
Our two weeks at Donggala came to an end and by that time we were ready to move on and excited about the next few stops we had planned.
There was a little incident on a boat trip while we were in Donggala. One of the German guides was to accompany us on a day trip to two dive sites across the bay. Paul was a tad disappointed it wasn’t one of the Indonesian guides because the German tended to get quite cross with him, for example, for failing to provide a running commentary on his air supply. Her mantra was “The dive is my responsibility, I am the guide” and when it’s said over and over again in a German accent it can get a bit tedious to a fairly experienced diver (particularly as he seemed to be unfairly singled out for this sort of treatment – he is neither reckless nor irresponsible). And anyone that knows the Wooky will know he doesn’t take too kindly to being told what to do by anyone. Ever. Me, I was tolerating a lot of hectoring, given my novice status, happy to accept any advice thrown in my general direction.
Our plan was always to spend a couple of weeks at our favourite dive resort in Central Sulawesi (Prince John Dive Resort, Donggala) but it’s popular so we were thrilled they had room for us at a time that fit in with our, as yet, vague itinerary.
The Wooky’s Story
In February 2013 we went on a snorkelling trip in the Con Dao Islands in Vietnam. We shared the boat with a couple of divers who surfaced from the deep with tales of an amazing underwater world of huge fish and amazing coral and the Wooky decided he wanted some of that.
Several weeks later he had embarked on his PADI Open Water course with a German outfit in Sihanoukville, followed by the Advanced Open Water which he combined with a liveaboard trip (which we liked so much we went on a second a few days later).
The Wooky then proceeded to jump in the water with a tank on his back at every opportunity and another obsession was born.
But it wasn’t easy… Continue reading