It was another early start this morning as I signed up for two dives with Holly. It was a little different to the experience I'd had in Flores as the boat was a tiny little speed boat and there was just a few of us with all Indonesian guides and a lovely Canadian DMT named Ally.
The boat literally flew over the waves to our first dive site, Manta Point, and once we got all our equipment on we flipped backwards off the boat and descended down. The current was extremely strong as waves crashed against the cliff rocks and so you just had to go with it and float backwards and forwards with the current - and try not to hit the coral below! Although the visibility was not amazing the dive was incredible and we saw around 11 huge mantas all gliding through the water and playing with each other all together! Eleven mantas in one dive all at the same time is almost unheard of, we were very very lucky. We were able to get so so close to them too as we drifted with the waves and at one point I was right in a mantas face! It was unbelievable. It was really really nice to be diving with Holly as my buddy and see her friendly face under the water. We also saw tons of blue spotted sting rays and a sea snake, amongst other common fish.
Once back on the boat we moved to our next dive site, Crystal Bay, which I was really looking forward to as I'd heard great things. As always the boat ride between dive sites was stunning with all the island cliffs in view and the clearest blue sea. It was a massive shock flipping off the boat to find the water at Crystal Bay was absolutely freezing, and I could really really feel he chill despite having a super thick wetsuit on. We descended down and the water here was incredibly clear with a long sandy bottom making for a lovely pleasant entry. Right at the start in the shallows we saw an adorable little seahorse hanging onto some coral, a frogfish, shrimp and flounders. We continued deeper to the reef and saw some moray eels, a trumpet fish, crabs and a trigger fish. I was gutted that the guide pointed out a Mola Mola in the distance but I couldn't see it at all, it must have been too far away, and when I swam into the blue in attempt to get closer it was even colder so I retreated back to the reef. At least I can say I almoooost saw a Mola Mola - maybe next time! At the end of the dive our guide was trying to tell/ask me something underwater and from what I saw he was telling me "You look cool" which made me very confused but thought how nice of him. At the surface he told me he was asking if I had seen the Mola Mola - the signs are so similar! We all had a laugh about this. I'm so glad I got to dive with Holly, it was so much fun and I really liked our guide also.
We had some lunch and I said goodbye to Holly as she was leaving back to Bali; I'm so happy we had the chance to meet and she's so lovely. I wandered down the beach and found myself a beach resort with an infinity pool overlooking the beach which was just beautiful. I set up there for the rest of the day just relaxing and working on my tan. I have never seen such a blue view before.
I had some drinks for evening with the rest of the group from the previous night who were still on the island. Again I had some great conversations and it was an enjoyable chilled out evening. They are a funny bunch of guys and I get along really well with them.