padmanabh's blog: A thrilling experience of Scuba diving at Netrani islands at Murdeshwara

I am a nature animal and want to spend as much time as i want with nature. Nature has a certain rhythm in many of its creations, which puts back certain natural rhythms into our body and calms us.

I decided two weeks back to do other than the normal cycling or swimming or walking, something exciting and adventurous which will leave behind an exhilarating and a thrilling experience.

I suddenly thought of scuba diving and discussed with some people and they were laughing and thought, it was another of my crazy idea at this age.

I suddenly started searching for information about scuba diving and zeroed in on Netrani adventures ltd located in Murdeshwar, a coastal area on the west of India. Netrani adventures ltd conducts scuba diving programs at Netrani Islands, which is 20 kms away from the beach at Murdeshwar. ( www.netraniadventures.com )

Murdeshwar is a popular tourist spot having the famous Murdeshwara temple. It is about 4 hrs by road from Mangalore and nine hours by road from Bangalore.

I contacted Netrani adventures about the program and got all the details. I also asked some of my friends and relatives to join me. Finally my brother in law and his friend joined me.

I did the online advance booking for Scuba diving program on 7 April 2018 morning. I also booked tickets on sleeper bus from Bangalore to Murdeshwar for travelling on the night of 6^th April 2018 and the return tickets for the night of 7^th Apr 2018 back to Bangalore from Murdeshwar.

Three of us reached Murdeshwar on the morning of 7^th Apr 2018 at about 7.45 am. We checked into a hotel and got freshened up. Then we reached the office of Netrani adventures ltd and finished all the formalities of signing certain documents.

There was another group of about 27 people who had also booked for the same program and we waited for them outside the office as the below picture shows.

Finally all of us a total of 30 participants left on a steamer boat from Murdeshwar beach to Netrani Island about twenty kilometres away from the mainland beach.

In about 75 minutes time we reached Netrani island for the scuba diving program. The steam boat ride was really a good experience for all of us from cities. As we were moving away from the beach and away from the madness, we could see the sea water becoming crystal clear and pure. We were continuously witnessing the dance of small waves ebbing and falling. The vast expanse of sea in front of us was welcoming all of us in her embrace and cooling our minds. As we were nearing the island, we could see a small cave which looked like they were carved inside the island and had water flowing in them. We were all surrounded by the pristine nature in all its naked glory. The sight itself was fulfilling, soothing and left us asking for more. I feel it is a curse to be born and bred in a city and not amidst the nature’s midst.

Our boat was anchored at one of the spot near the Netrani island. Initially we were all given instructions to follow for scuba diving and with certain do’s and dont’s.

They were five instructors and in batches of five the scuba diving started. Each participant will be monitored by each instructor inside the water, The entire program is about 30 minutes for each participant inside water.

My exuberance forced me to volunteer for the first group along with my brother in law and his friend.

We were fitted with life jackets and oxygen cylinders at the back and we have to breathe in and breathe out through the mouth only using the gadget which gets oxygen from the cylinder. Certain techniques we were thought to reduce the pressure on our ears, whenever the pressure increases on the ears as we go down into the water and into its depths.

We sit on the edge of the boat and we are pushed backwards into the water and we literally feel at the edge of the seat experience. We are down into the water and lo and behold open our eyes to a totally different world, meanwhile we are guided continuously by our individual guide and with certain sign symbols we get instructions and can indicate our discomfort and help if required.

We slowly wade through the deep waters and look at the life below, the colorful fishes and other plant life and it is a totally different world at the bottom of the sea about 25 feet to 30 feet depth.

It is like a giant aquarium and we are inside the aquarium and have fishes and other live forms as our co- companions swimming along with us. Life is definitely beautiful out there and it cannot be described in words and one has to personally experience the thrill and get the novel experience.

After about 30 minutes we come up and for a few minutes still feel overwhelmed with the different experience we had.

As the other participants were having their turns, we used life jackets and were swimming and floating around our steamer boat for almost three to four hours. The water was clear and it was not very hot also. We were literally soaking in the coolness of the island water and all our worries found its way into the water and left us totally relaxed, exhausted and thrilled with the water experience.

In the evening we were back to the mainland by boat. We visited the Murdeshwara temple and grabbed some dinner and popped into the sleeper bus at 9.15pm and were back to Bangalore on 8th April 18 Morning by 7.45 pm

Some of the pictures of our scuba diving follows below:

Padmanabh's Pictures