exploring water

We went to explore the world underwater, at Netrani Island 19 km off the west coast (from Murudeshwar close to Mangalore).

This was some place along the drive we stopped to take a break…

Peaceful evening on Murudeshwar beach…

On the one hour speedboat ride towards Netrani Island…

What will it be like underwater in such clear waters at this remote island…

Anyone below age 9 years or so can snorkel and can still get a good glimpse of the underwater world.

For diving with an oxygen tank, its irrelevant whether one knows swimming or not – in fact may be an advantage not knowing swimming as one need not unlearn how to breathe. Breathing is exclusively with the mouth from the tank – and the pipe is somewhat different.

Initially it takes a bit of time to get the hang of breathing exclusively through the oxygen tank.

As you get used to it, and start gaining confidence, you can start looking around and appreciating the view. You can start handling the increasing pressure as well, and can go down lower and lower…

…all the way to the sea bed maybe around 20 to 30 feet or so….

It was definitely was a whole new world, a truly mesmerizing experience, of discovery looking all around at the various colored fishes swimming all around.

Curiosity is more important than age…

There are so many colorful corals and its pretty cool to see schools of fishes darting around amidst them.

Note: You may want to let them know earlier about photography (as they have an underwater camera)… unless you really want to – that you want to look around and don’t want to keep following his directions to continuously stand in different poses 🙂 You may also want to suggest he take a few pics from a little further away to get a wider perspective. We went with Netrani Adventurers, they gave thorough instructions and were quite good and helpful. There are a few diving associations, and the season is only limited to a few months of a year.