Scubalicious!!!

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We arrived at the Perhentian Islands with our bucket, spade, suncream, snorkel and mask... what do you think we did?

There were 2 islands big and small, we based ourselves on the small one where diving was the main activity. As soon as we arrived we got into the water surrounded by jelly fish (a bit scary) and remembered how much we love scuba!

Next day we started our Advanced Open Water Course which was really good fun. We did a navigation dive, wreck dive, deep dive (up to 30m), night dive, underwater photography and fish identification. Our favourite was the wreck dive which was a cargo vessel carrying sugar between Thailand and Indonesia which sank in 2000. Were not fully aware why it sank but don't fear the sugar and crew were saved. It was 90m long and lay on it's starboard side. After 12 years being under the water it made a brilliant artificial reef where we saw a lot of fish large and small. We also got to swim into the cargo hold which was a strange experience!

We also did a drift dive, this waas really cool as we dropped to 25m and before we knew it we were being taken along at some speed by a very strong current. The only way to stop was to plant your metal rod in the sand and hold on tight.

We learned so much more about the types of fish and where to look for them. After a long discussion/debate we came up with the top 3 things we saw:

1. Green turtle (called Terry).

2. A family of 6 bamboo sharks hiding under a rock all piled on top of each other.

3. A school of 12 bumphead parrotfish which were huge, approx 1m in length.

In between growing gills in the water we sat on the beach and drank the local rum, Orang-Utan!

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