with red. so you don't see as much color 20 meters below the surface.) The fish ranged in size from barely visible to over a meter in length (Giant Trevally are BIG!). All very friendly, except for the sharks which tend to run away from people. While snorkeling I dove down maybe 3-5 meters a bunch of times to take a closer look at things. Lots of clams, many different corals and a lot of fish. Saw a whole little school of parrot fish feeding on a small area of coral. But I never saw a fish eat another fish, strangely enough. Sure they do, but not something I managed to see.
By the time I was done snorkeling, both groups of new divers were back and it was time for the certified divers to go out again. So I guess that makes 7 dives in one day for the dive instructor...
This time we went through some underwater canyons. We were about 18 meters deep, almost at the ocean floor. And on either side the coral formations go up almost all the way to the surface. The walls of the formations are basically vertical, sometimes with large overhangs. 4 or 5 Giant Trevally were following us around for the whole dive, which the dive instructor said was quiet unusual. Interestingly enough there was litte coral or fish in the canyons themselves, probably not enough light. But as soon as we left a canyon, the whole wall all the way up to the surface would be covered by life again. I saw some huge clams. One was at least a foot long, with a wavy edge. You could look right into the thing - the opening were it pulled in water was probably an inch across. A nice vivid blue (at 18 meters anyway - no idea what color it actually is). So big they don't even snap shut all the way, just close a bit and pull back if you wave your hand over them. One of those could feed a family of 10, with leftovers...
Also saw a type of coral which is basically like a long, crooked wire. Only a centimeter or two thick, round, and sticking out a good 1 - 1.5 meters from the coral wall. Amazing that it is strong enough to withstand the current.
At the end of this dive it was raining, which looked really cool from underneath the water (last picture).
After diving we had supper and just chilled. Went to bed early, since the next day was another 6:00 am start for diving before heading back.
Some more pictures:
By the time I was done snorkeling, both groups of new divers were back and it was time for the certified divers to go out again. So I guess that makes 7 dives in one day for the dive instructor...
This time we went through some underwater canyons. We were about 18 meters deep, almost at the ocean floor. And on either side the coral formations go up almost all the way to the surface. The walls of the formations are basically vertical, sometimes with large overhangs. 4 or 5 Giant Trevally were following us around for the whole dive, which the dive instructor said was quiet unusual. Interestingly enough there was litte coral or fish in the canyons themselves, probably not enough light. But as soon as we left a canyon, the whole wall all the way up to the surface would be covered by life again. I saw some huge clams. One was at least a foot long, with a wavy edge. You could look right into the thing - the opening were it pulled in water was probably an inch across. A nice vivid blue (at 18 meters anyway - no idea what color it actually is). So big they don't even snap shut all the way, just close a bit and pull back if you wave your hand over them. One of those could feed a family of 10, with leftovers...
Also saw a type of coral which is basically like a long, crooked wire. Only a centimeter or two thick, round, and sticking out a good 1 - 1.5 meters from the coral wall. Amazing that it is strong enough to withstand the current.
At the end of this dive it was raining, which looked really cool from underneath the water (last picture).
After diving we had supper and just chilled. Went to bed early, since the next day was another 6:00 am start for diving before heading back.
Some more pictures:
Kiana - Day 2
Day 2 started at around 5:30 when the generator motor came on. Got up around 6 and had breakfast. Then the 6 certified divers went on our first dive, followed by the new divers in 2 groups of 4. After diving was done we took off immediately for Bait Reef, which is part of the outer reef. This leg of the trip took about 3 hours, providing a good opportunity to catch up on a bit of sleep.
Once at bait reef, we immediately went diving again. The certified divers before lunch, the new divers after lunch.
On the runabout, heading out to the dive spot, plus a couple underwater pictures:
Once at bait reef, we immediately went diving again. The certified divers before lunch, the new divers after lunch.
On the runabout, heading out to the dive spot, plus a couple underwater pictures:
Kiana - Day 1
I got up around 6:00 am to have breakfast, then it was off to the booking office to put my luggage into storage. They had given me a small cloth bag, this was all you are allowed to take on board. Not a problem though, everything I needed fit easily. Then a 10 minute walk down to the marina to meet the crew and get on the boat.
While still in the harbor we were assigned to bunks and given a brief introduction to the boat. Only major point was "don't touch any buttons". If you activate the emergency beacon when it is not required, the fine is $50 000. Apparently it used to be a $10 000 fine, but a few years ago some asshole activated one as a joke on another boat, and the rescue helicopter crashed on the way to the boat and the 4-man crew died. I do believe they put the joker in jail for a couple of years...
