Capturing the Moment

  With all of the water activities here in Bali it can be easy to miss out on the beautiful mountains. You can see the volcanoes and mountains clearly from the coast in the mornings. By early afternoon the summits are cloaked in clouds and mystery. It is definitely worth taking a day off from the ocean to drive deeper inland and explore these mountains up close.   Heidi and I have been to one of the mountain lakes before so this time we decided to see Lake Bratan with its beautiful lake temple. When looking at a map our destination looks quite close to Ubud, but in reality it takes a long time to get anywhere in Bali. The roads are so small and congested that you are almost always driving under 50km/hr. Maybe the roads are still set up for bicycles.    I was blown away when we walked down to the lake temple. Pura Ulun Danu Bratan temple is a water temple built in 1663. Lake Bratan is known as the Lake of Holy Mountain due to the fertility of this area. It i...

Australian Scenery Safer than it looks, well.... Hinterlands of Byron Myles and Jack adding perspective    We started off the morning checking out Cape Byron, the easternmost point of the Australian mainland. A famous wave called 'The Pass' wraps around one corner of the cape but it was a little too small for us to surf today. A couple of longboarders were out there catching ripples. Around the cape on the more exposed side we found bigger waves at our spot from yesterday, Tallow Beach. It is very wild coastline here with no buildings. We all had a blast surfing before hitting up a breakfast bistro back near our hostel. It was here that we got some local knowledge on a good day trip from Byron. Jack of the Jungle Way up...   After exchanging some money (Australian money is quite beautiful), and grabbing some snacks for the trip we set out inland to the hinterlands overlooking Byron. Vast farmlands on rolling hills lined the cou ...

  Apo Island   Apo Island is a small island off the coast of Dauin, Philippines. The scuba diving here is a stark contrast to the nearby shoreline of Dauin. Huge coral reefs cover every square inch of ground in some areas around the island. Massive schools of jacks hang just off the deeper parts of the reef bathed in current and rich in food. Small reef fish stay close to the protective corals they call home. They do have to share their beautiful neighborhood with turtles, sea snakes, and cuttlefish as well.   Soft corals fight hard corals for space in the shallows and down the submerged walls of Apo Island. It is usually done as a day trip from one of the many dive resorts over in Dauin. We planned a 3 dive day trip. When I saw how small the island was and how fast the current was I thought we would see everything on the first two dives but our guide saved the best for last.   The first two dives were drift dives along the sloping walls. This is where we...

Scorpionfish standing guard over the reef at Isla Verde   Isla Verde, the Green Island    Isla Verde was incredible. It is Puerto Galera’s ship rock or molokini. An offshore pinnacle just breaking the surface goes down   to an untold depth just a quarter mile off nearby Verde Island. Soft corals, hard corals, huge gorgonian sea fans, massive barrel sponges and millions of fairy basslets cover the steep wall. Leaf scorpionfish and an incredible amount of nudibranchs also dot the wall. I was pretty amazed that no big megafauna comes by but I hear from Amil that it is very very rare. Still an incredible two dives. The boat ride over from Puerto Galera takes about 45 minutes and we lucked out with a calm smooth crossing both ways.    The currents here can be quite tricky. Amil told us of being caught in a down current here that took him from 10meters down to 50meters. He was kicking as hard as he could but still was pulled down in the cur...