We choofed off  toward Siladen  Island for today’s first dive. As  I was putting on dive booties  I  talked to a German woman.”when I was diving yesterday I saw fins with “Bea” on them ..is that you?” I asked .. yes, yes she said, I’m Bea. All would have been good except she then had to say “those are mine” nodding at the booties I had zipped up.  I took them off and she showed me “Bea” boldly printed inside. And a bright green cable tie on the zipper.  Yet another handy use for cable ties…protecting your booties  from thieving Australians.

Even in my new state of humiliation, today I rolled more confidently off the boat  today . After the splash, a whole  new magical  world opens up immediately.  I’m so glad of my new prescription goggles.  I procrastinated because of the $$$ . So gratefull now.  Not only can I see my dive computer better but ohhhh  a coral reef is a truly enchanting  wonderful thing .  

The message from the dive master is you can hold onto a sponge if you need to but don’t touch the corals.

But here’s a strong current so it takes effort not to touch .The coral doesn’t stay on one plane and neither do I . Our ups and downs aren’t always synchronised.

The crocodile fish we saw  was special. .. Crusty and grumpy looking.

The guides are great.  Local Indonesians trained by Sven the German born  resort owner  who has been here 20 years .

Do you call this a resort? Probably more an eco village,  no aircon or pool, no cocktails, no party music. Almost everyone is in bed by 9.30 But a lot of effort put into making things of nice wood.  Nice carved beds and lamps. A ledger beside the fridge to write your drinks in. It feels great.

Everyone is  here for diving or snorkelling. We gather for breakfast lunch and dinner  in an open dining room over looking the ocean.  Dinner tonight was  crunchy dried fish patties, beef mince patties,  cabbage salad and rice.  A fusion of Indo and European  Not only don’t we have to cook we don’t even have to  make a decision. Lunch today included baked Mahi Mahi  probably 60cm long, hanging off both ends of the platter

Our resort panorama is really best accessed by water.

This afternoon we walked toward the main  jetty, just a dirt path for the first one and a half kilometres through the  forest there is the occasional house, motorbikes, scooter pass  staff  coming home from  various resorts. Then we met the paved path . Also  3 wheel motor bikes with trailer and lots of water containers to fill at a water treatment business. About 3 km from home it started to rain. Heavier and heavier. We sheltered against a wall and were joined by a local. I practised my Indonesian

There are a bunch of small resorts here

We eventually gave up our shelter and accepted being totally drenched . We bought drinks from the one warung  we had seen open.  I got a plastic bag to protect  my phone ect.  Already there were  two bule men now living here permanently  foreigners dutch and a Swiss drinking beer.

  Glad we didn’t miss the shortcut. Now very muddy. By the time we got back it was proper dark.

Dinner. The two families of Germans were already there having a card game. Soft-spoken Sven came to our table  to give us tomorrow’s briefing. He had to stop when the games noise grew. In mock horror I said it’s the Germans!…. they shouldn’t be having fun. Sven laughed and Rick ( Dutch) said but  I could never say that.

19 divers tomorrow. They will use 2 boats..we are on the “VIP boat”

Might be so they can keep an eye on the bootie stealers.

P

Fantastic dive