“They are here! You are lucky guys!” Said my rasta diver instructor on the boat.

Equipment on. Buddy check: tight swimsuit on, BC on, palms on, mask on, everything is working and ready to keep me alive under the water.
 

I adjust my mask on my face, keep the regulator on my mouth with my other hand. My heart is racing, beating up as fast as a dub step track but I am determined and push myself back into the deep blue. I have a meeting with few Manta Rays chicks today
 

I feel like in a dream but the shock of the cold water on my back wake me up a little bit. We were on the boat, two minutes later we are in the ocean. I know there is some giant creatures swimming next to me but I can’t see them yet. Time is kind of distorted now.
 

 

I was planning this dive for few weeks. When I knew we could actually dive with Mantas in Nusa Lembogan I didn’t think twice and booked two dives with Dive concepts. But then I was here and it was “for real”. The excitation of standing alongside the giant flying ladies was slowly melting the scary feeling that comes along being in any kind of new and unknown situations or experiences.
 

Breath in, breath out, breath in. Breath out. Breath in… Breath out… 

Here we are.
 

Ok sign to my buddy. I deflate my BC and I slowly dive into the deep blue. My ears start to feel the pressure, I pinch my nose and blow gently to equalize. My heart is still dancing the Krump in my rib cage but as everytime I dive, I enter into this kind of peaceful trance. It’s like being in the right place, coming back in the belly of your mum.
 

The sounds are muffled, passing throughout me like ghosts. I am filling up with every vibrations of the ocean and start to calm down.
 

I found the perfect buyouncy. I am floating now in the middle of what I feel like nowhere. We slowly go north to be next to the “cleaning station”: a rock where Mantas and fish cleaners meet. Few shadows appears four meters away and announce the start of uncontrollable shivers of happiness that I will have from now on until the end of the dive They are twelve, gently flapping their wings, turning around a rock erected like a vivid and sacred totem.
 

I am so small and feel vulnerable but as I admire the ballet going on, I feel more connected to Mother Nature than ever and that,mmy friend, is surpassing every scary thoughts. I look around and I can feel the same emotion exuding from all the divers. Nobody is talking and you can’t really read people’s mind when they are wearing a mask and a regulator in their mouth but I am sure that at this moment, we all feel special and unified around the same excitement and the same admiration.
 

We are living a fantastic and unique moment because we are sharing the same water than twelve aquatic creatures, definately taller than us. They could smash us all in few seconds. Instead they are peacefully doing their lives, noticing us on the corner of their eyes, doing nothing else than “having a bath”.
 

One in a while, a graceful Mantas is flying above us, giving us a smile before disappearing into the Dark Blue.
 

We stay here until it’s time to go back on the boat. We’ve lost track of time and I can’t say if we dived there, swinging in the roll of the waves and currents for few minutes or an eternity.