After a breakfast of cornflakes and orange juice, which made a nice change from banana/jam jaffle and tea, I strolled along the beach to Coconut bay where Kadek and Robert (who’d slept on the boat) picked me up. We nipped round the corner to get the Singaporean group… who were still on Singaporean time! After the standard twenty minutes, we had everyone on board and set off for our first dive site of the day.

Thankfully the sea was feeling much nicer about us today, and was relatively calm. The sun shone and we got to SD very quickly. The “SD” name for the dive site comes from the initials of the Indonesian for “elementary school” as there’s one on the coast nearby.

The other point of note is that this would be my 50th dive. And, no, I didn’t do it naked.

This one’s a drift dive, though the current wasn’t too strong. Visibility was around the 15m mark, so again my main task was to ensure everyone stayed fairly close together so we didn’t lose track of anyone. Tricky with one person intent on spending five minutes taking pictures of everything (which is understandable as it’s a great dive with lots to see) and another who made a mistake I’ve been guilty of in the past.

See, the “shelves” you get on wall dives aren’t always level. Your mind is telling you that by following one, you’re staying at the same depth. Not always so. Which is why I had to nip down to below thirty metres to point at someone’s depth gauge and get them to swim back up (slowly) and rejoin the group. Not a problem, and it is why I’m there. Kadek leads the dives as she’s familiar with the area, but it’s hard to keep an eye on everyone when you’re at the front.

Biggest surprise of the dive was seeing a turtle swimming away from us. They’re not too common round here.

I came in useful again towards the end of the dive with one person running out of air earlier than the rest of the group. We can’t send people up on their own willy-nilly, so I ended my dive slightly early with him to ensure he surfaced and got to the boat safely.

Not too long afterwards, the rest of the group boarded and we headed into one of the bays with nice calm water to swap our equipment over. It was too early for lunch, so we milled and chatted as we whiled away our surface interval.

Toyapakeh was our second dive site, and a great one it was. Starting at around 20m and working our way gradually shallower there was such a variety of life it was amazing. One of the most stunning scorpion fish I’ve ever seen; beautiful yellow and blue eels that were easy to “tease” out of their eel-holes; some gorgeous varieties of coral; defensive clownfish…

One thing that’s changed over my last dozen or so dives is how I watch what I’m seeing. At first, it’s all you can do not to just gape at everything and be swamped by the variety and colour of all the life down there. After a while, spotting new species is trickier so instead I’ve found my attention drifting more onto details, behaviour and so on.

For instance, those cute clownfish from Finding Nemo – if you see a full-grown one face-on, they’ve got a pretty evil face with a jaggy mouth. More like a colourful piranha than a cuddly toy.

It’s also interesting to watch how some fish behave in groups, or solo or in pairs. Some are fighting, some patrol together (like the aforementioned clownfish), some sit back and let other fish clean them. No matter what you watch on TV or read in books, you simply can’t beat being down there and just seeing this stuff right in front of you.

We managed just two minutes shy of the hour on this dive and reluctantly re-boarded the boat where we had lunch. Annoyingly it was tuna sandwiches and chips, so I just had chips. Ah well. I’d had a big dinner and a decent breakfast (and more than my fair share of Oreos) so I wasn’t left hungry.

The trip back to the mainland was uneventful and comfortable. I just lay back and covered myself with a waterproof jacket to ward off the spray.

Back at the dive shop, we exchanged details and made sure everyone had all the dive figures. I even got my first tip – thank you, folks! That’s dinner covered for the next two nights at least!

I already know I’m back at Nusa Penida again tomorrow. I hope the wind doesn’t pick up.

Once again, prompt at 7:40 Singaporean holidaymaker time (that’s 8:00 Balinese), I was collected by the minibus and we headed for the beach near Nusa Dua where the boat is docked.

It wasn’t the best day weatherwise for the boat trip or the dives we were making, and Kadek dished out seasickness tablets to those who wanted them. I grabbed one, but I seem to have “hit and miss” lick with these things. Still, may as well try.

Our first dive was Manta Point, and the swell by the time we got there was unreal. The boat was tipping perhaps 45 degrees at times. Two of the group were ill and I wasn’t too far behind, but somehow managed to keep my sea legs. Everyone was happy with the dive, though not the ill effects, as we did see the mantas. They’re pretty much guaranteed at this spot, and will come very close to divers.

During the dive I had to drop one of my weights and pass it on to one of the other divers as they were struggling to sink. This is when you realise why they make you practise removing and replacing your weight belt underwater as part of the Open Water course.

