Proving that scuba divers will go anywhere that the diving is great, East Timor’s first tourists are scuba divers.

Simon Jeffery, 36, who has worked for Dive Timor Lorosae for three years leading guided dives and captaining their boat, waxes lyrical about the potential for diving in the young nation.

“Big tour organisers come out here and love the place — it’s world-class diving,” he says, comparing it to Bali and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

“The exciting thing about it is that it’s all virgin territory — there are virtually 1,000 — or 10,000 — dive sites out there that have never been dived before,” he enthuses.

“At traditional dive destinations like Thailand and Fiji now there’ll be 200 people at a site and you can’t see the fish.”