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Tag Archives: Diving

Chilling in Kande – Southern Lake Malawi

31 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by Anita in Africa, Malawi

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Tags

Beaches, Diving

View from my room on Lake Malawi in Kande

View from my room on Lake Malawi in Kande

We have spent the last 3 nights in a resort campground called Kande, and I decided to treat myself by upgrading to a room. I chose a non-ensuite room that was directly on the beach, with a balcony overlooking the azure water and just steps from the long white sandy beach. At $29 it was a steal of a price for beachfront accommodation.

Lake Malawi is the most bio diverse lakes in the world and contain hundreds of species of cyclid fish. At 28 degrees year round, it also makes for very pleasant swimming and diving conditions, no need for a wetsuit.

On our first evening in the camp, after we’d settled into our accommodation we enjoyed a meal of bangers and mash and someone suggested a dancing game involving a giant square divided into smaller squares that one had to dance in, not allowing your feet to step outside your respective box. Somehow, and inexplicably, this game kickstarted one of the best nights of drink fuelled fun our group has had yet. Within a short amount of time, we were blaring music from the truck, lip syncing songs from the truck’s “stage”, pole dancing on one of the campground support structures, and dancing/laughing all together.

It was a revelation.

My own balcony on the beach

My own balcony on the beach

Unfortunately, another truck of Germans clearly did not appreciate our effusive joy at this social breakthrough that we were having. Some difficult exchanges occurred when several drunker members of our group decided that they should invite that group over to join us, much to their amazement and incredulity. Once things had started to die down, I did approach them again and offered my sincere apologies for the noise and offering the explanation that this was honestly, the first time our group had connected this way, which they seemed to only half-believe.

I went diving for the first time in freshwater the next day and rather strangely, in the afternoon, after hearing that for the lake, the visibility tended to improve later in the day. The rest of the group decided to attend the killing of a pig that we were going to roast for our costume party themed hog roast that evening. I couldn’t understand why people would want to go watch a pig being slaughtered, but then again, I have to ask myself why then I eat meat if I’m so uncomfortable with the killing of an animal.

Diving in the freshwater was certainly a different experience and the buoyancy was rather different, weights not even being required. Unfortunately, the visibility on this particular day was very weak, only about 5 meters total. The murkiness of the water did add a certain enjoyable dimension to the dive, a certain eeriness, but of course, I would take crystal clear water over that any day of the week. Certainly the fish population was rather unique and plentiful and there were some interesting rock formations that we could dive through, under and around that made for an interesting dive time.

The cabins at Kande Resort

The cabins at Kande Resort

We swam over to the rocky atoll after our dive and climbed up to a rock about 7 meters above the water and took a jump into the water below. It certainly was one of the higher jumps I’ve taken in my life, enough of a drop to really feel the free fall in your gut. Good fun.

We enjoyed an incredible meal of the fresh pork together with potato salad and coleslaw. It was rather delicious, and after dinner we presented the costume that we had purchased to our secret member of the group (we bought costumes for each other in a secret santa style.) It was hilarious and of course, most of the guys received a woman’s outfit of skimpy mini skirt and revealing tops. Unfortunately, most of the women had guys buying their outfit for them and most of us received frumpy, sack-like creations which were totally unflattering. Mine didn’t even have buttons on the front blouse section, so I decided to rock my red bra in an attempt to make the outfit work.

Fancy Dress Hog Roast Party

Fancy Dress Hog Roast Party

Overall, the night was a lot of fun, and we danced until about 1am. A few of the younger members of our group hooked up with members of the Aussie truck and hopefully, no new people were created that night. Not that we’d ever find out – nothing more than first names having been exchanged in addition to bodily fluids.

Today being our last day here in Kande, I took the day to catch up on writing the blog thankfully borrowing a Surface from Benoit (it has been excellent, and makes me want to buy one when I get back to the States), swimming in the lake, reading and taking a very long nap. It has been lovely and re-humanizing.

Tomorrow we drive to Lilongwe.

