Diving with mantas

Today was my first day of scuba diving since 2012. I've only done 36 dives but I've got an Advanced Open Water qualification, have dived in six countries and I really love it. However, it's an expensive hobby so I decided to only do it in special places. Komodo National Park is famous for its diving and most foreigners staying in the town of Labuan Bajo were there for diving. I wish I had more time to visit some of the other famous dive sites around this area but I had my flight booked for the next day, leaving time for just three dives in one day.

I had to be at the shop at 7am and I was slightly held up when I discovered some jerk had stolen my flip flops from outside the hostel. I had to walk 10-15 minutes bare-foot on dirt roads. Not a great start to the day. I met the group of fellow divers and realised that Hugo and Lizanne (the Dutch couple from the four-day boat trip) were there too! It was great to see them again.

I was grouped with two girls from San Francisco and on our first dive we saw one manta ray in the distance, two smaller rays nearby, a shark and a turtle which swam right at me. The second dive was back at Manta Point, where I'd been snorkelling a few days before. It was a very different experience being underwater with them. I've put together a little video of the manta and turtle: https://youtu.be/GAIAQ7KMhow

For the third dive, half of the boat went to Rinca to see the Komodo dragons and the rest of us did a 'muck dive' which takes place in murky waters, searching for small interesting life. I've always wanted to see seahorses so I asked the dive master if he could search for me. Within a few minutes he found one and later on he found a second one. Another item checked off from my list! They were three great dives and I hope to come back in the next few years and spend more time in the water.

We got back to town around 5pm and arranged to all meet up around 6pm for drinks. There were probably about 10-12 of us and they were a really great group. It's a shame I had to leave the next day because I'd have liked to spend more time with them.