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.