Camouflaged cuttlefish

As I said in the last post, Leah had been ill overnight so I left her to get some kip while I looked for a new room. Big Bubbles had people arriving who’d filled the place with reservations and we had to shift elsewhere.

I tried a few places up the road until I got to Manta Dive. One member of staff there walked me around and off the beach (there are a few rows further back with equally nice accommodation) until we found somewhere that guests had vacated only minutes beforehand. As the aircon wasn’t working, they knocked a little off and I said I’d take it. OK, they only knocked $2.50 off it, but any discount is good.

The one benefit of already being on the island is that I had first dibs compared to those who would arrive by ferry an hour or two later.

Colourful shrimp

Also, a small miracle – the screen started working on the back of my camera again. Then it stopped working. Then it started again. Typically it starts when I’ve pretty much decided I won’t be doing any more dives (although never say never), but as it’s intermittent I won’t start celebrating yet. It’s still going for repair when I get home, especially as it’s started repeating the fault it had in Brisbane earlier in the year where it refuses to believe the battery compartment is closed when I switch it on. And it seems to be letting water in at shallow depths which it shouldn’t.

As a “thank you” for their help, I decided to do a dive with Manta and in the afternoon went off to do the Bounty Wreck while Leah huddled up and tried to reintroduce fluids into her body. This was a great dive and one I can definitely recommend. The beginning is a drift for 15 or so minutes until you reach the wreck itself where there is little or no current.

Juvenile lion fish

I believe it used to be a restaurant so it’s not a “ship” shape, more of a damaged cube. However, it’s teaming with life and very easy to get around. It’s also at a fairly shallow depth so you should manage a decent dive time.

One word of warning is to avoid the food at Manta. The diving is good and the staff lovely, but anything above and beyond a cheese and tomato jaffle (which was nice) isn’t worth trying. Leah had spag bol and I went for a chicken fajita. They were both so salty they tasted virtually identical.

And thence to bed in our lovely Lombok rice-barn themed pad.

Nudibranch

I was up at 8:30 to get my breakfast before my dive on Shark Point. A good job as it took half an hour before it was delivered (it was only a banana pancake) and I had to check my equipment before we hopped on the boat at 9:30.

Ours was a small group – myself and our diveguide plus a French couple. Plenty to see as well, and the dive was split as the two less experienced divers were sent up (along with an inflatable sausage) while the remaining two of us continued to explore. Nice not to have to pop up when I’ve still got 80-90 bar left.

Sadly, we didn’t see any sharks. Perhaps we needed to be earlier. But we did see lobsters, cuttlefish, sweetlips, trigger fish, angel fish, bat fish, a lion fish, two turtles… Quite a busy dive, though with a bit of a current towards the end. Not bad for $35 and close to the dive shop as well being barely 15 minutes’ ride by boat.

Pretty flowers

When I’d got back Leah told me we’d almost snagged an extra night when someone had rung to cancel. Only they rang back to cancel their cancellation. Grr. I’d have told them “tough” but I don’t run a hotel business. And I’m selfish.

One thing we did discover which I was told didn’t exist – there is, in fact, an ATM on Gili Trawangan. We’ve not used it yet as we loaded up on cash before we came out (5 million between us) but I’ve been reliably informed that it doesn’t charge for withdrawals. Quite a few places seem to take Visa though there’s a fee, normally around 3%.

Random diver

In the afternoon, we headed for the beach and I went snorkelling for the first time (believe it or not). Both of us returned a vague shade of pink and in the evening opted for a restaurant nearby with an Indian menu.

The food was good, and the little black cat that sat on my lap appreciated the little titbits we fed her. However, Leah’s tummy didn’t seem to appreciate something that night and… well, let’s just say she didn’t get much sleep.