My new series ‘Life in Bali’ is documenting my journey living on Nusa Penida, Indonesia, working as a marine conservation intern and completing my dive master with Indo Ocean Project. I have been here 3 weeks now, which is crazy as it feels like I have been here for months!
In my last post ‘Arriving on the Island‘ I shared my experience travelling in a pandemic, and starting my life on the island! Since then I have been getting started on my dive master training and learning the ins and outs of the conservation research we conduct here.
I am already totally in love with this place and pinch myself every morning that I get to dive every day and live in paradise, however it hasn’t been all smooth sailing! The last 10 days have been a rollercoaster of falling head over heels for the island, adjusting to my crazy new routine and dealing with some medical issues along the way…
DIVING AND STUDYING
My schedule here is 6 days a week of either working towards my dive master, conducting research dives, or doing workshops on conservation and marine species here. We have one day off a week.
The first step towards my dive master was to pass my rescue diver course. This was quite the experience for me, involving learning how to save other divers as well as surviving the stress of a ‘dive from hell’. I will be writing about my experience of this course soon…
Since qualifying as a rescue diver I have started progressing towards my dive master training. I have been learning how to guide other divers, how to teach them basic skills and about the physics of diving.
The other side to my time here is working as an intern for a marine conservation project, Indo Ocean Project. I have been absolutely loving this! One of the main things we do here is survey the numbers of different species. In order to be a survey diver I had to pass a series of exams on fish ID. Once I passed the tests the data I collect on survey dives can be counted towards research.
We have also been learning how to monitor the health of the corals on the reef by examining their colours. We record this information and submit it to a worldwide database. Another project we are working towards is building a mangrove nursery to help grow more mangroves on the island, a crucial habitat for many species.
One of my favourite dives so far was when we visited Manta Point. Nusa Penida is famous for the amazing manta rays that live here and you are almost guaranteed to see them on dives. Everywhere I looked I could see these insane, majestic animals flying above my head under the water. There was about 20 around us at one point on the dive. We were trying to capture pictures of their bellies as each manta ray as a unique pattern of spots on their belly that acts as a fingerprint – allowing us to identify and record individuals!
hospital visit
I had quite the scare this week. After a day of diving I went to bed and started to feel pins and needles in my hands and foot. If you are a diver you know that any unusual symptom you get after diving you need to pay attention to.
Pins and needles can be a sign of Decompression Sickness (DCS), a potentially very serious condition caused by gas bubbles forming in your body after the changes of pressure during a dive. Initially, therefore, we were concerned it could be DCS and I was put on 100% Oxygen.
Thankfully we managed to rule this out, however the pins and needles persisted for more than 2 days. I went to the hospital to get an IV, as we suspected dehydration, and ended up getting blood tests and being told I had damage to my nerves! Language barriers combined with a very small hospital on a remote island meant the hospital visit ended up scaring me more than it helped. The pins and needles eased and I started to feel better.
We now think it was bad dehydration from having a stomach bug, diving every day and not eating enough. Lesson learned: look after yourself when you’re a trainee dive master!
eXPLORING THE ISLAND
Although I have been kept very busy with studying, diving, and the occasional health scare – I have still managed to explore the island the last couple weeks!
The amazing thing is that right now on Nusa Penida things feel very normal, you find yourself forgetting COVID exists.
We have been trying out the different beach bars and restaurants, spending evenings watching the sunset with a Bintang (the local beer).
I am still loving my bungalow (with a pool!) and living in what feels like a jungle.
Everyday I am feeling unbelievably lucky to be here…
I will be writing updates every week as part of the series ‘Life in Bali’ on my life here, my research project and my dive master journey so make sure to subscribe to follow along…
Rose this looks so amazing! And the place you are staying is far from the youth hostels! You have accomplished so much in a short time. You do have to take care of your health though! That sounded scary perhaps more water and less beer 🙂
Sounds amazing Rosie. Glad you got the health scare sorted – that must have been frightening. Big love to you ❤