I made it to Bali!

10 days crusing on a 26 meter motorised sail boat.... exploring, diving, hiking and laughing our way from Labuan Bajo, Flores to Bali!

This blog is by far going to be the hardest to write because how on earth can i explain each dive, each little experience, each special moment we had on those incredible 10 days onboard the Jaya!

So Let me start... there is a picture in the 'Jaya trip' photo's which is a map (drawn on a white board) of our course we took! so take a look if these places are bumbo jumbo!

ok so there were 5.5 customers with 2.5 diving staff and a boat crew of 5! (the .5 is scott who ended up filling in for Amanda who got a foul ear infection and helped out by guiding a few dives). We all got along so well. you would think living in the confines of a boat and spending every second of every day with the same people that you would get tired, run out of stories, want to escape etc... but NO WAY! WE HAD THE SWEETEST TIME! great company!

Diving Was INSANE! Komodo packs some serious current punch and brings in the sharks... reefs around there are so bright and the visibility is imaculate! many white tip sharks were spotted each dive in the komodo's, we were so spoilt we were asking to see bigger and better! Also in the komodo's we stopped of for a hike up a gorgeous hill somewhere..... haha and watched the sunset... and also stopped on land for mission to find the infamous komodo dragons... WHICH WE FOUND!

From there we journeyed to Banta which rocked a wicked night dive... dubbed 'Banta in D house'.... after an overnight stay in banta and hoping to escape the stalking lionfish...West again we travelled crossing a straight overnight.... rocking and rolling for 15 hrs... we arrived in satonda were we visited a lake and endured to underwater dynomyte explosions in Haji's Reef.. oh and saw our first eagle ray of the trip!

ALong the way we visited a volcano and dived around its base... it was crazy,.. volcanic vents were releasing HOT air (bubbles) up through the volcanic sand.... as you can imagine due to the volcanic soil the reefs are vast and vibrant with a ubundance of marine life...

West again via another 13 hr bumpy journey we arrived in the waters surrounding Lombok were we spent an afternoon on land to restock on coffee, chocolate and almond magnams.... We were all spent... with 4 dives a day and little sleep on the big ocean crossing nights we slumped in our chair begging for the time to get back on the boat and SIESTA! (our favourite word and game to play on the boat) Sam decided we should as least explore sengiggi just a little bit and walk don to the water front... so what was meant to be a dry 10 days... no alochol detox... turned into (somehow) a night of wildness, dancing and plenty of drinking at the happy cafe! Poor Amanda... a night dive was planned at tuluk nara pier to spot he frogfish as we hadnt seen any on the trip so far... Uh ahhhh... not happening... 2 am in the morning came and we arrived (no idea how) back to the jaya... with the SLOGAN: f*** THE FROGFISH! if you feel a passion to sometimes go out on the town and drink instead of hunt for those b******s feel free to join our offical f*** the frogfish page on face book :)!!!!

Next stop was again west at Tulamben/Amed! fantasic divin... big currents... macro galore!

Now i havent captured this trip at all! I really havent! i hope some of the pics can be a little more fullfilling.!

Now Amanda and Ricky: thanks for a WICKED trip! would do it again and again and again! xxx

To my pirates: Sam, Tanar, mark and Sabrina: f*** THE FROGFISH.... what a sweet trip! friends for life!! see you all soon!

oh scott! see ya soon! haha

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