Bali 2

I realized that I forgot to mention the bird and reptile park we visited close to Ubud. I had read some about the birds of Bali, and there were a few species that I wanted to see. I was very glad to discover that they had a bird park, and in there I saw the one bird I really wanted to see, but never did see in the wild around Bali. It is a white Starling that only lives on Bali.

Bali starling.

It was a beautiful bird park, and I got some new material to paint from...

Blue and gold macaw. This one just did not stay still! I wanted to take a close up photo of his feathers, they were such a beautiful blue hue. But every time I came near he just tried to climb up on me... So this is about the best shot I got...

In addition to the bird park they also had a reptile park. Not as well kept as the bird part, but nice non the less. Sam fed this beauty of almost 3 meters with a live chicken.

Ok, then on to the diving. Before leaving for Bali we booked our dives at Bali Diving for a day at Tulamben through the internet. We got 25% of this way ;) We had chosen a saturday as Linda had  gotten an extra day free for when we came. She came to our Hotel already on Friday evening, and at 7 saturday morning we were picked up from the hotel. First stop was the diving centre were we got all of our equipment, and then we drove 1 1/2 h to Tulamben and our dive site. It was just us and our diving instructor, so it was nice. 

The dive site at Tulamben. These spidery small fishing boats were our rides out to the reef. You could not enter the sea fully 'dressed' from these, so we had to get on our diving gear in the water at the site.

It was a beautiful day, although it started raining from nowhere just when we got in the boats. And the rain and clouds were welcomed. It would have been too hot in our half wet suit in full sun!

Preparing our gear at the beach.

Heading out to the coral reef. Sam and Linda were buddies, and I had the diving instructor as my buddy. Our first dive was nothing special, the coral was mostly dead, and there were only one small patch that was colorful and full of life. But it was an easy dive, and a very good warming up for somebody like me who dives only once a year or once every two or three years... 

In between our dives we got some very nice local food at a small beach restaurant build only for diving groups like ours, and then we walked out from the beach to our next dive site that was a WW II american ship wreck just 30 m of the coast. It seemed like all the fish in the area had gathered around this one artificial coral reef. Already at 1 m depth while putting on our finns and masks there was a lot to see. This is me at only 4 m depth admiring some fish that seemed to like our air bubbles.

From the left: me, Sam, the christmas tree and Linda.This must be my next christmas card! Somebody had celebrated christmas at the wreck at 22 m depth, and taken a christmas tree down with them and 'planted' it there. You can see the star at Sam's elbow... The water seem a little murky here in the photographs that our diving instructor took, but we had at least 10-15 m clear sight. Even at 22 m as here it was 26 degree warm in the water!

Sam having fun floating.

Sam and Linda above me. The wreck itself was not much to see, it had been damage by an earthquake and a volcano eruption and had collapsed in on itself. But it served now as an artificial reef, and was covered in corals and vegetations, and full of life! You could make several dives on this wreck and every time find something new to look at. Mostly small fish, but also some little bigger fish, stingrays, scorpionfish, etc. I can highly recommend this dive site for anybody going to Bali!

After the dive we got a ride back 'home' to the hotel, and we hit the pool to relax. We had river rafting booked for the next day, and again the pick up would be at 7-ish in the morning from the hotel.

River rafting north of Ubud. It was a 2 h raft, and it was so incredible beautiful! The river itself was quite tame even if it was the rainy season now, but it was fun and we really enjoyed it. The river had cut a ravine for itself through the lava rock, and through the whole drive we had between 50-100 m of walls around us covered in rainforest and small waterfalls.  It was b-e-a-u-t-if-u-l!! 

Linda and Sam posing for me at our small brake at the wall carvings about half way of the rafting.

 

Trio 'eggheads' as Linda named us...

Rice fields on our way up from the ravine. I forgot to mention that, to get to our rafting dock we had to climb down ca 800 steps, and the same amount of steps back up at the end of the raft. I told you the river was in a ravine...

 

The rafting was very well organized, and when we were finished, hot showers and a buffée awaited us!

Now you know how we fared in Bali! I can recommend it for anyone wanting a sun-holiday!

And next for me now is to get up and finish all the preparations for later, we are having Chinese new years party at ours tonight! It is already a lot of fireworks going on outside, and Sam has filled our spare bedroom with fireworks that we will go out and set fire on tonight! And I can assure you that we are all wearing safety glasses, so we should be fine... 8-D

Happy New Chinese Year everybody!!