Dono in Bali earthquake!

Probably worth putting up with the odd earthquake for?

Sometimes tropical paradise isn't all it's cracked up to be. Bluewater Bay local Donovan Zoetmulder found that out today....and picked up a cool travel tale to go with the stories of perfect waves, bintangs and benchongs!

 “I’d just eaten breakfast and was in my room getting ready for a surf. I heard my door start shaking and looked up to see who it was, but there was no-one there! I was freaked out and just ran out of the room. All of a sudden the ground underneath me felt like jelly. I didn’t really know what to do!

Everything shook for about 15 seconds and then it stopped. I was in the street at this stage and everyone was just looking at each other. My first thought was .... “Tsunami!” But then people said that it just wasn’t strong enough and so everyone just went back to everyday life….just like that!

Being my first earthquake I didn’t know what to do. I was still so freaked out. Eventually I calmed down a bit and noticed that everyone else wasn’t too phased. So I ended up going down for my surf and just carried on with my day.

When I got home again later in the afternoon the ground started shaking again. Here we go again I thought to myself. Turns out it was just the aftershock. The earthquake measured in at 6.8 on the scale.

I’ve been hearing a lot of stories around Bali today. Apparently they are expecting a massive quake soon. So big that it would make the Boxing Day quake from a few years ago look minor. Scary stuff if you ask me!”

The quake struck panic in the tourist island of Bali, injuring at least 50 people, many with broken bones and head wounds. The walls of some temples along the coast crumbled, and witnesses told local radio and television stations the roofs of some homes collapsed.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the 6.1-magnitude quake was centered 60 miles southwest of the island. It hit 36 miles beneath the ocean floor.

Although not strong enough to trigger a tsunami, the quake was felt on neighboring Java and Lombok islands, hundreds of miles away.