Earthquake in Bali

Earthquake in Bali 16th July 2019. 8:18am

It’s really strange, I would never claim to be psychic in any way and yet many insights I have had over the years have come true with surprising accuracy!!

After I had booked this holiday in Bali back in January I started to feel really uneasy about earthquakes, I know it sits on the ring of fire so there is a higher probability but I didn’t have this same feeling when we were in New Zealand, San Francisco or in the South Pacific.

The feeling grew SO strong that on several occasions I came really close to cancelling this trip despite having paid in full for our airfares and 5 weeks accommodation for both of us. Reason started to outweigh intuition and I told myself I was being stupid and getting wound up for no real reason, but then this morning it happened…….

I had been awake for over an hour but Cameron was still asleep, I was just having a bit of slow start lying in bed replying to my emails and thinking to myself “I really must get up in a minute and have a shower”. Then a strange rattling noise started followed a few seconds later with the shaking. It was rather like a steam train going past, you felt it approaching, felt the full magnitude and then felt it subside as it went past. It was strong though and Cameron woke up with a start shouting “what’s happening?” “It’s an earthquake, keep very still” I replied. All common sense of what you should or shouldn’t do in an earthquake went out the window in the instant, my heart was racing and I don’t think I could have got out of bed even if I had wanted to!!!!

We have wooden/glass sliding doors directly in front of our bed which lead out to the patio, the noise that they made rattling I am sure made everything appear 10 times worse than it was!

I am sure people who live in earthquake zones get pretty used to these things but as a Brit abroad I don’t mind admitting it was pretty scary.

News reports are saying that the quake measured 6.2 on the richter scale, but thankfully there is very little reported damage and at present no Tsunami warnings in place. Thankfully we are in Ubud which is on higher land in the centre of the Island, had we been down on the coast in Seminyak (where we were last week) or in Nusa Dua (where will be me next week) I would probably be a little more worried.

When I booked our hotel in Nusa Dua I ensured that I booked somewhere which was listed as ‘Tsunami ready’ I would advise anyone else staying in coastal areas of Bali to do the same as you just never know where mother nature is next going to unleash her power in this region.

I have now briefed Cameron on the possibility of aftershocks – we hope that is the worst to come and that today’s shake up wasn’t actually a foreshock for something even bigger!!!

There is certainly a lot of activity around the Ring of Fire at the moment. Be alert and stay safe.