Gilli Air Perfection

I am living the most perfect existence on this island. The days starts early for diving and I take a nice walk on the quiet streets (that have no vehicles other than the occasional bike or horse drawn carriage) to my dive shop, which is on the east of the island and has a great view of Lombok and Rinjani Volcano.

Then I go diving, for the past two days I have done two dives in the morning. The coral isn't amazing, a lot of it has died unfortunately, but still there is a lot to see and the dive sites are very easy so it is incredibly peaceful. Yesterday in the first dive I saw three white tip shark, one juvenile chilling out under a coral bomb and a couple of turtles and a beautiful scorpian fish-these are fish that have incredible camouflage into their surroundings and are always a delight to see because you feel like you have caught then out. This dive was on a purposefully sank boat that is becoming a living reef.

The next dive had some purposefully sank bikes that are becoming living reefs and we saw some cuttlefish-these are beautiful to see as they charge electricity through themselves somehow so that they light up.

Then today we have seen loads of turtles, that let us get so close to them you can watch fish clean their shells, more scorpion fish and a frogfish. Frogfish are incredibly wierd looking and blend so well with their surroundings I have no idea how anyone ever spots them. We saw some school of great travelli and some huge tuna like fish, of the Benali family. There are always many other fish around, but I just mention the ones that were a particular treat to see. There are always trigger fish, angel fish, anemone fish (Nemo), surgeon fish, sweetlips, grouse-we float around surrounded by the world's biggest aquarium!

After diving I take a walk and find a quiet spot on the beach (which isn't hard) and read my book for a couple of hours. It's still wet season, so the sky isn't always clear. But it is warm and very pleasant to lie in, without ever feeling like the heat might suffocate me. Then I do some yoga in my very well air conditioned room, before taking a walk to a beach on the west of the island for a sunset beer. Unfortunately the clouds prevent the most beautiful sunset, but it is relaxing all the same. I take a walk and find dinner and then go to bed....to do it all again next day. I'm not sure life gets better than this.

I have written this in a restaurant in the dark because we had a powercut. It happens, so I have learnt. And it just makes you live even more simply than this quiet island already demands. Candlelit dinner, tasting the flavours without being entirely sure what is on the plate. And no internet, the final cut off to the outside world. Bliss. (Obviously I am posting once the power returned, WiFi is necessary for some things!)Read more