Tim Gurney has had an interesting career – as well as a few interesting places to live.

Deputy Governor of Bermuda from 1998 to 2003, he left to become Deputy Ambassador in Afghanistan for two years, where life was far from cozy.

"I lived in a shipping container, or a 'pod' as we lovingly called them, for about six months when I first went to Kabul," he said. "We all did. This was the only accommodation we had. Two people lived in a 20-foot shipping container which was divided into two small apartments or pods.

"Each 'pod' contained a bed, desk, chest of drawers and a small bathroom with loo and shower. It was Spartan living, especially after Montpelier, but it was fun."

Everyone decorated their pods in their own individual style and Mr. Gurney's reflected his love for diving, with dive posters everywhere.

With so much travelling to exotic destinations, Mr. Gurney became interested in photography, particularly underwater photography. He learned to dive while posted in Manhattan, New York.

"I was a kid in the [years that] Jacques Cousteau [was] on television and was very drawn to the whole undersea world thing," he said. "In addition, my grandparents lived [and were from] Jersey in the Channel Islands and I spent most of my summers as a kid snorkelling and playing in the ocean. That really made me want to dive."

Eventually, Mr. Gurney's driving desire to immerse himself in deep water began to take over. He set up Kabul's first diving school.

However the biggest challenge for Mr. Gurney: the complete absence of water in Kabul.

"There wasn't an awful lot to do there and many people took their breaks in places like the Maldives," he said. "So I set up a dive programme so that they could do all the classroom knowledge development in Kabul rather than having to sit in classroom in the Maldives. At its peak I had 35 students.

"They were all expats and from many different nationalities. It was great fun."

The dive school was a relief from the tension and danger of his real job.

"I really thought I was checking out on two occasions in one day when attending the funeral, in a mosque, of a minister who had been shot dead," said Mr. Gurney. "There was, on two occasions within 20 minutes, a great deal of screaming and shouting and people literally jumping out the windows of the mosque. I thought for sure there was going to be a suicide bombing."

But it turned out the ruckus was caused by disputes between rival bodyguard teams over the carriage of 'long' or 'short' weapons leading to what is referred to as a 'blue-on-blue' situation – the killing of allies.

"This was all too common in Kabul and all too scary," said Mr. Gurney.

He said there were a lot of heavily armed people in Kabul with itchy trigger fingers.

"I decided the excitement was getting more than I could reasonably enjoy and did a runner out the mosque," he said. "I ended up in the back streets of Kabul, happily with my VHF radio and called into the Embassy for some backup.

"My bodyguards scoured the streets and found me crouched behind a wall. The bodyguard team leader [they were all British Royal Military Police] peered over the wall and said the immortal words: 'Hey boss, you OK? Bet you're happy to see us, eh?' I always was. They were great guys and looked after me very well."

He said sometimes there were lighter moments between him and the bodyguards, like the time they saved him from an avalanche of DVDs.

"We were in a video shop," he said. "I'd gone in to buy some and, stupidly, tried to take one from near the bottom of the pile. The whole pile toppled towards me and the duty bodyguard threw himself in front of me and took the hit. We laughed until we cried, afterward."

He joined the foreign service on a whim, because he wanted to see the world.

"I had very little idea what I was getting into," he said. "I saw an ad in a United Kingdom newspaper [the Daily Express] which pretty much said 'Join the Diplomatic Service, see the world'. I had no clue what the Diplomatic Service was – but see the world? Sign me up. So I applied, and after a few months, an interview, a medical and security vetting, I got the job. It's an understatement to say my teachers at school were surprised."

After working in Afghanistan, in late 2005 he went to Banda Aceh, Indonesia for a couple of months to work with the European Union (EU)/Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) Peace Monitoring Mission.

Mr. Gurney's job was helping to monitor the cessation of hostilities between the Government of Indonesia and the rebel movement in Aceh province, the Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM).

This was after the December 2004 tsunami there that killed thousands of people. Indonesia awarded Mr. Gurney a peace medal for his work there. He was also awarded an OBE for his work in Bermuda and Afghanistan.

"It was great fun travelling around the country, often in a helicopter, talking to rebel commanders about their plans for peace," he said.

After a stint as Deputy High Commissioner in Australia, he is now dive shop manager at the Kungkungan Bay Resort (KBR) in Sulawesi, Indonesia.

"KBR has the a reputation as the world's 'muck' diving capital," said Mr. Gurney. "On the Lembeh Straits, KBR has diving on black volcanic sand, rather than white sand, coral-based reefs.

"Its ecology has led to it being the home to many very small and very unusual marine animals. One example is the pygmy sea horse. This has made it very attractive especially, to underwater photographers."

He said so far, tsunamis have not been an issue at KBR.

"Fingers crossed," he said. "But it is in the 'Ring of Fire' – an area of major volcanic activity that rings Indonesia and some of the Pacific Islands."

Mr. Gurney sells some of his underwater pictures, although he admitted he couldn't make a living out of it.

"I am self-taught for sure," he said. "I did a great deal of diving in Bermuda – about 400 dives. I started my underwater photography in Bermuda. It was a great place to start."

Now I use a Nikon D300 with a Subal underwater housing.

"It's pretty specialist stuff," he said.

To see some of Mr. Gurney's photography go to http://www.timsimages.co.uk.

To learn more about KBR go to www.divekbr.com.