Grim's Mid-Life Crisis

Freedive course complete on the Island of Nusa Lembongan off the coast of Bali.

Were visited by a 2.5m short fin mako shark while out diving in the deep blue. They look remarkably like a great white and are the fastest sharks on earth. The instructors we were diving with had never seen one in the 3 years diving there, so we were all pretty excited. Challenging when you were needing to relax to breath hold effectively!

Have enjoyed the simplicity of freediving, just one breath and go, the lack of all the gear, and fuss that comes with scuba diving.

Next off to Jakata (largest city in the world) for a couple of days before heading to Raja Ampat

Grim

Are you allowed to have a second mid-life crisis ? I asked my wife Jo and she said yes. So here I am, back in Bali where it all started, 7 years ago. Older? yes. Wiser? unsure. Is it even a midlife crisis? dunno, sometimes you just have to do these things before the opportunity passes you by.

The next few days sees me on a side quest of a freedive course in Bali before heading to Raja Ampat to complete an 8 week “Divemaster & Research Diver Internship”

Certainly nervous about what is ahead, but that’s what I signed up for……just enjoy my last few days of air conditioning !

Grim

This will be the last blog entry for “Grim’s midlife crisis” It has now been a good few days since I left Atauro and I think I have been subconsciously avoiding writing this last page as it will end something that I really don’t want to end. I am so privileged for the people I have met, the places I have been, the adventures I have experienced and the friendships I have found over the last 6 weeks.

Day 43 began with a team walk to watch another spectacular Atauro sunrise we were not disappointed.

With only one dive today, air tank collection was a breeze and after 52 dives, setting up the gear had become second nature although the little voice in our heads keeps reminding us to get it right for obvious reasons. Eager to get in the water, breakfast was down in a flash and back to the kit pit for our final dive briefing.

Today’s dive was a return to the Briti Rala dive site (refer day 29) a small cove with near vertical sites plunging deep into the ocean and amazing pipe sponges sticking out of the walls. As usual maximum depth 30m, maximum dive time 45 minutes until Grim runs out of air! (actually we always begin our surface ascent when the first person (me) reaches 70bar of air left.)

It’s a very rough trip to our dive site and we discuss if we should go to a closer site but agree to tough it out for the last dive. As always below the water is calm and the aquatic life is amazing, but we notice the density of ‘Jelly cones’ is another step up from what we have seen during the week.

Our field scientist has never seen anything like it and when we find tens of thousands on a wall slope we decide to stir them up and have a ‘jelly cone party’ at 20m deep….an appropriate way to finish our diving! Further research showed the ‘jelly cones’ to be sea pickles

Party over we load up the boat and head back to Beloi in an even rougher sea…nothing cranking up the music and having a good singalong can’t distract us from.

Back at our base all that is left to do is to clean our dive gear, pack our bags, lunch and final goodbyes to those not coming on the cramped 3hr ferry ride back to Dili.

Although it will be a couple of weeks before I am back to reality and routine, leaving Atauro seems like right place to finish this blog.
I have enjoyed writing it and forcing myself reflect on each and every day, so thanks for reading, commenting and in particular to Kyle’s dad who has liked each and every post and checked if everything was okay when I was offline for a few days. Obrigadu barak and Adeus

Another beautiful morning greets me as I roll out of my hut at 6am on our final full day on Atauro Island. I join the others for sunrise yoga but with my knee still giving me a bit of grief so I feel far from ‘zen’ and probably look like I have had too much to drink, I enjoy the sunrise anyway!

Air tanks carried from the compressor shed, dive kit setup checked and ready for the day, breakfast wolfed down, we head out diving on a silky smooth ocean.

As if the marine life knew we were soon to leave they all came out to play and gave us one of our best days diving of the expedition. The photos speak for themselves.

Our final beach clean headlined the afternoon’s activities, despite the great company it is quite depressing that the oceans have become a home to a significant chunk of the worlds discarded plastic. A 20 minute clean results in 4 sacks of primarily plastic, we sort these into specific categories for entry into the global database.

Once the temperature drops we head back out to the beach for our beach olympics. Such classic events as the wheelbarrow, flipper run, underwater pictionary (revised to beach pictionary due to tidal issues), pole spin dizzy run and finishing with the rotten egg toss.

The event is taken out by Ellen & Kyle, silver medal to myself & Mima, our most competitive athlete Rachel is teamed with the least competitive Antonio and finish well behind the rest of the pack (for those that know me, yes there is someone on this planet more competitive)

We spend the rest of the day packing up, celebrate with a couple of Bintang shandies and get a presentation from Roxy on the data we have collected over the last few weeks.

We all head off to bed aware that tomorrow it will all be over.

