Swimming with turtles on Gili Air

As part of our recent travels we spent lots of time underwater. Either learning to dive, (we took our open water diving certification) or snorkeling off the many beaches. Whilst we did see more, and much bigger, turtles than the one in the short movie, when diving, this little one was quite at home on the reef opposite where we stayed. All we had to do was wade out into deeper water and there it would be. The first time we didn’t have the cheap Chinese Go-Pro with us, but the second time we were please to have caught this on film.

I’m really becoming far more comfortable in the water, I seem to have spent lots of time there in recent weeks. This has been a challenge of mine for the last three years. From having an anxious moment in the water one summer and then deciding to do something about it.

• I took swimming lessons, and now swim around 30 laps of the pool every week.
• We capsized our canoe in open seas, one of my nightmare scenarios, no life jackets. I survived of course and learnt that it wasn’t so bad after all.
• Learned that having your air supply turned off underwater also isn’t so bad. A part of the PADI diving course.

All in all my love of the water has increased significantly. Its all part of the reprogramming my brain to re-learn that water isn’t the scary thing I’d been brought up to believe. I have my mother to thank for this, she is petrified of water, and many other things in the world.

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