Dive Log – Tulamben – Advanced course
Dive Log – advanced course at Tulamben
After the many dives that I’ve accomplished, I felt like I wanted a new challenge, I wanted to get better and begin to do the “Advanced Open Water” certificate. To complete the advanced course, you need to do 5 Adventure dives, so for the two first, I decided to go to Tulamben to do a deep dive and a wreck dive.
Meeting at 7:30am at Diving Indo’s office, the lovely staff checked and prepared all the things I will need for the trip. After that, we had a 2 hour drive to Tulamben, with beautiful landscapes and many green paddy fields.
We arrived to the beach of Tulamben, and I couldn’t imagine that under the water, at some meters away, was hiding one of the most known shipwreck in the world, the USAT Liberty!
Before the dive, Idy, our instructor, took some time with me and my buddy who was doing the advanced course, explaining us what we were going to do during both dives.
For the first one, it was the deep dive, Idy told us that we would go to the end of the wreck, at nearly 30 meters deep, and there we will have to do two skills to complete our Advanced course. He had water-proof sheet and a pencil, and there where little rounds of colour, he told us that we will have to write the name of the colours when will be at 30 meters and we will also have to write how many meters we will be.
So we then prepared for the dive, and went in the water. It was really different because it was the first time for me that I didn’t jump of a boat to begin the dive, we had to go from the beach and put our fins on the water, funny experience.
When we were all equipped, we went down under water, and it was amazing! Even if you don’t see it when you are not underwater, the wreck is really close and we didn’t had to swim too much to find it. It was just incredible, seeing this old wreck, full of marine life.
We went down to the end of the wreck, it was crazy because it was so easy to go that deep, you don’t even realise it. Idy told us that it was time to do the skills. We knelt down on the sand and he showed me the same sheet with the colours.
It was incredible to see that the colours are changing so much when you are 30 meters deep. We then checked our computer to measure the depth, and I was at exactly 30 m.! We then had time to dive around the wreck, discover all those marine creatures that live in the wreck.
We went back to the beach and prepare for the second dive, the wreck adventure dive. Back on the water again!
For this dive, the skill was to spot a location, dive around the wreck and go back to the location of the beginning. For us the spot was a garden eel just in front of the wreck.
So we began our dive, we were lucky to have Idy and his eagle eyes that were spotting even small and hidden creatures!
We saw parrotfish, a juvenile harlequin sweetlips, Moorish Idol and so many more.
At the end of the dive, my buddy and me successfully found the garden eel spot of the beginning, we then made our 5 meters safety stop, which gave me the time to see again many things and I was just amazed be this experience.
We went back to the beach, took off and pack away our diving stuff, had some good lunch at a lovely restaurant near the beach and then it was time to go home. No need to say that we were so tired and all sleeping during the way home.
It was a really great experience and I am already planning on diving again to this beautiful place! To complete my advanced course, I have to complete 3 more adventure dives. Each adventure dive counts towards the PADI speciality such as deep and wreck.
Thank you to Mélissa who sent us this blog. To find out more about the PADI advanced course check it our here.