What do you do differently when the day you’ve been waiting for, for over six months is imminent? Prepare your clothes the night before, get to bed early and make sure you’ve set an overzealous amount of alarms (considering you’ll be awake even before the stupidly early one out of sheer excitement). #DiveGeeks maybe, but #LivingOurBestLife definitely.
Today is the day we get to go out into the Komodo National Park and dive! We’re up and feeling spritely and the weather is wonderful, like two spring chickens we’re out with no sign of an alarm. Bags packed and looking smart like it’s our first day of school we head to the dive shop. It’s a chilled atmosphere, everyone is waiting or having a little breakfast and enjoying the view out the back of the Blue Marlin Dive restaurant.
We are heading out to two dive sites today and though the weather is beautiful we are well aware that currents are notoriously strong and unpredictable in Komodo, and it seems today we have to avoid entering the actual Komodo National Park for this exact reason. Luckily for us, there are more than a few dive sites to choose from still and we are soon kitting up for our first dive. The water is like glass, it’s stunning and the first decent is magical.
With only us two and our fantastic guide, Rebecca we need not stress, with a flourishing world around us; abundant fish life and soft and hard corals. The macro life is just as apparent as the schooling fish that make their way around us, unphased by our bubbles and big tanks clogging up their daily commute – maybe it’s their first day at school too.
We are swimming through a colourful oasis, it’s vibrant even at 12m down and as I stare for a while at the smallest anemone fish I have ever seen, I see Aaron several metres behind me captivated by something I have clearly missed. But with the current guiding us, the energy to go and find out exactly what it is seems like a waste so I continue on – later I find out he was being mesmerised but a cuttlefish as it struck a pose for him.
When I say current, it’s a comfortable drift and with the reef guiding us on our way we come across a small octopus perched atop a rock with a larger octopus clinging on to it whilst hiding underneath – naughty little thing – he clearly was up for having a look at his reflection in the big camera dome! Nudibranchs everywhere and some seriously big trigger fish looking to defend their territory! Now you don’t want to ask those guys for a photo, they’re not called trigger for nothing; bitey little angry fish they are!
Can you spot the third octopus we met? He’s hiding in the photo…
The day out on the boat, Hugo – a small wooden dive boat with an incredible team onboard – has been incredible and exactly what we needed to wash the travel fatigue and dust from our souls.
We can hardly believe that these sites are not even part of the National Park, we’ve yet to experience the main event and we are so ready for it! What a joy to see such a thriving ecosystem.
Thanks to Blue Marlin Dive for an epic introduction to what is bound to be an adventure of a lifetime for us in the next few months! You can visit their website via this link for details about their scuba diving day trips, liveaboard trips and of course their courses. We’ll be posting plenty more information about the scuba diving development journey from Open Water to Divemaster with them on here – watch this space.
WD.x
