daily planet on this tiny little spot: March 2013

I will tell you a story, of an enchanted journey.
Not a fairy tale, or out of this world kind of stuffs.
Just a simple Four hours motorcycle ride, with friends, old and new.
All with a similar interest.

The journey begin when I start moving my feet, like all journeys do.
Call it coincidences, or a simple encounter and questions asked.
Followed by spontaneous response, and a promise to a new place yet to be seen.

the four hour ride ended to this place.

This is the Crossing point to Menjangan Island, West Bali National Park.

First time here, almost dusk, the sensation was a mix of excitement, curiousity, tired from the ride, anxious to get on the boat, and above all, Hungry.

There were ten of us. and we were waiting for another person to join, so a total of eleven. After an hour of waiting (maybe more), with mosquitoes sucking our blood, we set sail (more like turning on the motorboat) to Menjangan Island.

It was dark already, looking back at the city light, we are going out to the darkness ahead, toward the island. There are no dwellings there, only some Ranger Posts and Temples. the boat trip took about half an hour. and then it's dinner time. We ate like refugees, there was plenty of rice, thankfully.

After satisfying our digestive problems, having coffee and stuffs. The water seems to be calling our names, as black as the coffee we just drank, yet so alluring. bottling up my hesitation, I dipped my feet into the water, along with the rest of my body. We had some waterproof flashlights to help see in the dark, and so begun our first night snorkeling.

It was cold, dark most of the time, with dim flickering strobe of the flashlight, and generator powered light from the boat and the pier.

The jellyfishes welcomed us with no mercy. They were small and transparent (like most jellyfishes are) with dark green at the center of their bells (I wish I had a picture of it). Since it was my first time snorkeling in the dark, and also my first time being on the island, I didn't wander far and only encounter some fishes and a Cushion Star, and Corals also, oh and lots and lots of jellyfishes (I have to emphasize that, since they stung me almost every few seconds). The cold took me in, and so I finished my night snorkeling.

We patrolled the area at midnight, from the island perimeter, checking for any illegal fishing boat that might be coming because of the Silent Day, expecting no one is around.

We encountered some menjangan (deer if you please) and went to the Temple at the east side of the island. and then we go back to the camping ground. I wasn't planning on sleeping in the tent, knowing that it would be hot inside. so I braced myself and slept on the plastered pier. it was quite windy, but it was also enchanting, literally sleeping under the stars.

I Woke up around 5 AM in the morning, and we started getting in the boat and patrolled around the island, not wasting any opportunities to dive in the clear water.

photo courtesy of @linaPW

There are still many jellyfishes around, but the clear water, made a friend of mine jump in, me tagging along not long after *chuckled*.

photo courtesy of @linaPW

Thanks to not knowing that we would be wet on this patrol, I stripped to my underwear and dive (almost showing my two buns to the morning sunrise and everyone around ;P)

I took some pictures and video footage underwater, and not aware of my surrounding, bumped my bare back to a coral (ouchy!). It stings, but I do hope the coral would be okay. Meanwhile the jellyfishes are still prowling the water, not giving us any chance to dodge them. Getting back to the island, we have taken some beauty shots of the sunrise, along with poses with the pirate flag we brought along (Ahoy matey!)

Back on the island, breakfast was served, but unfortunately, the other group has the courtesy of leaving us with rice and soup, finishing all the meat and fishes. Disappointment occurs within our group, but being happy and cheerful and all, I let it passed and just go straight to continue snorkeling in front of the pier. the contour of the reef right in front of the pier was a drop off, with coral walls down to 20 meters deep. I saw a lot of sea lilies, sea fans, colourful corals, many species of reef fishes, and occasionally, other bottom dwellers.

I dove to 10 meters deep (maybe) or more, but being out of stamina and lack of exercise, It took my breath away, not to mention pressure pushing my eardrums. took more pictures and footage of the reef wall, the Abudefduf fishes, and chased down a triggerfish to quite a dive, before giving up and emerge for dear ol' air. This is just too much too handle :)

I am having the time of my life, yet my mind went on an overdrive of things that i want to do, between taking pictures, recording videos, or just simply dive in and forget everything and have fun. My oh my, do I need to straighten things up.

Back to the trip then. We moved to another spot of the island, going westward from the pier. we took the boat to get there. The bottom contour was a bit different from before. It was a reef slope, from the beach, steadily descending into the deep, the corals coverage nearly 100%. This is where we took fun pictures and engulfed ourselves with the surroundings of table corals and school of fishes.

Oh yeah, some info about Menjangan Island, it is part of West Bali National Park, so it is a non-occupied island, safe from the temples around the island, which have their caretaker and Hindu priests staying on the island. otherwise, the biggest organism living on the island are only the menjangan itself, prancing around freely all over the island (I should check on their population later on). So we have the island to ourselves. Another note, on other days, the island are forbidden to be occupied by tourist or nature enthusiast, except maybe for religious or research purposes.

Ganesh looking Westward

Statue of Ganesh

Back to our trip, we got hungry after so much snorkeling and free diving, and without any freshwater to bathe, our hair are all sticky and tangled with saltwater. this will last until we get back to the mainland, so in total, we have no contact to freshwater for almost 48 hours (counting from our last bath, if we even took it before starting the trip :p). Luckily, the fishes and corals doesn't really mind, heheh...

The day are coming to an end, dusk is closing in, and we were chasing sunset, but not as lucky as before, we only got the glimpse of orange clouds, no glowing red orb to see alongside it. Dinner was fishes, freshly caught with simple hook, line and sinker. we ate plenty of it. nothing beats the fresh fish with only saltwater as seasoning, and a bit of chili.

on the next morning, ready to go back to the mainland, we took the boat, already packed our stuffs from the night before, and leave the island with a sense of longing (I want more time to explore...). But to add some more awe, we saw splashing of water just about 50 meters from the boat, and fins. Dolphins!!!! There were a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in search for fishes, and they started to swim in front of our boat, bow riding (we saw maybe 5 of them) for a few minutes. And then they swam away to join their pod of maybe 10-15.

the Dolphin was our last nature encounter, after that, we arrived at the mainland Bali, and the journey ends, as a start of another one :)

Underwater pictures of biotas and fun pics