A nice snack was served once we were underway. Our first stop was Whitehaven beach. Or rather the other side of the island from the beach. We took the runabout to shore and walked over the island to the beach, where we spent about 3 hours. This is a pretty unique beach. The sand is almost pure silica - so pure NASA used some to make the mirror for the Hubble space telescope. Went swimming - I must say wearing a stinger suit and going swimming is weird. Beats getting killed by a jellyfish, I suppose.
A nice stack of passengers on the beach:
And me, riding a sand turtle:
After the beach, we returned to the ship and went to luncheon bay and moored there for the night. They have moorings at all the good spots in the park. Supper was made in a barrel on the back deck. It consisted of lamb, veggies, and potatoes, all steamed/cooked for three hours in this barrel. Very nice, lovely way to finish the day. Went to bed early since we planned to be under the water by 7:00 am the next morning for the first dive.
While still in the harbor we were assigned to bunks and given a brief introduction to the boat. Only major point was "don't touch any buttons". If you activate the emergency beacon when it is not required, the fine is $50 000. Apparently it used to be a $10 000 fine, but a few years ago some asshole activated one as a joke on another boat, and the rescue helicopter crashed on the way to the boat and the 4-man crew died. I do believe they put the joker in jail for a couple of years...
A nice snack was served once we were underway. Our first stop was Whitehaven beach. Or rather the other side of the island from the beach. We took the runabout to shore and walked over the island to the beach, where we spent about 3 hours. This is a pretty unique beach. The sand is almost pure silica - so pure NASA used some to make the mirror for the Hubble space telescope. Went swimming - I must say wearing a stinger suit and going swimming is weird. Beats getting killed by a jellyfish, I suppose.
A nice stack of passengers on the beach:
And me, riding a sand turtle:
After the beach, we returned to the ship and went to luncheon bay and moored there for the night. They have moorings at all the good spots in the park. Supper was made in a barrel on the back deck. It consisted of lamb, veggies, and potatoes, all steamed/cooked for three hours in this barrel. Very nice, lovely way to finish the day. Went to bed early since we planned to be under the water by 7:00 am the next morning for the first dive.
Kiana - Introduction
I spent the last 3 days (March 14-16) on the Kiana. This is one of only 2 boats which goes all the way to the outer reef, instead of just around the islands. It is also a dive boat which of course is really good - you only see so much of the reef when you are snorkeling. It is a sailing ship, but most of the time we were under engine power.
The boat had a crew of three: The captain who was also the marine engineer (responsible for repairs/maintenance as well as running the boat), the cook, and the dive instructor. In the interest of people's privacy I will leave out names, but they are a great crew. All very friendly and happy to answer any questions. I really have to emphasis that they worked very hard the whole time to make sure us passengers had a relaxed and enjoyable trip.
The back part of the boat's deck is covered, so you can be on deck and still out of the sun/rain. This was especially nice because you get a lot less seasick on deck, and it was a bit blustery the first day out. The limit of 14 passengers meant that there was lots and lots of room - fitting everybody on the either the back or front deck was not a problem.
Now to make another 3 entries for each of the days... :)
The boat had a crew of three: The captain who was also the marine engineer (responsible for repairs/maintenance as well as running the boat), the cook, and the dive instructor. In the interest of people's privacy I will leave out names, but they are a great crew. All very friendly and happy to answer any questions. I really have to emphasis that they worked very hard the whole time to make sure us passengers had a relaxed and enjoyable trip.
The back part of the boat's deck is covered, so you can be on deck and still out of the sun/rain. This was especially nice because you get a lot less seasick on deck, and it was a bit blustery the first day out. The limit of 14 passengers meant that there was lots and lots of room - fitting everybody on the either the back or front deck was not a problem.
Now to make another 3 entries for each of the days... :)
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Geckos and Boats
So I'm walking around the side of the hostel today, and all of a sudden something lands on my face and sticks to me. Pretty sure it was a gecko. Anyway, I screamed like a girl and flung the poor thing off me. Hope I didn't hurt it...
Going out on a boat tomorrow. Leaving at 8:00 am (Monday), back around 4:00 pm (Wednesday). Yay, 3 days of no computer, no cellphone, and hopefully some good diving. Should be awesome. It's about time for an adventure again, just been working the last week or so.
