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Gilli Trewenga – Diving and Snorkelling
After a lovely day spent sunbathing on an almost secluded beach with lovely white sand and the clearest turquoise sea, we decided to look into the diving options on the island. I have never done any scuba diving and so I opted for the Discover Scuba Diving course with the Manta Dive shop. The course started with a flip chart explanation of the equipment and the hand signals used under water when communicating with each other. We then tried on our diving gear for size and then headed for the swimming pool. With the fetching all in one dive suit on I then just had to wait for some socks to wear with my flippers as they were a bit big. Once all the equipment was in place, and I wondered how I would ever emerge from the water again with this heavy thing on my back, Emma the dive instructor, demonstrated how to get into the pool and then how to go under.
I followed Emma under the water into a kneeling position at the bottom of the pool. It was really strange to me as I‘m not really a water baby, and had to get used to the breathing without thinking I was going to choke on water. It took my a few goes but I finally mastered the basic skills needed and went for a swim around the bottom of the pool. After lunch we boarded the boat with all the other divers and set out to sea. I was a bit nervous, wondering what would be lurking in the sea waiting for me. Then Emma explained how we get into the sea from the boat. Basically sit on the edge and fall off backwards. This bit made me more nervous, I had visions of me banging my head on the boat! When it came to it though is was really easy and so there I was in the big blue sea ready to dive. Down we went and once I had buoyancy – I think it’s called – I looked around me and there was a big turtle just swimming along not as interested in me as I was in him! Emma guided us around the reef and we went deeper and deeper to the maximum of 12 feet. It was so cool, we saw so many different fish of all colours, shapes and sizes, I knew then that I wanted to do the open water course which would allow me to go on fun dives anywhere around the world. I think we were under for about 30 mins but it flew by so quickly. We got back on the boat and headed for shore. Emma showed me the different fish we had seen in a book when we got back to the dive shop, there were that many I can’t remember them all. Not a problem though as I will be doing a lot more diving soon and will get a log book to record them all. So after a nervous start, I’m hooked!
The next day we decided to go on the snorkeling trip. For about 3 quid you get the snorkel mask and are taken around the 3 Gilli Islands of Trewenga, Meno, and Air to snorkel around the reefs. There were about 12 of us on the boat and the guides would stop at the each of the reefs so that we could jump in and have a nosey under the water. This was really cool as I saw about 3 turtles, a trigger fish, a puffer fish and some clams, as well as hundreds of other things that I haven’t got a clue what they are. The Trigger fish I saw is apparently one of the bigger ones that will attack you if you get too close to their nest! Not that you know where their nest is, so it’s best just to stay well away. We had dinner on Gilli Air, a very quite island, if you wanted to get away from it all, this would be the place as there would probably be just you and the odd bar man! We got back to the shore and I found that, even though I had covered myself in suncream, I was burnt. It was then I was told that the malaria tablets I was taking makes your skin sensitive to sun burn – great! Other than that, it was a brilliant trip, well worth the 3 quid.
The rest of the time on Gilli Trewenga was spent chillin out on the beach, eating lovely food (one evening I had swordfish, that had been caught that day, BBQ’d with an all you can eat buffet, all for the grand price of about 3 quid!) drinking Bintang - Bali lager, and watching films. After the diving day we watched Finding Nemo – well I had actually been swimming with him that day so I thought it would be rude not to!
One really random day we bumped into the stoned Aussie guy who was sat giggling with 2 other lads as they had just finished the magic mushroom shakes that you can buy legally in Bali. Just as we were being entertained by them in their crazy state, Bill Bailey (comedian on Never Mind the Buzzcocks) walked past and said hello! Was a surreal moment.
To sum up – Gilli Trawenga is my favourite place so far, I will definitely be going there again in the near future, but next time I think I will take the speed boat – James Bond style!
Lots of love
Julie x x x
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