Mar 20 - Today organize a boat for snorkeling around the nearby islands for IDR 500,000. The water is noticeably warmer here than in Maldives, and for once Odette doesn’t stress about how cold she is. We make a stop first at a dive shop on the western side of Gili Gede to find fins that will fit her.
Stop first at Gili Rengit, tiny and uninhabited, and I’m told it is full of mosquitos. Hit the water on the eastern (windward) side, where there is enough wave activity to make a beach. In this relatively enclosed part of Lombok, surf is generally at a minimum.
I notice right away that the coral is in much better shape than in the Maldives. Maybe only about 25% bleaching. However, there are less fish, both in quantity and variety. The visibility doesn’t help, it is about 20 meters due to the rain yesterday.
There are a few fish species I haven’t noticed before, but a number of fish I don’t see at all, like lionfish, masked puffers, and various types of triggerfish and groupers. I do see one green turtle, which is the first sea turtle spotted on the trip.
One thing I see here that I don’t remember ever seeing before is a double spined urchin. It is a complicated looking animal, with various sets of different colored spines. The ones I see also have large anuses, round balloon-like structures on top of them.
Next we go to Gili Layar. This is a much larger island, with two resorts on it, and a pastureland for cows. The reef is a bit more substantial here, and we all see green turtles this time, including a very large one. We follow it unmercifully until it has to come to the surface to breath, and get a glimpse of it poking its head out of the water.
Third stop is Gili Goleng, another tiny and uninhabited island just offshore from the mainland. The look of the reef is very different here, with a large patch of sea grass before reaching the reef. See a boxfish here, and Janet sees a type of stonefish. Another large green turtle is spotted by Odette when she takes a trip out by herself. Some large spiky orange starfish here, eating seagrass.
Quite lucky with rain today, in that there is none, allowing us to hang out on Gili Goleng for awhile before boating back to our resort on Gili Gede.
Indonesia