Top Trumps – Atauro Style

Name: Amos Da Costa, Antonio De Arujo & Armindo Marques
Nickname: The A-Team
Origin: Atauro Island, Timor Leste
Position: Amos (Dive Officer) Antonio (Boat Skipper) Amindo (Dive & Science Assistant)
Superpower: Making our diving experiences safe and fun (already have)
Weakness: Amos: uncontrollable laughter, Antonio: Uncontrollable quietness, Amindo: Uncontrollable Shivering
Atauro Tune: A-Team Theme Song
Quotes: Amos: “Runguranga”, “Blah Blah Blah”, “Luku Luku” “Diving Diving”, “Oooh Lah Lah ,Lah Lah Ooooh” “Sempre diak”
Antonio: “Rame Los” “…….” “Grim Hammock?”
Armindo: “Brrrrrrrrr”

Sunrise tank workout, and get our dive gear ready for the day, breakfast in the morning sun and another lengthy discussion about food. I am not sure there is anything left to say about food after this trip, my sole contribution to the discussion, the virtues of eating NZ marmite vs the inferior English knockoff. I’m sure the local staff members think we have gone tropo!

Our first dive of the day with field scientist Roxy and she is fascinated with what appears to be corals consuming the jelly cones, Rachel and Geetha are more interested in doing the limbo with a sea whip !

Our second dive of the day is at our training site, only 10m deep but incredible coral formations. Time for some selfies, and group photos

Diving completed we clean up and start to think about what needs sorting before we leave in a couple of days. The doctors do a stocktake of all the medical supplies which takes quite a while, the rest of us are getting our dive logs up to date and swapping videos and photos.

To round out the day, my award worthy acting skills are required again, this time for emergency first response scenarios for Kyle. Once again I got to play the annoying person, this time with a broken leg demanding attention when someone nearby is more seriously injured….Hmmm I seem to be getting typecast as the annoying person!

Top Trumps – Atauro Style

Name: Fanchon Wright
Nickname: Fanny
Origin: Hong Kong (Not China)
Position: BV Expedition & Dive Manager (Camp Mum)
Superpower: Having white girl privileges, without being a white girl . Already has the fluent Chinglish/simplified Cantonese dialect superpower
Weakness: Homeless Vagabond
Atauro Tune: Gonna Fly Now, Theme from Rocky
Quotes: “BV does not condone……” “BV Says…….” “Even angels love a good double teabagging” “Just drink through your depression” “Grim you are in the crate” “Kyle you are in the crate” “I’m just creaming myself” “Grim do you want to pass you advance dive certificate?”

Our last day surveying and a picnic is planned for us at Akrema Beach at the North end of Atauro, near where our final survey site is. We have a fun dive first and the fish life is still insane feasting on the jelly cones.

Packing for our picnic lunch involves going to the kitchen in our dripping wetsuits, wet and sandy booties, select a box of hot food that will be least disgusting cold in 2 hours time, apologise to the kitchen staff on the way out for the mess we have made of the floor. Then back to the boat with new air bottles.

Thankfully the currents are behaving themselves and we complete our surveys quick smart. In total over the past few weeks our small team have undertaken 72 survey transects over 6 different sites. Back on the boat and off to Akrema beach for lunch.

Akrema beach is stunning and it is great to just to relax after a dive and warm up under a clear blue sky. The colours of the ocean and the bright white sand mean the cameras get busy.

Stupidly I lie down and close my eyes, but my fellow volunteers have other ideas and decide to turn me into ‘living beach sculpture’….classy guys!

All too soon it is time to leave, but not before one team celebration on the beach. Once again the seas are pretty rough outside the reef, but this time we have had a chance to warm up after the dive, so a wet trip home, but not too cold.

The rest of the day is occupied with….you guessed it, data entry. Plus presentations from BV trainee Eva on the local culture and customs around relationships and marriage. Followed by a presentation from BV field scientist Asiem on the marine research work he has just completed in Croatia on Sea Grass and Urchins.

Dinner and games then we all head off to bed looking forward to a few days of fun dives but sad that this adventure is coming to an end

Surprise donuts for breakfast this morning, the kitchen is finally beginning to understand us and bring extra fresh fruit direct to the table, or is it only because we always sit at the table they have to pass from the kitchen to the serving area and we all sit there like drooling Labradors as the food goes past?

Our first dive of the day with Mima is super chill and the fish are still going strong on the jelly cones. There are some big fish this morning letting us get pretty close…….they must be so full of jelly cones they can’t move.

After a tank refill we are back out to our survey site Vila South, the seas have really picked up so we are praying for some gentle currents to let us get the survey complete.

Rachel and I are doing 50m at 8m deep and set out our tape okay in a gentle current, but it quickly picks up and we are working hard just to stay in one spot to count fish or coral. Not assisted by a near flat surface marker buoy we have to pull along, we manage to complete the survey using my available air in the shortest time of any dive due to the exertion. Meet on the surface to hear about others dramas and find our everyone finished their surveys but someone who shall not be named lost their recording sheet….looks like we will be back here later in the week for a ‘fun dive’

The trip back is super rough and we are all happy to eventually get back on dry land

After lunch we head out the AHHA language school and on the way stop at house in the village to get a demonstration on bread making, we watch the dough being made on the way and will stop on the way back to create our own culinary masterpieces.

Our last session at the language school is a lot of fun and we finish up by teaching them a very catchy tune called The Coral Song (this song will remain in our brains for the next few days). Somehow I end up leading the singalong, but luckily everyone joined in so I was drowned out!

