Tuesday, October 2, 2012
SCUBA Diving, exploring life under sea...
Due to fear of Tsunami,
the beach as expected was empty; no tourists whatsoever & the few that
visited were seen around the temple. Even the Scuba Diving shop was with no
customers and it is quite obvious that no one would like to risk their lives in
such a situation. Even few of my friends backed out last minute, however I had
my colleague Guru Prasad and we both were escorted by the resort staff. We were
quite determined & had made up our minds so as per our plan we went ahead
to take a dive. For both of us it was first time experience of Scuba dive.
There are several formalities that we had to complete like our id proof, photo
id and filling up some declaration forms. Once we had done our bit, the Scuba
diving shop has to seek permission from the Police Dept, and this time the cops
were reluctant to give permission. Our instructor Dhirendra Rawat called me and
updated that it will take some time before he convinces and gets the
permission, so he asked us to hang around for a while.
It was quite hot and humid, we decided to pay visit to the Murudeshwara temple which is located on the beach, and here we worship Lord Shiva. I took this opportunity to make few images of the temple. As we were getting out of the temple I got call from Dhitendra and the good news was that our permission to visit Netrani Islands and Scuba diving was granted. After waiting for an hour or so there was something to cheer, probably even GOD was with us to make this happen. Dhirendra arrived with our permission letters and we all boarded the motor boat to reach Netrani Island, the ride is ~ over an hour’s journey in the Arabian Sea. During the journey we were given complete briefing about do’s and don’ts, basics of Scuba diving and other precautions that one needs to take. After the briefing I wasn’t sure if I can really do it, breathing with oxygen apparatus under sea was something new and of course tricky, SCUBA acronym – Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.
As we cruised towards
Netrani Islands my heart beat increased, I was really nervous. I was asked to
be ready with the scuba diving gear, quite a heavy oneJ. I
thought I can take a normal jump into the sea but as per the guidelines one has
to fall on his/her back into the sea. The first 15 minutes were tough and I was
practicing the technique of breathing with the Oxygen apparatus. After a while
we both were a bit comfortable and now we were ready to go. We had 2
instructors Dhirendra for me and Kishore for Guru. And now I was all set to
explore the marine life under the sea. My instructor Dhirendra was quite
cooperative and guided me right into the deep blue waters.
As I swam into the deep
waters, I couldn’t believe my eyes; I felt I was in a different world all
together. I was surrounded by beautiful and colorful small fishes, they aren’t
harmful watching them was a treat to my eyes. After a while my instructor asked
me if I was ok, since we can’t talk all signals are done by hand. I responded
him that I am ok he then guided me further down and believe me I hadn’t seen
live corals before. This was amazing stuff to see different kinds of corals.
Having been used to forest so much on bumpy jeep rides and sighting tigers,
this was some experience, to my luck I also sighted a large shark at a
distance. Later I was even excited to see few lobsters & large shrimps my
mouth was watering seeing themJ, quite obvious for a seafood lover
like me.
My instructor was taking
my pictures and also filming, he then handed over the camera to me, it was an
experience of my life to take few shots underwater. After about 20-30 minutes I
was out and really exhausted, but believe me if you haven’t experienced Scuba
Diving then you surely are missing something in life. I have uploaded a video
clip on face book, kindly click the link to watch it.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=187715977938240&set=vb.100000995173647&type=2&theater
Info on Netrani Islands-
Netrani is a
tiny island is located in the Arabian Sea. It is off the coast of Karnataka,
situated approximately 10 nautical miles (19 km) from the temple town
of Murudeshwara. This Island has some of the best sites for Scuba Diving easily
accessible from Goa, Mumbai or Bangalore.
Netrani is a coral island and, therefore, is
very suitable for snorkeling and diving activities. Many varieties of Corals,
Butterfly fish, Trigger fish, Parrot fish and more can be seen here. In
addition Whales and Sharks are seen if you are really lucky. Normally
diving/snorkeling is done from a boat which is anchored close to the island and
usually visitors do not climb on to the island because of the sharp rocks and steep
cliffs on the island.
This island offers diving suitable for
professionals. The island adjacent to Netrani is used by the Indian navy for
target practice. One needs to seek permission from Police Dept to visit and do
Scuba Diving at Netrani Island. The best time to visit is between December and
January.
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