The Divemaster awakens

Fear seems equally balanced with my most genuinely happy smile, I’m teetering between being in the grip of one or the other and carrying on regardless whichever is at the fore. It’s scary being in an unknown cold ocean with not so great visibility (nineteen freezing degrees yesterday, and yes ok fine nineteen is not technically freezing but you try lolling around in water that cold for an hour and tell me what you think then) as I was saying, I don’t know the landmarks yet, I could be anywhere, safety could be in any direction or none! Breathe, I tell myself, twenty five metres below the sky, breathe, and I do and revel in the wondrous world that surrounds me until I remember once more that I am not on a fun dive and that one day I’ll be the one leading the group and not simply assisting from behind (boom boom). 

My inner worrier has been silenced for quite some time so to hear her voice loud and clear is bothersome to say the least ‘shut it’ I whisper but she can’t hear me over her fears. ‘What on earth are you thinking doing this at your age’ ‘you can’t even carry a full tank that far’ ‘how will you cope if XYZ were to happen, and it will happen!’ 

Ugh what a bore she is and after a day in which I had the honour of diving with dozens of giant manta rays she can truly shush it! The boat ride out to Manta Point some fifty minutes along the mist shrouded jurassic Nusa Penida coastline was as spectacular as the dive that followed. Having six metre wide mantas glide gracefully a few feet above where we hovered in the swell was an experience I’m never likely to forget. I counted fifteen at one time, swooping around each other taking their fill of the food rich waters. I swear a couple of times a pair of the largest went in for a colossal chest bump, avoiding contact by mere inches. Not a bad day at school really.

On the home front and after a few tense conversations with our previous landlords, JHubz canvassed the island looking for new and lovely accomodation for us and boy did he come up trumps. We’re now very happily ensconced in the lovely Ketut’s D’Mel Sari bungalows with a lovely garden, air conditioning, HOT WATER, resident cats and a fridge! Woohoo! We had our first cup of tea at home on Lembongan yesterday and it was deeeeelicious! Today started with a bowlful of tesco sultana bran, a packet of which  I picked up in Hong Kong and have been carrying with me since 🙂 

Another woman is joining the divemaster programme today so I better get my butt in gear. Wishing you a great day whatever you’re up to and even though they might try, our inner worriers really oughtn’t be allowed to run the show Xx