This week here in North Lombok we have been noticing the colour and beauty coming back to our reefs. The North Gilis have not been famous for their colourful, pristine coral reefs due to dynamite fishing so many years ago but indeed the beautiful colour is coming back. There are so many dive sites up here which truly do blow me away. The amount of hard corals that cover our reefs is incredible ranging from massive table corals, blue corals, brain coral, plate coral, stag horn coral and fleshy coral. These corals create shelter and safety for creatures/fish such as pipe fish, lionfish, moray eels, ribbon eels, juvenile bat fish, turtles, octopus, shrimps and many more. 

We have a good variety of soft colourful corals around the north Gilis such as anemones, bubble coral (a favorite turtle food), Daisy coral, whip coral, feather stars, sea fans, sea pens, leather coral, sponges, barrel coral and in some spots we get soft coral colonies. With these soft corals we often find our macro like Squat lobsters both hairy and common, squat shrimps, translucent anemone shrimp, nudibranchs, orangutan crabs, hermit crabs, porcelain crabs, mantis shrimps and flatworms as well as isopods. Although it takes years for corals to grow we really are seeing a massive difference up here in the north Gilis and the variety of sea life is incredible. Lovely warm crystal clear water, what else could you want!!!

This week we have also started our FREE try dive’s at Villa Karang on Gili Air, So far so good, the dive centre is coming along nicely and it should be done by next month. All exciting times for us here in the North of Lombok.