Dive #148
Nusa Lembongan, Bali – 10th Dec 2011
Dive parameters: max depth 27m, dive time 65 mn
Yes, shitloads. A bunch of them.
So, it’s my second stay in Lembongan, and it’s like being at home: I took my best-dive-buddy with me, I know the island, I know the dive spots, I know the staff already and Chris, our dive guide (and friend, and soon to be my Coach) is taking us diving every day and treating us like princesses. And the water is much warmer than a few months before. Which means, in theory, that the mola-mola are back to the deep seas where they belong.
Before I continue, do some of you need a refresher on what a mola-mola, or oceanic sunfish is? Here :
A few facts about them can be found here. They are beautiful and amazing, and I love them almost as much as I love sharks (which is an awful lot).
So back to my story: we get on the boat, it’s only a few of us. (As the days tend to be similar when you dive every day for three weeks, I assumed Chris probably asked where we wanted to go, I probably said “wherever there’s current, let’s do some serious drift”, and we probably ruled out a couple of spots with too much current, because we are not completely suicidal). The pick of the day is Blue Corner, nice reef, cool drop down that goes deeeeep. The visibility is awesome, the water is warm, the sun is shining, I have the best dive team in the southern hemisphere, what else can you ask for?
So we go down, we drift slowly and look at stuff, I sort of keep an eye out in the blue like I always do, hoping that a whale shark, a humpback whale or Poseidon will show up.
I can’t remember who pointed out the first…PAIR of them, hanging out in the current, getting
cleaned by a bunch of banner-fish. Beautiful. So chilled, with their little funny mouth moving a little bit, and not even paying us attention, as we just float around like a bunch of idiots with huge wide eyes. Oh wait, I just remembered I am holding a camera, so I take a couple of pics and start running the video.
So we stare, they take off slowly after a while, and we continue our dive. And a moment later, ANOTHER PAIR shows up! And we stare again like a bunch of kids meeting Santa Claus at the mall.
Total count of mola-mola on that dive: FOUR. Four of them.
The second video here is from that day.
Days like this, perfect surrounding, perfect people, perfect and amazing dive, you just climb back on the boat and think: “Did someone send me to paradise without warning? If so, I don't really care that I am dead, paradise looks pretty awesome”