last day of diving
yesterday was a great dive day. dove a site in the morning called ibura thila - really calm relaxing dive. no current to speak of so my dive buddy, michel (i've nicknamed him monsieur zero bar for his habit of stretching out a dive until there's no pressure left in his tank), and i could really take our time and check things out. the visibility was great and since it was in the morning the sunlight was really bright, illuminating everything. tons of overhangs with countless squirrelfish, a couple of baby whit tip sharks, and 2 sea turtles. a couple i met on the boat, gef and fiona from the uk, had this massive digital slr with these big strobes and they got the most amazing pictures fromt he dive. a little bit of gear envy, i must say. like i need something else to spend my money on.
afterwards at the dive center i was joking around with barbara (the dive center manager), niko and marco (2 senior instructors) about them coming to los angeles for their holiday. they could come out, give private dive lessons in rich people's homes... sounds like a good premise for a comedy script actually. if they actually come out i'll have to rent a bigger place to accommodate them. we'll see i guess.
the second dive was another adrenaline pumper at a place called baracuda kandu. current again about 4 - 5 knots. saw a huge stingray that was sitting on the sand about 40m down and a couple of white tip sharks but i couldn't notice much else the current was so strong - your brain firing on all cylinders. you could only concentrate on where your next hand hold was without damaging the reef and watching your depth/pressure guage. exhilarating.
this morning i found myself in last day of vacation mode - really quiet and pensive. listening to everything around me, taking in as much of the smells i could. seems to always happen this way. like i'm cataloging all of the sensations that i've grown so accustomed to in order to never forget them. pictures and video only capture so much but you can really relive a place through its sounds and smells.
the dive this morning was a really easy one at a place called wall street. basically a huge wall with tons of overhangs wher all sorts of stuff was hiding. really small stuff too. like the tiniest clown fish i've seen here hiding among soft coral... amazing. on the boat ride back i got to talking with niko about where he grew up in italy - a little village right by guarda lake in the north. which is about an hour away from my favorite wine producing region in the world - veneto. he invited me to come and stay at his aunt's bed and breakfast overlooking the lake and if i was there when he was there he'd show me around. definitely gonna take him up on that!
no sooner had we arrived back at fili from the dive did it start to rain. nothing torrential but strong enough to make people take cover. almost as if the maldives knew it was my last dive here and decided to send me off with something special. the omens are everywhere if you pay attention, i guess.
i've made some great friends here... more than i thought i would - diving helped a great deal with that. i'll do my best to keep in touch with them but even if we're unable to maintain contact it's nice to know that one can travel alone and always find that connection that binds us all together.
got a massage booked for tomorrow morning and then it's back to malé to wait for my grueling 22 hr flight back to reality.
afterwards at the dive center i was joking around with barbara (the dive center manager), niko and marco (2 senior instructors) about them coming to los angeles for their holiday. they could come out, give private dive lessons in rich people's homes... sounds like a good premise for a comedy script actually. if they actually come out i'll have to rent a bigger place to accommodate them. we'll see i guess.
the second dive was another adrenaline pumper at a place called baracuda kandu. current again about 4 - 5 knots. saw a huge stingray that was sitting on the sand about 40m down and a couple of white tip sharks but i couldn't notice much else the current was so strong - your brain firing on all cylinders. you could only concentrate on where your next hand hold was without damaging the reef and watching your depth/pressure guage. exhilarating.
this morning i found myself in last day of vacation mode - really quiet and pensive. listening to everything around me, taking in as much of the smells i could. seems to always happen this way. like i'm cataloging all of the sensations that i've grown so accustomed to in order to never forget them. pictures and video only capture so much but you can really relive a place through its sounds and smells.
the dive this morning was a really easy one at a place called wall street. basically a huge wall with tons of overhangs wher all sorts of stuff was hiding. really small stuff too. like the tiniest clown fish i've seen here hiding among soft coral... amazing. on the boat ride back i got to talking with niko about where he grew up in italy - a little village right by guarda lake in the north. which is about an hour away from my favorite wine producing region in the world - veneto. he invited me to come and stay at his aunt's bed and breakfast overlooking the lake and if i was there when he was there he'd show me around. definitely gonna take him up on that!
no sooner had we arrived back at fili from the dive did it start to rain. nothing torrential but strong enough to make people take cover. almost as if the maldives knew it was my last dive here and decided to send me off with something special. the omens are everywhere if you pay attention, i guess.
i've made some great friends here... more than i thought i would - diving helped a great deal with that. i'll do my best to keep in touch with them but even if we're unable to maintain contact it's nice to know that one can travel alone and always find that connection that binds us all together.
got a massage booked for tomorrow morning and then it's back to malé to wait for my grueling 22 hr flight back to reality.
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