Today was very slow and grey, but fun none the less. I am starting to communicate better with the Papuans not so much through words, but through personality, and jokes. They are great people very light hearted, great sense of humour, and each one has their own distinctive laugh. Its a bot like Nassau in the sense that you greet everyone and everyone greets you in passing, but they always have a smile pm their face. Nikson an amazing Papuan dive guide, who speaks English very makes for great conversation. He finds Tamu, or guests very amusing and claims we all have office feet, meaning that we are less stable. I proved him right the other day by slipping as I jumped off of the boat onto a beach and landing flat on my back, giving everyone on the boat a great laugh.
I am beginning to miss my normal shower, these Mandis are interesting and do the job, but they are not the same. Thankfully we have hot water, otherwise I would be miserable, but there is something to be said for the constant stream of hot water pouring from my 15" rain shower head back home, but it's a worthwhile sacrifice to be in such a beautiful place. I am sitting in the restaurant with the Papuans playing music, they really are good their instruments.
(Well Hidden Wobbegong)
Claudia made a very special dinner today, something different. She spent the morning making true Italian Lasagne, I am really excited for this. Chicken and fish with rice is beginning to get old. I want a steak, fries, and a pizza all in one sitting. I can't wait for a taste of food that I am used to, I love pasta in general, and cheese, and beef, so a compilation off all of these has got me beaming.
(Well Hidden Wobbegong)
Today was good, I only did one dive. The morning dive I skipped out on and talked to some friends on Skype and watched Claudia in the kitchen, mouth watering with the smell of the amazing food. The second dive was at crossover reef 100 metered off of the resorts jetty. We went down quickly to 26 meters and looked under a low overhang where there were crawfish and a white tip reef shark. We saw two wobbegongs down here well camouflaged into their surroundings, I got some good shots of them, and then we went to the shallows.
(Well Hidden Wobbegong)
While in the shallows I saw some bat fish, and though I have many hots of them already, with the low light today it was easier to shoot them without the light from the strobe flashes bouncing back off of their silver scales at me. They are all surprisingly friendly, and cooperate well for photographs. Claudia and Nikson noticed that the smaller bat fish were really curious, so they held out their metal points and the little bat fish started to nibble on them.
(Beautiful Bat Fish)
Just below the bat fish, we noticed an anemone that was closed up, and loaded with clown fish. They close up at night, so I suppose that due to the low light they were feeling as lazy as I did. The clown fish in the anemone were aggressive, meaning that rather than hiding from me they tried to chase me away, making for some cool shots. The contrast was amazing, the white outside of the anemone with the brownish tentacles, and the glowing orange clown fish. I hung around the anemone for a while shooting away before noticing another wobbegong to my left.
(Clown Fish On Folded Anemone)
(Clown Fish On Folded Anemone)
At this point in the dive we were near empty, but we hung around a bit. As I was sitting watching this wobbegong, Nikson got another one out of the hole, but I didn't know there was another so I got a fright as another wobbegong darted at me. During all of this action, a fish swam really close to the resting wobbegong and wam, it was gone. I got a cool shot from afar of the shark with the fish's tail sticking out of it's mouth.
(Wobbegong With a Fish in its mouth)
Another cool day, though slow, I had some great action on my dive. For now we are winding down, just finished our dinner, and are heading back to the photo studio. I am still really enjoying myself, and am in love with this place, and enjoy the company of the people. Hope all is well in the rest of the world. Check back tomorrow for another upda
(Clown Fish On Folded Anemone)
No comments:
Post a Comment