 

 

Every Cloud has a Silver Lining: Arriving in Jordan

07 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by Anita in Jordan

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Tags

Diving, Travel Days

The beach in Aqaba

The beach in Aqaba

The saddest part about missing our flight to Amman was that with only six days left to explore Jordan, we were going to miss out on our one opportunity to dive the Red Sea in Aqaba.  Since driving out of Aqaba to Wadi Rum involves gaining several thousand feet of altitude, divers must stay in Aqaba at least 12 hours before driving out to avoid getting “The Bends”.  As it stood, our flight was early in the morning, but we had a 3-4 hour drive to get to Aqaba and we wouldn’t be arriving until late afternoon.

After looking at several other alternatives, we decided to go ahead with our visit to Aqaba and try to go snorkeling and enjoy what we could of the town that evening before heading to the desert of Wadi Rum the next day.

Our flight was pretty uneventful other than the fact that my stomach hurt from being gluttonous in the Emirates club lounge and then having a second breakfast on board.  We entered the country of Jordan and headed south in our rental car on a stretch of highway that cut through sandy desert as far as the eye could see, sporadically dotted with small villages and settlements along the way.

It was hot.  And as it turned out, it was hotter inside the car. We’d rented a car with broken air conditioning.

So, I admittedly did not arrive in Aqaba in the best of moods.  I was tired, sweaty and pissed off about the lateness of the day.  To make matters worse, we realized that the address I had for our hotel was wrong and that it wasn’t in the center of Aqaba at all, instead being located about 20 miles further south along the beach and close to the Saudi Arabian border.  We took the opportunity to go to the Dollar Rental Car office in the center of town first and we managed to switch our vehicle for a slightly newer Hyundai with functioning air conditioning.  It was dirty, had been in a front-end collision, and there was still cigarette butts in the ash tray – but by God it was cool inside and that’s all that mattered.

The Red Sea Dive Center - Our hotel in Aqaba

The Red Sea Dive Center – Our hotel in Aqaba

After mistakenly driving past our hotel 2-3 times and having to make a U-turn at the Saudi Arabian border, we finally pulled into our hotel, The Red Sea Diving Center, around 4pm.

I was greeted by Omar, the wonderful owner who had been so kind and responsive via email that I felt I knew him.  He welcomed us to Jordan as he gave us a key, and I tearfully told him how sad I was that we had to leave in the morning and that we’d missed our flight and our one day opportunity to dive.

Then something truly magical happened.  Omar looked at his watch and said that if we hurried, he’d be willing to take us out on a one-tank shore dive at that very moment!

Me and Omar after our wonderful shore dive of "The Cedar Pride" Shipwreck

Me and Omar after our wonderful shore dive of “The Cedar Pride” Shipwreck

I couldn’t believe it!  Matt and I excitedly changed and followed Omar’s van down to the beach and the location of the shipwreck dive “The Cedar Pride”.  Most of the dives in Aqaba are shore dives which makes them very accessible.  Omar explained that visibility would only be 30-40 meters…to which we replied “Only?  That is pretty amazing as far as we’re concerned!”

The dive was pretty spectacular.  The ship was dramatically laying on its side and had turned into a beautiful artificial reef that was teeming with sea life.  We even got to see one of the largest turtles I’d ever seen in my life, though he had a damaged front leg which Omar later explained must have been from a shark attack.

Happy after our first dive together

Happy after our first dive together

It was a truly memorable experience, and my first dive with Matt who is a very accomplished diver.  Emerging from the water, everything felt right with the world again.  Omar had saved the day and turned out to be the first of many Jordanians that we met on this trip who showed us kindness, hospitality and a genuine desire to help us have the best experience in Jordan that we possibly could.

Matt experienced the first in a series of interactions that catapulted him to stardom in the eyes of the locals.  Upon leaving the water, he was approached by a local family who asked him to take a photo.  After motioning his agreement to take their picture, the family hilariously started shaking their heads and indicating that no, they wanted to take a picture of HIM!  Tall, white, and James Bond handsome, my boyfriend got a lot of attention in Jordan.  My favorite moment during this interaction was when they asked Matt to hold their baby while happily taking photos of him.

He is my Superman.

Upon our return to the hotel, we both had giant smiles on our faces but we were also famished.  We changed quickly and drove back into Aqaba to the famed Ali Baba restaurant and dined on a feast of fantastic food that included spiced fish, cinnamon-infused rice, grilled steak, Arabian salad, and Petra beer.

