In the Tulamben area, all the diving is shore diving. We learn a new system once again.
We meet at 8:30 at the resort dive shop and don our wetsuits, check our tanks and make sure we have all our gear. BCDs and tanks are loaded onto a small truck along with the plastic crate holding our fins, masks and small gear. With cameras in hand, Jaya (our dive master), Murray and I climb into the back of the truck for the short drive to one of many dive sites.
Once parked, four ladies descend on the truck to carry the tanks down to the shore and the crate to a staging area. Each dive shop pays fees to an organization of “porters”, which in turns pays ladies at each dive site to carry gear. And it’s only the ladies who are the porters!
Jaya gives us the dive briefing while we don the rest of our gear, grab our fins and cameras and go to where our tanks are. The beaches are quite rocky, so I am playing my princess card. Jaya throws my tank onto his back and escorts me, carrying my fins, into the water. I put on my BCD, then my fins and wait for Jaya to return to the water with Murray. They both walk in with their BCDs on and Jaya carrying my camera. We make sure we are all put together and then descend to the underwater world.
The diving here is “muck” diving, which means diving over the sandy, gravelly, rocky bottom. There is usually no coral on muck dives. We are looking for tiny creatures, mostly nudibranchs, that are less than 1/2 inch, or one centimetre, length. More about these critters later.
At the end of the dive, we repeat the process to get out of the water. Murray and Jaya first and then Jaya comes back to get my tank so I can walk out of the water without a tank. Oh by the way, I usually use a small tank but the dive shop does not have any small tanks so I have to use a regular sized one, which is heavier and more cumbersome than a small one, thus the princess card.
Hop back in the truck to go back to the dive shop for our surface interval and then do it all over again. Sounds like fun, right!
We come to Tulamben to search out small critters. Mostly nudibranchs, shrimps, frog fish and the odd crab. I have a new camera, one that shoots macro and super macro, so I am in a steep learning curve. It is a different kind of photography than what I am used to. The first dive I have maybe two photos that are in focus and 50 out of focus. With each dive the ratio of in focus to out of focus goes up.
On the second day of diving we dive the Melasti Dive Site in search of the Nudibranch Costasiella Kiroshimae, or lovingly called “Shaun the Sheep”, for its black eyes, expressive feelers and sheep like face. These guys hang out on leaves and are about the size of a pin head. Jaya is great and is tutoring me on my camera and what settings to use for teeny creatures, tiny critters and small fauna. May I introduce you to one of many different Shauns……..
