The little restaurant where I sit and write is quite a nice little place. I suppose a full description of the area would be helpful to really set the scene so you can get a small idea of why I think so. There is quite literally one main road that circumvents the island with roads that branch down to the little bays scattered about. We are located on the southernmost portion just south of Maa Haad. It’s a small, tucked away corner right around the bend from shark bay where we start pretty much every dive we do. As you come down the road from Maa Haad, it’s about half a mile from the main dock that you round a bend and see New Heaven Dive School and Resort. It’s quite the little section of paradise with the dive school attached to a bungalow area with straw roofing where the restaurant lies. If you peek out above the straw roof you see four little rooms with sliding glass doors, the beginning of the resort portion. Unfortunately we were not so lucky as to get one of these, haha. Where we make birth is immediately across the road and up what I have started calling “The stairway to heaven”. It seemed to fit the situation. Really have never tried to imagine what it would be like stepping into the daily affairs of Swiss Family Robinson, but I have a good idea of where I would go with it now. All kidding aside, if you look up from the main road next to the dive center, you can see a small opening between the trees where you see bungalow after bungalow after…well you get the point. It is precisely 159 stairs we have to climb each time we ascend to camp 1 at Mt. Koh Tao. I will say that buns of steel will no longer be a wish upon departure. Not to mention the mile swim we have to perform getting to our descent point from the boat everyday. Anyhow, I hope this gives a partial picture to the area.
As for sleeping, well now, that is quite a story all its own. In the tale of our nightly dreamscapes you will find howling winds, short but intense downpours, and in the early morning hours the desperate screams of what appears to be some sort of tree bound creature. More on the identification when it is attained. I surmise that if anyone ever wanted to commit the perfect murder, they could quite literally scare their target to death by placing this animal within a fifteen foot radius whilst they sleep. All in all it is a relaxing and rejuvenating rest for the most part. It does get a little toasty at times in the absence of air con but we have adjusted to open doors and windows to facilitate a breeze through the room ( or in later hours gale force winds).
The schedule we keep is fairly relaxed and routine. We awake around 6 or 7, shower to cool off and wake up, and make our way down to the little restaurant where we meet up with some of the other team members. At around nine we gather to receive a lecture in subject pertaining to the days dive, eg. Invertebrates, fish, coral ecology, and so on. Normally these lectures take roughly an hour and then we break for a bite to eat. The truck normally arrives to pick us up with our gear an hour or so later and from there we travel to shark bay where a small motorboat is taken to the main dive boat. Usually the dive takes about an hour and a half to two hours depending on the depth we stay at. I would say the average is around 30 feet. This generally means I can stay under for around an hour and a half. If you literally have fish in your gene pool like Kris, about 2 hours. We then come back much in the same fashion as we came out but this time we get to climb roughly 250 stairs to get from waters edge to the little dirt road where the truck awaits us.
These truck rides to and from the site are an experience all their own. Did you know… that you can fit approximately 22 people with all of their dive gear and conservation equipment into, scratch that…onto a crew cab toyota tacoma ? … Nope I didn’t either but I assure you it is possible.
Moving on to today’s dive. The task was to do a fish survey. This entails the deployment of a measuring line over a 100 meter stretch and swimming along it identifying whatever species we can as well as how many there are. Very interesting to say the least. Imagine the setting of Gulliver’s travels except your are one of the lilipoocheans lounging around in your home underwater when a giant head suddenly appears in your window. Naturally you would frantically scatter and eventually retreat to the closet. That is precisely the setting for which this particular survey takes place. We make our away along the line and peak in to the holes and crevices on the reef looking for various species. Some of these include:
Parrotfish, Surgeon fish, Butterfly fish, Snapper, Triggerfish, Grouper, Amore Eels, Aninomes, and many others…
The challenge being remembering the classifications and what each fish actually is, thus the need for our 9am classes.
I have posted some videos and pictures taken on today’s dive in the dropbox link at the end and I do plan on developing the process a lot further. Today was most certainly a trial run but you’ll get the drift (pun intended). Among these, there is one of Kristen, my one and only, checking out a piece of coral that really turned out well. The videos are primarily following the deployment of the line and some of my survey attempts. You do have to look closely at some. In one of the photographs there are long black spines protruding from a crevice. This is a type of urchin that at the center of its spines has a bright orange spot that looks identical to an eye. It is quite fascinating to behold, but in a shocking revelation I received the other day is quite literally the butthole. So yes, I spent a good bit of time today swimming around looking at buttholes.
Well, until tomorrow, I hope this reads well and gives slightly more insight into the schedule we keep as well as this particular day’s events. Enjoy the photos and vids!
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8wnbat26fr9iomk/AAAJl5Al9zTjCb5-tDrUiygAa?dl=0