Diving in Seychelles: Finding Dory

I love the deep blue ocean. I love the colours inside the deep blue ocean. Obviously, Finding Nemo is one of my favourite movies. While we were in Seychelles in November 2015, Finding Dory (sequel to Finding Nemo) was in the making. While Pixar was doing its job, searching for Dory, I decided to take things in my hand to give it my best shot.

I met Mr. Ray, who had taken sometime off from his teaching job and was drifting around lazily. I met a stone fish who was snoozing and a lion fish running after its babies. I saw a shark too and worried for Dory’s well being.

Mr. Ray

Here are pictures of my adventure in the deep blue as I tried to find Dory:

I really could not speak under water. Hence, I tried to send out some ‘brain waves’ saying ‘Dory…Dory…Where are you?’. I got no revert. Considering that Dory is comfortable speaking ‘whale’ as well, maybe I should have given that a shot. I was hoping that telepathy would work between me an Dory.

Dory ….Dory….Where are you?

I wasn’t wearing my glasses underwater. From a distance, I thought this was Dory. But as the distance narrowed, I realised that it was an angel fish, who was playing hide and seek with her buddies. She was way too lost in her game to try and help me out.

Angel fish

I kicked my flippers and moved ahead, I came across a stone fish. She seemed to be fast asleep and blended so well with the corals. I wanted to poke her and wake her up…maybe she had seen Dory. But then I remembered that the stone fish is extremely poisonous and is best left undisturbed.

Stone fish…can you spot her?

I panicked and turned around, only to get my arms scrapped by some pretty looking coral. Ouch!

Healthy corals at Seychelles

Things weren’t easy after that! I ran into a shark and got terribly worried on whether he had devoured Dory already. Was Dory swimming in the shark’s tummy? I strained my ear drums to pick up any voice or cry for help. Alas! There was none. Oh no! What if I would never find Dory!

My mind was put at ease when this lion fish told me that he had seen Dory swimming straight ahead, humming her song ‘Just keep swimming’.  Ah! I knew it was Dory! Hopefully she was safe…and still swimming!

Lion fish

I thought I was swimming straight ahead, but I really wasn’t. I just kept going round and round in circles. I was lost myself. Everything around was blue…I didn’t know where to go. I stopped for a minute, calmed my mind and looked around for someone who could help me get my bearings right. And my good samaritan was right there. The yellow starfish pointed in the direction that I needed to follow and off I went, hoping to finally find Dory.

 There she was….Dory was there…merrily singing ‘Just keep swimming’! I had found Dory, all safe and sound!

I found Dory!

Now that Dory is all well, here is some information if you want to dive from the island of Praslin.

I did two dives with White Tip Divers at Cote d’Or in Praslin. I used all their equipment and went to sites that were about 15 – 20 minutes away by boat. Each dive cost me EUR 50. With just over 10 dives, I was the newbie on the boat. However, I felt safe underwater as I was paired with a Spanish gentleman who had stopped filling his log book just because he had dived way too often! The dive master also took care to ensure that I was always in sight and didn’t have any issues navigating through the granite tunnels underwater.

Happy diving!