Bali Part: Scuba Diving Day 2

This morning, I was picked up at 7am again to travel to my dive site. Today, we will be diving in Blue Lagoon. Famous for its white sandy beaches and chilled out atmosphere, it sounded different to the mountainous, stony beach of Tulamben yesterday. Blue Lagoon was an hour and half drive away and today we were picking up divers from other hotels to go to dive site too.

It was great to meet new people and fellow divers. They were all doing fun dives rather than a course. We were a nice mixed age group and from Singapore, Canada and Russia. We would be going on a boat and jumping off today. Yesterday, I just walked into the sea from the stony beach, so jumping off a boat definitely seemed more dramatic! 

It was exhilarating jumping off boat and diving down. The water was beautiful, so blue and warm. My first dive was a deep dive, so we descended 30 metres below. I expected it to be more of a challenge to equalise pressure in my ears, but it was actually just the same as any other dive. Going so deep had consequences which my instructor had warned me about before we descended. It is possible for nitrogen to build up in the body and cause the diver to experience something called Nitrogen Narcossis. The effects can vary person to person but resemble being drunk - having less acute sensory and feeling happy or anxious. It is not however, dangerous and passes within few hours. I don't think I experienced any effects, so probably didn't have too much nitrogen build up in me. I saw even more variety of sea life and coral and enjoyed the adrenalin rush of being so deep under.

We got back onto the boat just under 40 minutes later and relaxed and dried off. The other divers who were doing their fun dives, all returned back too and we all exchanged stories of what we saw. A cup of tea and some briefing for my second and last dive followed. My last dive was a fish identification dive. My instructor showed me a book identifying characteristics, both visual and personality, of different fish. I was to descend with a slate and pencil and circle the ones I saw. We jumped backwards off the boat this time and descended about 25 metres. Already we saw so many different fish! Nemo, the clownfish, was everywhere! There was such a range; from beautiful little electric blue fish to large, flat, camouflaged fish. I kept referring to the slate of fish and clutched tightly while swimming. Everytime something looked familiar, I circled the fish on slate with my pencil. My instructor helped by pointing out fish that were hiding away. We swam up and down changing direction often and weaving through things to best spot hiding fish. It was fascinating and just stunning to see such a wide array. I tried to soak up every second as I knew it was my last dive.

Climbing back onto the boat after the last dive, I felt incredibly happy, but sad at the same time. I'd experienced so much underwater and now it was the end of my course. I have definitely come to love diving as much as baking and reading! We all travelled back exhausted and falling asleep on the journey.