Today is such a perfect day for us! Why? Just listen to our stories below.
Today was our last day onboard the MV Tatawa, and the last day of our manta safari. We are all very sad about this, but even so the day was full of joy.
Our first dive site was called Castle Rock. We dived very early in the morning (around 6.30 a.m) so that we could find a lot of fascinating creatures. And JACKPOT! We found them all! Sharks, hawksbill turtles, tuna, trevally, and millions of fishes. We didn’t find any mantas, but we did have a once in a lifetime experience.
Three dolphins swam around us at the end of our dive! The female came very very close to us. Evi, one of my fellow Interns, took a video. Wow, our first dive today would be one of our most memorable, and we hadn’t even had breakfast yet!
After breakfast Wai gave us a briefing about underwater navigation. Then diving again, this time at Gili Lawa Laut and a special underwater navigation training dive for our PADI Advanced Open Water course. We all managed to navigate using a compass and natural features, and fortunately none of the Interns got lost.
We then headed to Karang Makassar for our last manta survey of the safari. After a long search we eventually found an eagle ray, and then finally a manta. One solitary Manta alfredi, but a large one. Some of us managed to take a good photo ID.
After lunch (everyone was very, very hungry by this time), we went diving again. This was the final dive of our fantastic four-day liveaboard journey. The dive site was called Tatawa Besar, and this was one of the best dive sites of our journey, with so much abundant biodiversity.
Some of the Interns took photos with our university flags, but others (including me) forgot to bring our flags to the Internship Program. But instead, I managed to get a good photo beside a hawksbill turtle. What a perfect dive!
Gerald and a hawksbill pose for the camera
Finally, our liveaboard journey has ended. But actually a new journey is beginning for all of us Interns. Thank you to the crew of Dive Komodo, our new crazy friends, and especially to our beloved instructor Wai and divemaster Fabi. Thank you for a perfect manta safari, and sharing with us the wonders of the underwater world.