Lunch was on the beach at Crystal Bay, under the palm trees and scorching sun. Yes, I’m red again. One day I’ll learn, but I doubt it’ll be any time soon. Some kids came round, hopefully proferring necklaces for us to buy. Of course, everyone was wearing wetsuits which don’t generally have a pocket for wallets! It was a lovely spot to eat, chill out and chat.

Dive number two was in the bay just off the beach. We left one chap to sunbathe as his stomach was playing up and enjoyed the better part of an hour breathing air from a bottle and ogling at the variety of life down there. Let me tell you, the Japanese may have a reputation for photographing anything and everything – Singaporeans are every bit as bad!

With the current washing us around, it was a bit of a challenge acting as “sheep dog” to ensure the group all stayed within visual contact with each other, but it was fun. It’s a nice feeling to be useful on a dive as well as to enjoy the scenery.

Somehow we managed to clamber aboard the boat which seemed to be doing its level best to make this impossible, then we returned to the shore to collect our non-diver before heading further around Lembongan Island to the resort where the party were staying.

With them settled, we popped around another peninsula so that I could be dropped off near my (cheaper) accommodation. A nice place with a wonderful view of the setting sun (which took the last opportunity of the day to scorch my face). Of course, I took the opportunity to wash all the salt off in the shower… which wasn’t hot. Gah.

I got talking to, and had dinner with, a guy from Oz and a girl fro Nottingham who’s currently working in Saudi. The food was good, though pricey compared to what I’m used to in Kuta. To be expected on a remote island.

After dinner, I took a quick walk around “town”. This amounted to two streets, most of which were residential. As I neared a temple I could hear music and thought I’d get to see a ceremony taking place. Instead, there were several people sat watching TV on a huge LCD telly in the temple forecourt! I guess everything’s getting modern now.

I found an internet place at almost five times the rate I pay in Kuta and did a swift email check. Back at the hotel I decided to close my eyes for five minutes. And next opened them at 3am. I guess diving takes more out of me that I realise.

Two more dives today, back at Nusa Ceningan. It was a very early start with a 7:15 pickup as we had a few people to collect. Not helped by one of my neighbours waking me at 4am as she staggered in and put her stereo on.

The German couple would be making the last dives of their holiday today and had picked Manta Bay and Crystal Bay as their destination. Another German, Chris, joined us from Kuta while an American girl, Wendy, was driven all the way down from Ubud.

Weatherwise, today was far the worst day I’ve seen in Bali. Clouds hung overhead, but didn’t give way to rain early on. However, the sea was fairly choppy and my stomach wasn’t really my best friend as we set off. I tried to read and drink water, both successfully. I tried not to be ill, less successfully.

Manta Bay is a choppy place at the best of times and I ended up watering the fishes before we jumped in. It was worth it, though – a shallow dive of around 7m, but with a near-guarantee of seeing manta rays. We weren’t disappointed. At one point seven of these huge beasts were circling the rock we waited beside.

Like turtles, they look pretty much different from anything else in the water, yet they move silently and simply with so much ease and grace. The last one we saw swam up to another group of divers and just paused, almost as if it were staring at them before giving a casual nod and gliding off.

Back on board, we moved over to Crystal Bay for lunch which I enjoyed. Temporarily. Then I recycled it for the fish.

This was my second dive here and the visibility certainly wasn’t as good as it had been the first time. Still, there are many fish to see and it’s a relaxing dive. You can almost just hover and let them all come up to you.

As we came up to the surface, I could see a pitted pattern forming on the “sky” as raindrops slammed into the sea. Great. It was even more choppy above and it was throwing it down. At least we’d not get wetter and the rain was warm.

We were all issued with nice thick waterproofs, mainly to ward off the breeze, as we packed everything up and headed back for land. I just lay on one of the benches and tried to snooze. This is the best method I have for avoiding sea sickness and it seemed to work.

The rain eased off by the time we got back to shore and we all got dried and changed on the boat. Putu was there to pick us up and take us back to town and I walked back to the hotel from the dive shop.

I took a quick nap as I still wasn’t feeling 100% and as I woke up to go and get dinner, the rain started once again and it wasn’t messing about this time. As I type, it’s been bucketing down for around twenty minutes, and the girl opposite has just got back from a friend’s drenched right through. She was on her motorbike when it started and the roads went from “dry” to “10cm deep” in no time.

I think I need my brolly…