Going out on a boat tomorrow. Leaving at 8:00 am (Monday), back around 4:00 pm (Wednesday). Yay, 3 days of no computer, no cellphone, and hopefully some good diving. Should be awesome. It's about time for an adventure again, just been working the last week or so.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Back to Australia
Yay, back in Australia. The flight was uneventful, I'm now on Magnetic Island (just by Townsville). Going to just chill out for a few days, work, and try to get my cold cured.
Nitrox
Also from a few days ago...
No, not like nitro they use in cars. In nitrox diving, you use air with added oxygen. Normal air is 21% oxygen, today I dove with 32% oxygen. But getting more oxygen is not actually the point. Rather, the goal is to have less nitrogen. You can't go as deep with more oxygen in the air, since you can otherwise get oxygen poisoning. Completely irrelevant in my case, since even at 32% oxygen I can still safely dive to 30 meters which is all I can do anyway. So the point of having less nitrogen is that you can stay down longer at any particular depth without getting the bends.
Also rented a camera today and tried to take some pictures. This is really, really hard underwater. First of, you have much less light so you longer shutter times, meaning you have to hold still to get a good shot. Second, you're floating in water which is moving, with nothing to hold on to. Which makes holding still, well, challenging. I did get a couple of cool shots (and yes, eventually I will post some).
Saw a morray eel on this dive. Bloody long fellow, certainly over a meter.
Also caught a glimpse of dolphins on the way back (from the boat). If dolphins are sighted, everybody is paying attention to that. They even turned around and tried to get closer, and everybody was happy to have seen them at all. Really neat, how people just seem to love dolphins sooo much, even though they can see all the other massive amount of cool life down below.
No, not like nitro they use in cars. In nitrox diving, you use air with added oxygen. Normal air is 21% oxygen, today I dove with 32% oxygen. But getting more oxygen is not actually the point. Rather, the goal is to have less nitrogen. You can't go as deep with more oxygen in the air, since you can otherwise get oxygen poisoning. Completely irrelevant in my case, since even at 32% oxygen I can still safely dive to 30 meters which is all I can do anyway. So the point of having less nitrogen is that you can stay down longer at any particular depth without getting the bends.
Also rented a camera today and tried to take some pictures. This is really, really hard underwater. First of, you have much less light so you longer shutter times, meaning you have to hold still to get a good shot. Second, you're floating in water which is moving, with nothing to hold on to. Which makes holding still, well, challenging. I did get a couple of cool shots (and yes, eventually I will post some).
Saw a morray eel on this dive. Bloody long fellow, certainly over a meter.
Also caught a glimpse of dolphins on the way back (from the boat). If dolphins are sighted, everybody is paying attention to that. They even turned around and tried to get closer, and everybody was happy to have seen them at all. Really neat, how people just seem to love dolphins sooo much, even though they can see all the other massive amount of cool life down below.
Night Dive
This is from a few days ago, finally getting around to posting it...
Spent most of the day sleeping and fighting a cold, plus a bit of work. Then went for a night dive around 7:00pm.
The only difference in terms of the diving itself is that you have a torch (flashlight), and that the hand signals change a bit. But the underwater world is certainly different…
For starters, you see true colors all of a sudden. Water absorbs certain colors more quickly then others, so a red tomato looks green at 15 meters. But at night, you have the torch so you get the full color spectrum (or something thereabouts). So that was neat, the whole scene looks different right away.
Then just about all the little reef fish are sleeping. You see a fin stick out of the coral here and there, and that's about it. Really no fish whatsoever swimming around. I did see a cuttlefish from far away, they hunt at night and it was out and about (unlike the one I saw on an earlier dive which was just sitting on the bottom napping during the day).
Also saw little jellyfish (maybe 5-10 cm in diameter), which I'm sure are there in the day too. But since they're just about transparent, you only really see them at night. The shape is straight out of star wars – now I know where the people designing fantasy spaceships get their inspiration from. I'm sure that applies to a lot of movies. So many of the fantastical landscapes and creatures in movies now look awfully familiar.
During the safety stop at 5 meters, we turned the torches off and played with the luminescent algae for a bit. Nifty, all these dots of light in the water.
Another cool thing was that you could look deeper into the coral itself, just the way the light worked. Floating over this massive spiky green thing, and you look down among branches and branches, probably looked a good half meter into the thing and it was still the same.
Starting to get a hold of buoyancy. Basically breath a bit more shallow, not really deep breaths. And then increase/decrease lung volume to go up or down. So if I want to do down, breath out and then shallow with little air in my lungs. Want to go up, breath in a lot and then breath shallow with full lungs. Wheeeeeee. Now I have to practice reducing my air consumption, it's not terrible but not great yet either.