Bread making continued on the way back with all sorts of fillings appearing, my NZ marmite scrolls were a hit but Rachel’s apple and roasted coconut buns took the gold medal. Having spent the afternoon and early into the evening eating fresh hot bread, we waddled back to our expedition base (Barry’s Place), completed our data entry for the day’s surveying, some of us couldn’t even face dinner and headed of to bed early for a very content ‘Carb Coma’ sleep

Top Trumps – Atauro Style

Name: Asiem Sanyal
Nickname: Cheemu, Assy, Marine Jedi
Origin: Nagpur, India
Position: BV Field Scientist
Superpower: Able to communicate in any language
Weakness: Too empathetic
Atauro Tune: Somewhere only we know, Keane
Quotes: “Bananas ?” “What goes around comes around”

Day 38 marks the beginning of my last week on Atauro Island. We have three more dives planned to complete all the surveys required and will do one a day until complete. The other dive of the day will be a fun dive.

Some sort of jellyfish is spawning this morning and the sea is littered with “jelly cones” the fish seem to love it because they are out in force having a good feed. Ellen decided sticking one in my ear would be a laugh, I nearly spat out my regulator and flooded my mask when I cracked up.

As usual the afternoon was consumed with data entry, our last weekly visit to the AHHA language school was planned and a ‘surprise’ movie was shown. We all sat down happily to watch the block buster, Chasing Coral but ended up coming away thoroughly depressed as the film showed the extent of the current global death of coral and an estimation that most of the world’s coral would be dead in 30 years.

Top Trumps – Atauro Style

Name: Rachel Kan
Nickname: Malae Haluha (forgetful foreigner), Russia
Origin: The Wirral, UK
Position: Volunteer/Medic
Superpower: Teleportation ( hates air travel and a very nervous flyer)
Weakness: Ants in pants, Data entry accuracy, Doesn’t like losing, Toilet at 3am, Becomes too attached to people to quickly
Atauro Tune: Traveller, Baaba Mal
Quotes: “Grim your attitude is both sour and bitter” “I have already washed my hair once today” “Who wants to play a game” ” When you are old and crumbly like Grim, you won be able to do it, so do it now”

A very quiet day today, I am still resting up my knee while some of the others walk the 5km back to Biqueli to go to church and lunch with our BV staff member Mima. In the early afternoon Tina boards a fast boat back to Dili.

As another volunteer leaves, we are all subdued with the prospect that this amazing experience will be over in another week. So we grab our masks snorkels and fins then head out snorkeling to lift our spirits. As always all other thoughts slip away as the majesty of the reef unravels below us.

The afternoon quickly disappears to data entry catch-up, games and starting the last jigsaw we haven’t done on the island. I am asked by the Melbourne school group staying here if I can do a presentation on the purpose and process of the work we are doing here. Not wanting anyone to miss out I rope all the volunteers and expedition leader Fanny in, and we quickly throw some images and video together. The presentation goes well and is an appropriate end to a reflective day.

Top Trumps – Atauro Style

Name: Ellen Wood
Nickname: Bellend, Elrond, Helen
Origin: Raunds, UK
Position: Volunteer/Medic
Superpower: Ability to breathe underwater and talk to animals.
Weakness: Cashew nuts (in a bad way), Left knee (motorbike accident), Anything with two wheels will cause bone fractures!
Atauro Tune: August 10, Khruangbin
Quotes: “Steph you have the face of a queefer” “Everyone got your BDSM”
“Be the change you want to be in the world”

Fun dive Saturday! We dive at one of my favourite sites first thing this morning with massive fields of foliose hosting swarms of fish, darting in and out of the folds of the coral

For the second dive, the OCD among us decided to pick off the remaining survey at the Rai Keta Tungu reef to save doing it during the week. With 4 of us surveying, we complete it in less than 20 minutes and are able to enjoy the rest of the dive knowing the site was completed.

Dive completed and the sea was so flat we decided a fun photo was required to mark Tina’s last day of diving here.

The afternoon is a scorcher so we escape the heat of the day in the shade doing data entry and I do some washing to see me through the last week. Jobs completed the paints come back out again and a beer run to the kiosk for medicinal and cooling purposes of course!

After a long week and a few games we all filter off to bed at a respectable hour looking forward to another chill day tomorrow.

Top Trumps – Atauro Style

Name: Roxane De Waegh
Nickname: Roxy
Origin: Belgium (but have lived in so many far flung places is really a citizen of the world)
Position: BV Science Coordinator
Superpower: Immune to pressure, physical (ie diving) and life in general. Already have the surepower of self awareness and avoiding the camera, except under water, and posing with random weird guys
Weakness: Subconsciously avoid deep attachment to other people as have spent life moving from one place to the next
Atauro Tune: New Sky, Rufus
Quotes: “Grim, you Crip” “I’m really hot in this wetsuit”
“Whatever you can do or dream, you can begin it. Boldness has genius power and magic in it” Johan Wolfegan von Goethe