Gili Air
After cruising the equator for two days and nights the two Argentinian ladies and I arrived at Gili Air pier and off we went. I didn’t have a hotel room or guesthouse or anything and I was tempted to follow them but they were walking away from the beach and I would have none of that. There was an open-air bar nearby and I walked in and talked to the locals about dive shops and places to stay. They said there were many. Most pointed down the beach and off I went. It didn’t take me long to run into 7 seas dive shop followed by a restaurant and a hotel with a dorm. 7 Seas it is. www.7seas-cottages.com. I pulled in and got a room and stopped moving for a minute.
I booked in for 4 nights/35 USD/night with an option on a 5th. In the not-so-early morning I ventured down to the restaurant for breakfast and tea and watch the waves break on the point. It was just full moon with the tides up and the waves up to 2 meter.
I walked into the 7 Seas scuba shop and had a quick look around before asking about their dives. I signed up for 5. www.7seas.asia.com. The one we did first was rather nothing compared to where I had just been and the visibility was a mess but I had high hopes that it would get better. 7 seas diving has instructors for many Tech levels, open water, advanced, rescue and you can do your DMT/‘C’ here. The staff is competent, curious and eager to get in the water. If you dive with 7 seas they will do their best to get you on site with aqua critters and ship wrecks. I’ll dive with them again.
The evenings are calm and quiet verses Gili Trawangan, the next island. Gili ‘T’ has a bit of a reputation for being a party island. I didn’t want to go back. I had been there in 1989 with two friends when I biked all the islands out to Flores. There were only seven thatch bungalow places to stay and eat and at night we’d sit by a fire on the beach and listen to songs, guitars and other instruments. Mt. Rinjani rises into the clouds above Lombok. The way I saw it, one island is for a party and the other was more chillaxed. I listened to a local play guitar last night and chatted with a few French, Swedes, and Brits; all diving.
Back in the water the next day for two dives and the visibility was great. I didn’t see much big stuff at Shark Point besides turtles. There was at least one turtle per dive and sometimes up to 6. We checked out an old community pier off of Gili Menu. Menu lies between Air and T. The pier was used for transport and supply delivery. Fifteen years ago a big storm hit and it went down with everything on it, bikes, chains, tires, structures, whatever was on it. After 15 years corals have begun to grow coral and attract a good number of fish and turtles.
On another dive we happened across a recently sunk vessel with Government approval and it is fresh but also a good sign that someone up there is working for the oceans and animals we have displaced by dynamite and cyanide fishing and dropping anchors to and fro. Mooring lines are everywhere and that is a good thing.
There’s a group out there called PROJECTAWARE.ORG that has a few words I’d like to share; they have 10 tips for divers to protect the ocean planet. 1) Dive, 2) Give back, 3) Be an eco-tourist, 4) Shrink your carbon footprint, 5) Be a buoyancy expert (stay off the coral), 6) Be a role model, 7) Take only photos and leave only bubbles, 8) Protect underwater life, 9) Become a debris activist, 10) Make responsible seafood choices.
Me and a guide were at Hon’s Reef checking out lots coral outcrops and while going from one to another we came across a seahorse in the middle of seemingly no where hanging on a new shoot of soft coral or grass, there wasn’t much around. Now I’m properly puzzled. I got out of the water and sat at the shop for a bit and eventually asked, what’s your favorite dive to my guide and he responded, ‘Deep Turbo’. I asked if they were diving it soon and he said, tomorrow morning. So I added another day and another dive.
From the surface you can’t really see anything but with a GPS we were right on top of it, also other bubbles are a tell tale sign. We dove in and descended with no real vision of what we were into. It’s a pinnacle at about 30 to 40 meters. We were sort of lucky in the fact there wasn’t much current but then again that might have been a lot of fun too. My computer kept going off every time I went below 30 meters then I realized my decompression time was down to 3 minutes and started a very gradual climb over mounds and channels until we came across a sleeping white tip shark. He didn’t seem to mind us and we couldn’t go down and visit because our ‘deco’ time wouldn’t allow it. The visibility was around 30 meters.
The sun is out and I bought my next sea going ferry boat. I have traveled by boat all the way from Raja Ampat through the Spice Islands, Alor, off the coast of Timor, Flores, Lombok and now to Bali and Lembongan for more diving and writing a new manuscript that is a lot of fun to write.
I could stay here longer but the whole reason I’m coming this way at all is because there are just some things that have to be handled in person and the closest place for that is Bali.
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