That's all for this dive. I kinda feel like I missed a lot on this one, concentrating on buoyancy and breathing too much. But as that gets better I'll have more time to pay attention to all the cool shit.
From what I've seen here the reefs are treated pretty well. The dive sites themselves have little/no man-made damage. Makes sense, they rely on tourism and diving makes up a lot of that. How many dives shops can you fit on one island? I haven't counted them, but I would guess there are at least a hundred people diving on any given day. One dive trip with Manta Dive has up to 20 ppl., and they do 2-3 dives a day. And that's just one shop of a whole bunch.
Spent most of the day sleeping and fighting a cold, plus a bit of work. Then went for a night dive around 7:00pm.
The only difference in terms of the diving itself is that you have a torch (flashlight), and that the hand signals change a bit. But the underwater world is certainly different…
For starters, you see true colors all of a sudden. Water absorbs certain colors more quickly then others, so a red tomato looks green at 15 meters. But at night, you have the torch so you get the full color spectrum (or something thereabouts). So that was neat, the whole scene looks different right away.
Then just about all the little reef fish are sleeping. You see a fin stick out of the coral here and there, and that's about it. Really no fish whatsoever swimming around. I did see a cuttlefish from far away, they hunt at night and it was out and about (unlike the one I saw on an earlier dive which was just sitting on the bottom napping during the day).
Also saw little jellyfish (maybe 5-10 cm in diameter), which I'm sure are there in the day too. But since they're just about transparent, you only really see them at night. The shape is straight out of star wars – now I know where the people designing fantasy spaceships get their inspiration from. I'm sure that applies to a lot of movies. So many of the fantastical landscapes and creatures in movies now look awfully familiar.
During the safety stop at 5 meters, we turned the torches off and played with the luminescent algae for a bit. Nifty, all these dots of light in the water.
Another cool thing was that you could look deeper into the coral itself, just the way the light worked. Floating over this massive spiky green thing, and you look down among branches and branches, probably looked a good half meter into the thing and it was still the same.
Starting to get a hold of buoyancy. Basically breath a bit more shallow, not really deep breaths. And then increase/decrease lung volume to go up or down. So if I want to do down, breath out and then shallow with little air in my lungs. Want to go up, breath in a lot and then breath shallow with full lungs. Wheeeeeee. Now I have to practice reducing my air consumption, it's not terrible but not great yet either.
That's all for this dive. I kinda feel like I missed a lot on this one, concentrating on buoyancy and breathing too much. But as that gets better I'll have more time to pay attention to all the cool shit.
From what I've seen here the reefs are treated pretty well. The dive sites themselves have little/no man-made damage. Makes sense, they rely on tourism and diving makes up a lot of that. How many dives shops can you fit on one island? I haven't counted them, but I would guess there are at least a hundred people diving on any given day. One dive trip with Manta Dive has up to 20 ppl., and they do 2-3 dives a day. And that's just one shop of a whole bunch.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
More Diving
Went diving yesterday and today. Yesterday we did some basic underwater navigation. This mostly consisted of finding your way around with a compass, also did a bit of practice just following the terrain. The main animal I say was an eel. It was all wrapped around and into a coral, and looked a lot like a snake. Pretty cool, black and yellow coloring.
Today we did a deep dive to 28 meters. This was awesome, not so much due to the depth but due to the wildlife. The bigger things I saw were a glimpse of a reef shark, a cuttlefish maybe half a meter in length, and several sea turtles.
The cuttlefish looked like it constantly had waves pulsing from the front to the back of its body. I think it was actually moving like that in order to pump water for breathing and to keep its position.
I did not get up close and personal with the reef shark, really only caught a glimpse of it.
Must have seen half a dozen turtles. These fellows are large. Things are a bit distorted underwater, but I would say up to 1 meter is a safe guess. One of them was chewing on a piece of coral – I don't think they eat the coral itself, but they do damage it looking for food. And they certainly didn't care about us – I was right on top of the one which was eating and it just kept about its business. Seems that way with most everything down here. If you don't touch it, it doesn't care about you.
Also saw a couple of clownfish hiding in this sponge/coral or whatever it was. Heck, I have no idea what most of the things growing on the ocean floor are, I know there are corrals and sponges, but I think there are other things too. Anyway, this particular organism grew on the reef but was not rigid. It moved with the water and the two clownfish were swimming around in/by it. They hide in things that are poisonous to other fish.
