I have been SO busy with my DMT course trying to get it all finished, but not rushing things so I really learn and feel comfortable with it all. We are now at the third location of Two Fish Divers in Lembeh Strait, north east tip of North Sulawesi. It is a major shipping port, but we are across the strait on an island, as usual. lol So, here is the land of MUCK diving. Yes, I said muck! What the heck is that? I asked that question months back whilst planning this trip and my MSDT husband was jumping up and down in excitement that my DMT course was going to take us to Lembeh, a photographer’s dream place.
Today was my first muck dive.The first 20 minutes of the dive, I thought to myself, NO WAY am I doing this for 3 weeks. LOL. Where did my gorgeous reefs, pretty fish, clear water, sharks, and turtles go? Basically, you dive in shallow waters (10-20 meters) in the BLACK/BROWN SAND or mud sediment, with POOR visibility, TRASH everywhere and look for TINY, TINY, TINY creatures………………. that blow your mind. 🙂 Also this is not EASY diving. It is for advanced, experienced divers, but I tick that box now! You need to have good buoyancy to be able to hover horizontally above the sand to look at things and not touch down on the sand, as that will either disturb the creatures or prevent someone else to enjoy what you have found. The best position to be in is in a sky diver position and you move forwards/backwards and around by doing frog kicks with your fins. You can also use your breath to lower yourself down in an exhale and then, back up breathing in. Again in the first 20 minutes, I thought to myself, OMG, I am not sure I can do this, this is really hard, I don’t like it. BUT, as this trip is constantly showing me that a little persistence and patience and trusting myself, I can do it and I did it pretty darn well. I never touched the bottom to disturb the creatures or cause someone else to not see what I was seeing. And a Phil fish said he was checking out my underwater skills and said I looked pretty darn good. YAY!
And talking about different perspectives, looking for treasures in “muck” really shifts your outlook on life. How can the most COLORFUL, BRIGHT, GORGEOUS creatures come out of this muck? IT is crazy. The second amazing part is the VARIETY of creatures and fish. We saw on one dive today:
- cuttle fish
- porcupine fish
- lion fish
- pipe fish
- scorpion fish
- devil scorpion fish
- 5 eels
- 2 ribbon eels
- file fish
- bat fish
- juvenile angle fish
- banggai cardinal fish
- pajama cardinal fish
- clown fish
- spotted trunk fish
- Harlequin shrimp
- Bandit shrimp
- nudibranch, probably 10-12 different types
I could probably go on and on, but I won’t. Basically, today something amazing came out of something you would think is absolutely nothing. My outlook completely changed after an hour and thirteen minutes. Will I give up my gorgeous turquoise clear waters and tropical fish and big pelagic’s, heck no! But that is the beauty of diving, it ALL is amazing. Even diving the same dive site over and over, you will always see something new and different. You are continually learning, whether it is the type of diving you are doing or the different underwater environment you are exposed to. Never a dull moment.
Georgia
