![\"Screen](\"https:\/\/www.theexpeditioner.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Screen-Shot-2015-08-31-at-15.19.49.png\")
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It is a glorious morning.<\/p>\n
With the sort of light that deserves to have a few moments taken to stop, breathe it in, and absorb the possibility it brings; to make a memory of the way the sun dances across the sea, sprinkling it with gold; to relish the cool that blurs the horizon; to squint your eyes into the gentle mist which offers the\u00a0promise of the hot day ahead.<\/p>\n
But I am doing precisely none of these things, too distracted by the certainty that this will be the last dawn I see.<\/p>\n
[Pause for dramatic effect]<\/p>\n
Today I am scheduled for my first deep scuba dive: The dive that has prevented me from taking the PADI Advanced Open Water<\/a> qualification since I first strapped on a BCD almost five years ago. And\u00a0I\u2019ve been awake all night, running possible\u00a0scenarios through my head.<\/p>\n A lot can go wrong at 30 meters underwater, I’ve decided.<\/p>\n My head exploding like a pressurised grape or being eaten by the Loch Ness\u2019s salty compatriot\u00a0were\u00a0perhaps a couple of the rather more far-fetched outcomes, sure. But at the very least, it must be pretty\u00a0dark down there.<\/p>\n What if I get disoriented? What if I bolt for the surface? And I do not much\u00a0like the sounds of this\u00a0“getting narked” business. What if the anaesthetic effect of nitrogen narcosis<\/a> (breathing in this compressed gas\u00a0at depth) has me casually removing my life-conserving air supply far below the surface?<\/p>\n I had tried\u00a0to console myself with the fact that\u00a0it is not like I am\u00a0being asked to descend in the murky waters of a highland lake. Instead,\u00a0this scene plays out on Gili Air, the medium-sized of the three Gili islands, just off the coast of Lombok, and not far from Bali.<\/p>\n The tropical waters here are crystal clear, famous for their reefs, abundance of turtles and honeymooners (only the latter of which is to be keenly avoided). It is hard to imagine\u00a0a more perfect spot to \u201cgo deep.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet reason continued to elude me as, palms sweating, the entrance to Oceans 5<\/a> comes into view. It is only pride that serves to overwhelm my\u00a0compulsion to run in the other direction and have done with it.<\/p>\n I find my instructor amidst the traditional sun-bleached, torso-baring\u00a0bustle of an early a.m. dive shop.<\/p>\n He goes\u00a0by\u00a0the name of Pierre, Belgian — \u201cnot French!\u201d —\u00a0and during the previous day’s exercises, including buoyancy control and navigation, I had decided that Monsieur P.\u00a0and I weren\u2019t likely to be life-long friends.<\/p>\n Pierre was\u00a0strict. And thus, rather scary, wagging his finger at me as I bobbed\u00a0helplessly\u00a0past the metal rod I was apparently, somehow, supposed to be touching with my nose in an orderly fashion.<\/p>\n He\u00a0also failed to comply with my imagination of the dive instructor aesthetic, conspicuously lacking in the shaggy hair department, and rather low on \u201chappy-go-lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n As we motored\u00a0towards the dive site, however, traits I had resented in my mentor the day before suddenly became reassuring. He was clearly the unspoken leader of the whole operation, reprimanding those on the boat who failed to adhere to rules and regulations, with uncanny ability to see in several directions at once.<\/p>\n I was, I decided, in good hands.<\/p>\n So, masks on, regulators in, backward roll, splash: in we went and down we went. Myself, Pierre and a Danish character who had a\u00a0great deal of enthusiasm but unfortunate\u00a0propensity for clumsy\u00a0lashings-out of the\u00a0flipper.<\/p>\n 10 meters . . . 12 meters . . . I glanced at\u00a0the\u00a0depth gauge on my computer every few seconds as we kicked gradually further into the blue.<\/p>\n 15 meters.<\/p>\n 18.<\/p>\n This is now the deepest I had\u00a0ever been (officially) and Pierre checks back to see I am still up for going further. I am.<\/p>\n We drop further still.<\/p>\n 25 meters.<\/p>\n 28 meters.<\/p>\n And then I\u00a0do the thing I promised myself I would not do, the equivalent of looking down when scaling a cliff: I look up, tilting my head to peer through\u00a0the thermocline to the world above.<\/p>\n The panic I had been expecting does not come.\u00a0I could not have felt more relaxed, elated by\u00a0serenity and calm.<\/p>\n Reaching maximum depth, a huge barracuda emerges from the dark azure of wider ocean.<\/p>\n Pierre turns and gives me a huge grin and an \u201cok?\u201d sign.<\/p>\n \u201cOk,\u201d I nod, grinning — I imagine — somewhat maniacally.<\/p>\n I feel a rush of gratitude towards my underwater cohort.<\/p>\n What I had not realized before but realized then was that this guy was a pro. What I had construed as strict, was actually better understood as calm and considered professionalism, without which I likely would have bottled out before you could say “Moby Dick.”<\/p>\n All too soon, he is signalling to us it is time to come up. One of the downsides of going deeper of course being the reduced bottom time.<\/p>\n Right arm extended, my hand is the first to break back through the looking glass, the surface of the water a mirror below which an alternative universe conceals itself;\u00a0a place where red doesn\u2019t exist and doing the moonwalk is a legitimate possibility.<\/p>\n Back onboard I bask\u00a0in the heat of that misty early morning promise made good, revelling in my albeit predictable survival.<\/p>\n Now my fear of going deep has only been replaced by a desire to go deeper. Trust me, once you go deep, you never . . . um . . . go shallow? Wait, no, that doesn’t work.<\/p>\n Either way, go\u00a0find yourself a Pierre and get down there, “down where it\u2019s wetter, down there it\u2019s better, take it from me” [me and Sebastian the crab<\/a>].<\/p>\n And as for the Gili Air as a location to base yourself? With reasonably priced accommodation in places like the newly opened Begadang Backpackers<\/a>, as well as easy access to dive sites around Gili Trawangan and Gili Meno, you couldn’t ask for much more from a desert island.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"https:\/\/www.theexpeditioner.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Screen-Shot-2015-08-31-at-15.29.51.png\")
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A restless Brit with big dreams and limited cash flow, Hannah is a freelance journalist and student. She is currently being sponsored by the European Union to take a Masters in Journalism and International Politics at the University of Amsterdam\/University of Santiago, Chile, and the Danish School of Journalism. Check out her site