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So I'm pretty sure everyone who will read this will know that the entire Manchester Bioinformatics BSc class of '09 (me and Pete) are going on a long glorified holiday. Just in case anyone cares what we are up to I will try and write a diary (bear in mind I am a scientist and so not blessed with the ability to write in an entertaining fashion). Pete has his photo blog (peterbenphotography.blogspot.com) so this will probably be more wordy and less arty.

Monday, April 25, 2011

The Gili Islands

Before we flew to Australia we had just enough time for a flying visit to the Gili islands at the north end of Lombok. We used the time here for a bit of a chill out before the next bit of travelling that was due to take us nearly 24 hours, most of which would be spent waiting in airports.




Even getting to the Gili Islands was a nightmare minibus journey across the country before spending an hour trapped in a restaurant and arguing with people at the "ferry" port to honour the tickets we had bought. Eventually we got on a boat and after about 5 minutes were regretting it. The boats they use are long and thin and for some reason the usually placid sea around the islands was swelling up massively and threatening to turn us over. Somehow we made it without dying and managed to get a really nice place on the island; a two story house thing.




We were staying on Gili Trawangan, the largest and most developed of the three islands, and so we decided to get on one of the cheap glass bottomed boat trips around the other islands to see a bit more. Luckily the sea was a bit calmer by then and the islands were looking a lot better in the sunshine.



The trip took us to various locations around the group of three islands to try snorkelling. By some amazing stroke of luck we actually managed to take the under water camera with us this time! There was about the same variety of fish that we had observed off the coast of Koh Phi Phi though here they seemed in much greater numbers, and were also much more friendly.


The main highlight of the boat trip was our visit to turtle point where, surprisingly, we went off in search of turtles. Our guide pointed out the first few that were around and then I was happy to spot one for myself that only me and Pete went after. 


Though the turtles were pretty cool, the best fish of the day was obviously the Nelson fish that Pete captured swimming under the boat...


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