Tuesday, September 28, 2004
BURAN REEF, day 2.
Remember what I said yesterday (see past log)? Well, TODAY is the total opposite. I love my job. I love the sea. Not that I didn't love it yesterday, I just love it MORE, today. It almost felt like a leisure dive today if not for the fact that we WERE doing work...
Big boulder corals and overhangs, nice small pretty corals and little crevices at the reef crest. And big colourful gorgonians and sea whips at the reef slope. Great place. Georgous.
Big Platygyra coral.
And the macro life is great too! Oargh! If only could stay a litttllleee longer to just take photos of all of it. We saw.....
Phyllidia ocellata
Acropora shrimp
Polyclad flatworm.
We also saw SEAWHIP GOBIES!!! These shy gobies are found along seawhips, either camouflaged or doggedly dodging you to the OTHER side of the seawhip. Irritating, I know................But still exciting!!!!
Oh look, there's TWO of them...so cuutteeeeee...
Closer shot of the goby (Bryaninops amplus).
Here's some other things we saw during the dive:
A cushionstar we did not sit on.
Rather large graze marks from suspectedly rather large parrotfish...
Colourful seafan at the reef slope!
.....And BIG ones too!!
And just as we were reeling back the tapes, under a pretty overhang like this...
Pretty ain't it...
...and in a crevice under this....
Scaaarrryyyy....My face was not spared...
....I saw these 2 antennas...AND THIS!!!
My stinging sacrifice was well WORTH IT!
Too bad for the backscatter...well, WHO CARES! It's a damn lobster!!! And with that, we ended our dive feeling very satisfied indeed...
Oh, did I ever tell you that our boatmen food is FANTASTIC. Dhal and eggplant and fish in special sauce and fried chicken wing and fried ikan bilis and FRIED TOADFISH...with rice. DELICIOUS. MARVELLOUS. GLORIOUS. F.O.O.D. I shall stop this now because I am about to drool...Oops, too late. Damn.
Anyway, let me tell you more about the FRIED TOADFISH. Tender, juicy, milky, smooth meat. Oh, the taste and texture. So...so...MMmmmMMMmmm. The boatmen actually told us it was GROUPER and not the TOADFISH they caught the previuos day. Only after it's all gone and we were licking our fingers clean, then they told us. Probably 'cos they thought if we knew, we wouldn't eat any of it. Yeah right, I eat everything. Especially if it's THAT good. TOADFISH. Will never look at it the same way underwater again..........
¶ 6:08 pm
Big boulder corals and overhangs, nice small pretty corals and little crevices at the reef crest. And big colourful gorgonians and sea whips at the reef slope. Great place. Georgous.
Big Platygyra coral.
And the macro life is great too! Oargh! If only could stay a litttllleee longer to just take photos of all of it. We saw.....
Phyllidia ocellata
Acropora shrimp
Polyclad flatworm.
We also saw SEAWHIP GOBIES!!! These shy gobies are found along seawhips, either camouflaged or doggedly dodging you to the OTHER side of the seawhip. Irritating, I know................But still exciting!!!!
Oh look, there's TWO of them...so cuutteeeeee...
Closer shot of the goby (Bryaninops amplus).
Here's some other things we saw during the dive:
A cushionstar we did not sit on.
Rather large graze marks from suspectedly rather large parrotfish...
Colourful seafan at the reef slope!
.....And BIG ones too!!
And just as we were reeling back the tapes, under a pretty overhang like this...
Pretty ain't it...
...and in a crevice under this....
Scaaarrryyyy....My face was not spared...
....I saw these 2 antennas...AND THIS!!!
My stinging sacrifice was well WORTH IT!
Too bad for the backscatter...well, WHO CARES! It's a damn lobster!!! And with that, we ended our dive feeling very satisfied indeed...
Oh, did I ever tell you that our boatmen food is FANTASTIC. Dhal and eggplant and fish in special sauce and fried chicken wing and fried ikan bilis and FRIED TOADFISH...with rice. DELICIOUS. MARVELLOUS. GLORIOUS. F.O.O.D. I shall stop this now because I am about to drool...Oops, too late. Damn.
Anyway, let me tell you more about the FRIED TOADFISH. Tender, juicy, milky, smooth meat. Oh, the taste and texture. So...so...MMmmmMMMmmm. The boatmen actually told us it was GROUPER and not the TOADFISH they caught the previuos day. Only after it's all gone and we were licking our fingers clean, then they told us. Probably 'cos they thought if we knew, we wouldn't eat any of it. Yeah right, I eat everything. Especially if it's THAT good. TOADFISH. Will never look at it the same way underwater again..........
¶ 6:08 pm
