Breakfast is a choice of one food and one drink [from the shortened menu]. Who can resist a banana pancake (OK, Helen, did) and another cup of sludge? Maybe it's [the coffee] a Bali thing. Putu drives us back down to the dive shop (he's stayed somewhere cheaper) where we gear up and head off to the first dive site.
We stop on the beach and, with our gear, on waddle into the surf. No mean task as the waves are quite strong and the beach is very stoney -- booties don't feel like they're making a difference. We head down straightaway and assume the poor visibility -- at most 2m, a lot of the time we could barely see our guide's fins -- is normal this close to the beach. But it isn't and after four minutes we're swimming back to shore. Not bad for my fiftieth dive!
Unfortunately, the car's gone AWOL so we can't move to the next site [so much for surface cover]. It turns up eventually and we head off to the wreck of the [USAT] Liberty where the setup is similar, if more popular. Several teams of divers hobbling over the stoney beach into the waves to see the wreck only a few metres offshore. The visibility's better but there's a lot of silt about which smothers things.
We get a second proper dive at the wreck where I commit a cardinal diving sin and go beyond my no-decompression dive limits [not enough computer watching]. This means I must have a decompression stop to avoid, amongst others, "the bends" straight away. Fortunately, the guide understands the issue and we complete a decompression stop. The rather conservative computer is happy so we can gradually exit. A bit of a scare -- something I'd have missed without it [the computer] and potentially suffered the consequences. Next time: look at all the numbers on the computer.
We have a dip in the very nice pool before ordering a sandwich Sorry, no bread!
(then they went into town [to get bread] for us!) and then headed out to Almapuri and the Royal Palace (an awful run-down thing) and the water gardens at Ujung (also run down but being refurbished) which at least look as though one day they'll be back to a former of glory worth seeing.
Then an early night back at the hotel to catch up on journals and generally relax.
Kusumajaya Indah Bungalows, Amed S8.34144 E115.66644 Elev. 45m
Copyright 2003 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.