Another cool thing was a coral formation that was about 1.5 meters high. It had a mushroom shape, with the coral around the "stem" cut down about half a meter lower than the surrounding corals. Very neat, I wonder how that sort of thing comes to be.
I was completely hypothermic after the dive. Headache and cramps and dizziness after I got out of the boat. The dizziness passed, but it took me an hour in bed under the blanket (at temperatures around 30 degrees C) to warm up. I will have to ask if they have a long wetsuit or something else I can use to stay warm, the short wetsuit doesn't cut it for me.
Today we did a deep dive to 28 meters. This was awesome, not so much due to the depth but due to the wildlife. The bigger things I saw were a glimpse of a reef shark, a cuttlefish maybe half a meter in length, and several sea turtles.
The cuttlefish looked like it constantly had waves pulsing from the front to the back of its body. I think it was actually moving like that in order to pump water for breathing and to keep its position.
I did not get up close and personal with the reef shark, really only caught a glimpse of it.
Must have seen half a dozen turtles. These fellows are large. Things are a bit distorted underwater, but I would say up to 1 meter is a safe guess. One of them was chewing on a piece of coral – I don't think they eat the coral itself, but they do damage it looking for food. And they certainly didn't care about us – I was right on top of the one which was eating and it just kept about its business. Seems that way with most everything down here. If you don't touch it, it doesn't care about you.
Also saw a couple of clownfish hiding in this sponge/coral or whatever it was. Heck, I have no idea what most of the things growing on the ocean floor are, I know there are corrals and sponges, but I think there are other things too. Anyway, this particular organism grew on the reef but was not rigid. It moved with the water and the two clownfish were swimming around in/by it. They hide in things that are poisonous to other fish.
Another cool thing was a coral formation that was about 1.5 meters high. It had a mushroom shape, with the coral around the "stem" cut down about half a meter lower than the surrounding corals. Very neat, I wonder how that sort of thing comes to be.
I was completely hypothermic after the dive. Headache and cramps and dizziness after I got out of the boat. The dizziness passed, but it took me an hour in bed under the blanket (at temperatures around 30 degrees C) to warm up. I will have to ask if they have a long wetsuit or something else I can use to stay warm, the short wetsuit doesn't cut it for me.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Good and Bad Decisions
Good decision: Going to Gili Islands to do my Advanced Open Water Course
Bad decision: Taking a room RIGHT NEXT to a mosque.
Good decision: Finding a room as far from said mosque as possible, and paying an extra $10 a night.
Yeah, so I left Bali yesterday and took a boat to Gili Islands (just outside of Lombok, all still part of Indonesia). And not only is there a mosque 30 meters from my bedroom, but they are broadcasting REALLY LOUDLY for hours on end. Then my next door neighbors keep my up until 1:00 am, and then at 5:00 am the loudspeakers on the mosque start up again with the announcements and prayer calls and whatnot. Ughhh. There's culture, and then there's culture broadcast into your skull at 5:00 am. Needless to say I decided to skip diving this morning, but going on the first dive this afternoon at 1:30.
The atmosphere is completely different. Drugs are highly frowned upon in most of Indonesia, but here they offer you weed and mushrooms on every street corner. This has a lot to do with the fact that the island has no police presence at all. I'm not sure why, but it doesn't. But I'm starting to kinda see the whole country as full of contrast like that. Hindu and Muslim, very modern and very traditional, very strict or very liberal, etc. All right beside one another.
Time to try and get some sleep! :)
Bad decision: Taking a room RIGHT NEXT to a mosque.
Good decision: Finding a room as far from said mosque as possible, and paying an extra $10 a night.
Yeah, so I left Bali yesterday and took a boat to Gili Islands (just outside of Lombok, all still part of Indonesia). And not only is there a mosque 30 meters from my bedroom, but they are broadcasting REALLY LOUDLY for hours on end. Then my next door neighbors keep my up until 1:00 am, and then at 5:00 am the loudspeakers on the mosque start up again with the announcements and prayer calls and whatnot. Ughhh. There's culture, and then there's culture broadcast into your skull at 5:00 am. Needless to say I decided to skip diving this morning, but going on the first dive this afternoon at 1:30.
The atmosphere is completely different. Drugs are highly frowned upon in most of Indonesia, but here they offer you weed and mushrooms on every street corner. This has a lot to do with the fact that the island has no police presence at all. I'm not sure why, but it doesn't. But I'm starting to kinda see the whole country as full of contrast like that. Hindu and Muslim, very modern and very traditional, very strict or very liberal, etc. All right beside one another.
