Amy and Steven's Endless Summer.: Swimming in a Tropical Aquarium.

Written 27th October 2012

This is our bathroom on Gili T. Open air - ideal for smelly toilet sessions!!!

As well as using our no-roof bathroom we have also had a great time in Gili T. We have been snorkeling a very lot and trying to improve our free-diving skills as well as our underwater photography skills. It is tricky as our camera has a very wide angle lens which means if you want to get a close shot you have to get VERY close. That can be a challenge with aquatic life.

These little fish were amazing. I think they were the fish in Finding Nemo that tell Dory to go through the trench rather than over it. They all bunch together. They look like little stars dancing through the water.

This little fish loved Steve and kept swimming around his head.

Steve also did some underwater riding. :)

I did a lot of floating on the surface at first but I started trying to dive deeper and hold my breath for longer. My trouble was that I couldn't equalise but I must have gotten a bit better because I think I got down to about 5 metres at my deepest.

Us on the beach warming up after over an hour in the water. Some days I stayed in for 2!

These little orange fish were super cute. They were very curious and I think they liked the reflection off the camera's lens and the face of my watch. They were all cleaning my arms in a tickley way. Or maybe they were giving me little fish kisses...

Here I am swimming with all the little fishies.

And here's Steve.

You can see them all looking at my watch in this picture.

This next fish was very territorial. It was trying to staunch me out and kept swimming at the camera. Then it bit me on the finger!!!

You can see Steve sitting on the beach warming up and waiting for me to get out of the water.

We were only going to stay a few days in Gili and just do a bit of snorkeling and try and see some turtles but then Steve saw a free-drive course offered. He decided to do it because he wanted to learn to hold his breath longer and learn about the safety of diving too.

Here he is studying for his course.

We did get to see more turtles. They are so cute. They are just so chilled out too. You can get quite close to them and they don't really seem too bothered. I think the ones at Gili T. are used to seeing a lot of snorkelers. It was so fun trying to get some good shots of them.

They like feeding on the broken coral on the bottom of the sea.

Here is Steve's video.

And here I am swimming with him.

Steve is like a fish in the water. He is so graceful when he dives. I love watching him. He makes me feel relaxed just looking at him.

This coral looks like an underwater mushroom I recon. It is actually very big, probably taller than you!

One day we decided to go for a ride around the island after we went snorkeling.

It look quite a while as half of the road is sand so you can't ride the bikes on those parts. It was pretty cool though.

I liked this driftwood horse that we saw at a bar along the way.

The next day Steve went off to do his course and I went snorkeling by myself to look for the turtles again.

I found three again. I just can't get enough of turtles!

They can be tricky to spot sometimes!

I got a video too!

Then I hung out with the funny little fish who liked my watch.

This turtle one was a baby one. It was quite small. They had a turtle egg hatching place next to the beach too with all the babies swimming in shallow tanks. Then when they are big enough they set them free in the sea.

Here is a turtle having a swim.

Yesterday was the second and last day of Steve's course. He got down to 23 metres deep! How impressive is that!!! I know I'm impressed. :) Yesterday was also a special Muslim day and they started the wailing at the mosks at 4.30am which woke me up and kept me in a constant half awake state for the rest of the night. It went on for most of the day. I was glad to have some quite when it was over! One of the ladies on Steve's course thought the guy was saying "I build a wall" over and over haha.

This video is taken at 4.45am.

I went out for a snorkel again on the second day of Steve's dive course.

I love love love watching these tiny fish dart about. They reflect the sun beautifully and all change direction in unison.

How beautiful, right!

These little fish were hiding from me in the coral.

Here is a video.

I also spotted some clown fish that day which was cool. I think that may have had eggs in their anemone. The reason I thought that was because when I first came up to watch them they swam away from their anemone about 2 or 3 metres. When I swam down to their anemone they came back.

Here's a video.

When I was walking back I spotted Steve and some people from his course. We had fun chatting with Jen and James (from Auzzie) and another guy from England who I have forgotten the name of!