Our first day in Jordan had been completely salvaged.  And the cherry on top for me was seeing a random camel wandering multiple times through the restaurant as we sat and toasted our fortune.

Diving The Blue Hole: Descending Into The Pit Of Hell

03 Sunday Apr 2011

Posted by Anita in Belize

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Diving

The Blue Hole as seen from the air

I had heard mixed reviews from people who had dived The Blue Hole, the dive site made famous by Jacques Cousteau.  An ancient cenote that was filled in by ocean that plummets over 450 feet to the ocean floor: a giant hole a quarter of a mile across in the reef, a massive underwater cave.

Some said that it was the best dive of their lives.  Others said it was nothing special: so dark that you could barely see anything and not much in the way of sea life. And another who described it to me on the night before my own experience, as “descending into the dark pit of hell.”

Foreboding words.

One thing I knew for sure.  This dive was deep- 45 meters or 145 feet at its maximum.  So deep that our total bottom time would not exceed 8 minutes.  The descent and ascent takes the majority of the dive to complete and therein, as I later found out, lay the real thrill of The Blue Hole.

Reef Tip Shark

I didn’t sleep well that night.  I dreamed that my climbing buddy came over to my house in Seattle and told me it was time to get up for my summit attempt of Mt. Everest, and I kept replying that I couldn’t go today because I had to dive The Blue Hole.Two of my passions that I both fear and love combining in my subconscious.

We set off at 0530 (what does the 0 stand for? Oh My God its early!), our coffee and cinnamon bread being denied the opportunity to digest as we launched over waves in a spine-battering two hour boat ride to the dive site.

My fear was dissipating and was being replaced with excitement.  This was going to be a day to remember.

Stalagmite formations inside

We were given the dive plan and advised that its best to try and descend as quickly as possible to allow for the most bottom time.  A “Freefall” descent was how it was described, equalizing constantly as we plunged 145 feet down through the blackness.  We were warned that many divers get “narc’ed” at this depth: essentially having too high a concentration of nitrogen in the system which can lead to nitrogen narcosis, and the giddy, irrational, and slightly high feeling it can produce.  He showed us the signal for warning our dive buddies that we were getting loopy in the head.

But what if our buddy was equally loopy?

That's me on the far right

We’d all heard the stories of people so “narc’ed” that they removed their regulators and tried to feed the fishes with it.  And there’s only one way to find our if you’re susceptible to it too.

Feeling a bit jittery in the water, my dive master was kind enough to hold my hand on the descent.  He raised his BCD hose in the air, asking if I was ready.

Now or never.

Down, down, down we went.  So far, so good.  No issues with my ears, which gave me a great sense of relief.  The only other battle was a mental one.  Fighting your brain that’s telling you you shouldn’t be underwater, let alone falling into the blackness of a submerged giant cave.  Fighting it’s interpretation of the visual information on your retina.  And trying not to think about the eerie feeling in the pit of your stomach.

Once at maximum depth, I will never forget what I saw and experienced.  Giant 30 and 40 foot stalagmites that reached up forming a tunnel attached to the outer wall of the Blue Hole.  Swimming through the tunnel, with other divers up ahead, clearly visible, but darkened by shadow.  Looking off to the right and seeing nothing but the chasm of water below, and…if you looked closely, the figures of seven or eight reef sharks circling the void expanse.

Ascending The Blue

This was unreal.

After what seemed like only a brief moment, my dive master gave the thumbs up to signal that it was time to start ascending the wall.  I really wanted to linger, but I knew that I was getting low on air.

Up, up, up I kicked, this time focusing my attention on the reef sharks circling me below and off to the side- trying to keep aligned with the wall at the same time.  This was just incredible.

At 30 feet we took a five minute safety stop in a shallower part of the reef that had some smaller fishes to enjoy and observe.  I had done it!  Almost at the surface now.

Time to breathe real air.  I came up, inflated my BCD and removed my mask to reveal a giant grin on my face.

Where: The Blue Hole Dive site, about two hours east of Caye Caulker, Belize

When: March 29

How: Frenchie’s Diving, Caye Caulker

Cost: $350 BZD (includes 3 dives, lunch, and transport, 530am-4pm

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