Time to try and get some sleep! :)
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Of to the races!
So I decided to rent a scooter for 2 days, to drive around town a bit. About 400 meters from where I rented it, what do I find but a "Start-Finish" line painted on the road. That explains just about everything about how people drive here...
Meanwhile I'm still alive, and the scooter goes back tomorrow morning. Still trying to decide if I'm better of wearing the helmet they gave me that's two sizes too big, or going without.
Went for a drive today and found a restaurant right on a river. About 3 stories straight down beside where I'm sitting. Very nice and picturesque, and the chicken was awesome.
Meanwhile I'm still alive, and the scooter goes back tomorrow morning. Still trying to decide if I'm better of wearing the helmet they gave me that's two sizes too big, or going without.
Went for a drive today and found a restaurant right on a river. About 3 stories straight down beside where I'm sitting. Very nice and picturesque, and the chicken was awesome.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Fresh Fish
So I'm having a late lunch today (as always at a restaurant, cooking for oneself here is not an option). As I'm finishing my coffee, this guy walks in with a fishing rod, followed by two guys carrying two large fish. Now that's what I call efficient - no freezer trucks, no warehousing, no packaging, nothing. Just fresh fish, on your plate for dinner!
Everybody Dance Now!
Went to see a traditional dance performance tonight. Very trippy - the dancers basically held the same facial expression the whole time. Combined with the somewhat unnatural head movements and freaky eye makeup/movements, it was a somewhat scary show. In one part of one of the dances the girl had a looooong red silk scarf, which she had stretched out with one hand in her mouth so she looked like some kind of a beast with a 5 meter tongue. Yikes!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Ubud - Day 1
Went to Ubud today – I was super lazy and simply caught a cab, which cost me about $15 (it's about 40 km). That and I've decided to treat myself to a night at a real hotel for USD 40, with a clean bed and hot shower. Tomorrow I'll find something cheaper, but I needed a break from slum living. The last place was really sketchy…
Checked out the Monkey Forest today. It's a patch of forest with a temple in the middle, full of statues and monkeys. You can buy a bag of little bananas at the entrance to feed the monkeys. One fellow thought he could hold on to the bag and share the bananas out as he pleased, but he learned better, with a big monkey climbing up his pants and a smaller one on his back. Guess he didn't read the sign at the entrance explaining not to hide/keep food from them… I had one fellow try to jump on me, but I was quicker and he missed…
Here a couple pictures, sorry captioning them individually is not working they changed something on this website...
Also I finally have internet on my phone again. I had to go into Denpasar to the big, air conditioned Telkomsel customer service building. But YAY, 500 MB for $10 at a normal speed, and unlimited thereafter at a slower speed (basically an unlimited policy with a "fair use" clause"). Why is it that the little kiosks selling the SIM cards and recharge packs don't know enough to set this sort of thing up? These guys are literally sitting there bored almost the entire day, you would think they would learn their product!
Also cashed my traveler's cheques today. That was a waste of effort, pain in the neck to get them and a pain in the neck to cash them. It seems they are basically outdated, what with ATM machines everywhere. Next time I'll just bring some US currency for the few times it's helpful.
Checked out the Monkey Forest today. It's a patch of forest with a temple in the middle, full of statues and monkeys. You can buy a bag of little bananas at the entrance to feed the monkeys. One fellow thought he could hold on to the bag and share the bananas out as he pleased, but he learned better, with a big monkey climbing up his pants and a smaller one on his back. Guess he didn't read the sign at the entrance explaining not to hide/keep food from them… I had one fellow try to jump on me, but I was quicker and he missed…
Here a couple pictures, sorry captioning them individually is not working they changed something on this website...
Also I finally have internet on my phone again. I had to go into Denpasar to the big, air conditioned Telkomsel customer service building. But YAY, 500 MB for $10 at a normal speed, and unlimited thereafter at a slower speed (basically an unlimited policy with a "fair use" clause"). Why is it that the little kiosks selling the SIM cards and recharge packs don't know enough to set this sort of thing up? These guys are literally sitting there bored almost the entire day, you would think they would learn their product!
Also cashed my traveler's cheques today. That was a waste of effort, pain in the neck to get them and a pain in the neck to cash them. It seems they are basically outdated, what with ATM machines everywhere. Next time I'll just bring some US currency for the few times it's helpful.
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