Blowing Bubbles in Bali

Bali remains one of our most favourite places to go on holiday. In our last blog we had agreed to stay on at the lodge however one of our requests was that we could have a couple of weeks off in August in order to head over to Bali where a group of friends were heading for a 2 week break.

The madness that is the Bali International arrivals hall. The game is to find your name on a card

I was wanting to surprise two of my bestest girlfriends who would be there from New Zealand and everyone was able to keep the secret which enabled me to knock on their door very early the morning after they had arrived giving them a fun surprise.

Spending time with my galpals

We spent the first few days in Pemuteran which is approximately a 4 hour windy drive through the middle of Bali towards the top left hand corner of the island, stopping partway there for lunch at the beautiful grounds of a Temple on the Lake.

Temple on the lake
Temple on the Lake
Monkey on side of the road

Pemuteran itself is approximately 2 kms long and consists of tiny shops and large resorts sitting either side of the road with the resorts mainly fronting the beach side.
It was a lovely place to spend a few days and time was spent relaxing, snorkelling, walking the beach, eating and having massages.

Pemuteran Resort Pool
Loving the colour of the water
Craig practicing paddle boarding

While in Pemuteran I decided to have an intro dive. We spent an hour or so in the pool learning what to do and then was taken out in a boat to Menjangan Island. We were unceremoniously pushed backwards of the boat and taken on a guided dive. It was quite fun but hasn’t swayed me from my snorkelling. There is something about throwing on some togs, grabbing mask and fins and jumping in the water all within the span of a few minutes. With diving there is so much extra gear you have to wear, gear to check, safety checks to go through. Once under the water it sounds so loud breathing through the respirator. I know quite a few people that absolutely swear by diving but for now its not for me.

Dive intro at Pemuteran
Divers going through all their checks
Sunset at Pemuteran

Upon leaving Pemuteran we had a 2 hour drive along the top end of the island to Tulamben which is the site of one of the best wreck dives in the world. It was a slow trip with heaps of kids out marching in practice for the upcoming Independence Day celebrations.  The poor kids had to march minimum 2 kms in the sun.  We saw some that had such a slow marching style it was going to take them hours.  Luckily heaps of locals were always on the side of the road to encourage the kids to keep going.  In order for us to break up this trip a quick stop was made so we could have a dive/snorkel.

Kids practicing for Independence Day
Coral growing on an old tyre
Field just behind the beach where we stopped to dive/snorkel

In Tulamben we were lucky to be staying in a resort that was located directly in front of the wreck so all we had to do was walk into the waves and swim less than 20 metres and we would be directly over it.

Another successful snorkel

Obviously this is a hugely popular place for divers from all around the world to come and Craig and I spent many an hour swimming above them, on occasion duck diving down to wave and/or take their photos.

Relaxing at the Tulamben Resort
Heaps of opportunity to practice holding my breath
The eel garden – yeap they are all eels.
Stunning
Spent hours exploring the wreck
Two group of divers meeting over a school of fish
Eerie but beautiful
My perfect day

To finish our trip we headed to Sanur where we jumped on a fast boat to spend the last few days in Lembongan, another very popular tourist destination. We had a huge air b&b villa right on the beach just a short walk away from where the fast boats come in.

Air B&B
7am, learning to paddle board

We experienced one of our best snorkels here where we hired a local who took us just off the reef. We would jump in and drift with the current looking at the huge variety of corals and fishes. We would then climb aboard and be taken back to the start to jump in to drift again. Gorgeous warm water, heaps of fish life, just had to let the current carry us – it was fantastic.

Watching the clouds change colour

We were keen to do it again on the final day however the weather gods were against us and as it was wet and cold.
During this trip we spent quite a few hours in the van watching the countryside and towns pass by. I got quite adept at pointing the iphone out the window and snapping shots.

Colourful Bali
Relaxing on the street
Paddy Field

It was a fantastic two week trip away catching up with old friends and making new ones. We are now back at the lodge where we will be working until mid December.

Craig keeping an eye on some boats

From there we will spend some time leisurely sailing the Whitsundays and down the coast of Australia before making the sail back across the Coral Sea to New Caledonia. The only time constraint we will put ourselves on is the need to be in Vanuatu towards the end of July for my birthday in order to catch up with friends. Apart from that we will have the freedom to sail wherever and whenever we want to. If we find a lovely anchorage we can drop anchor and stay there as long as we like before moving on to the next one.
Our rough plan at this stage (and we know how plans change on the water) is to do New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea then sailing into Indonesia.
For now though this will be our last blog, at least for the remainder of the year. Once we start sailing again I will restart the blog. However you can keep in contact and up to date with what we are doing at the lodge via Facebook.

Our work clothes

Very exciting times ahead!

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