Back to Villa Alba at Tulamben for the fifth time since 2017, and I'm happy to say that they have fully recovered post-COVID, and all staff are now full-time compared to my two trips there last year.
Villa Alba was also fully booked mainly due to the mid-Autumn festival and I was the only round eye there until @WetPup arrived during the latter half of my trip. My main buddy was the banana @outofofficebrb
(her description not mine).
This was also the first time I'd dived in September, and it remained dry throughout the trip but the water was the coldest I'd experienced (25C on two occasions) and I had to get a 2mm vest to supplement my 3mm. I had actually thought of packing the 5mm and regretted not doing so. The water temps were generally 26-27C.
Most sites had other divers with the exception of Bulakan, which is where we found all the sheep nudis, they appear to have migrated from Melasti completely, although the donut nudis are still there (and some other sites).
The first couple of days however were a bit rough with higher waves than normal, plus it was spring tides, which had the advantage of keeping the idiots away but they did appear when the weather calmed down, especially at Pura Gerombong, where I had to use my muck stick to push other photographers off the subjects I was photographing
We found frogfish daily at most sites, most of them tiny
Ornate Ghost pipefish daily too, but the best was a Rhinopias at Sidem on my first dive, and another on my second last day at the same dive site.
And of course there were loads of nudis
It was also a nice surprise to meet up with @hedonist222 at one of the dive sites during our SI.
Sorry I didn't get to meet up with @ScubaWithTurk but time ran away from me to make any arrangement to get down to Amed, but thanks for the advice regarding the dive shop at Denpasar to get hold of a 2mm vest, next year hopefully, but generally at the end of a dive day I was too knackered to think of leaving Villa Alba.
Two weeks flew by, but next time I plan to bring my dome port and wide angle lens as it's not all macro!
Villa Alba was also fully booked mainly due to the mid-Autumn festival and I was the only round eye there until @WetPup arrived during the latter half of my trip. My main buddy was the banana @outofofficebrb
(her description not mine).This was also the first time I'd dived in September, and it remained dry throughout the trip but the water was the coldest I'd experienced (25C on two occasions) and I had to get a 2mm vest to supplement my 3mm. I had actually thought of packing the 5mm and regretted not doing so. The water temps were generally 26-27C.
Most sites had other divers with the exception of Bulakan, which is where we found all the sheep nudis, they appear to have migrated from Melasti completely, although the donut nudis are still there (and some other sites).
The first couple of days however were a bit rough with higher waves than normal, plus it was spring tides, which had the advantage of keeping the idiots away but they did appear when the weather calmed down, especially at Pura Gerombong, where I had to use my muck stick to push other photographers off the subjects I was photographing
We found frogfish daily at most sites, most of them tiny
Ornate Ghost pipefish daily too, but the best was a Rhinopias at Sidem on my first dive, and another on my second last day at the same dive site.
And of course there were loads of nudis
It was also a nice surprise to meet up with @hedonist222 at one of the dive sites during our SI.
Sorry I didn't get to meet up with @ScubaWithTurk but time ran away from me to make any arrangement to get down to Amed, but thanks for the advice regarding the dive shop at Denpasar to get hold of a 2mm vest, next year hopefully, but generally at the end of a dive day I was too knackered to think of leaving Villa Alba.
Two weeks flew by, but next time I plan to bring my dome port and wide angle lens as it's not all macro!
