In the bay of Tulamben there are tree great dive sites: The US. Liberty wreck, the coral garden and the drop off.
The U.S.A. T. Liberty is a 120 metres (400foot) US. Army commissioned transport vessel torpedoed in the Second World War by the Japanese and offers now one of the best artificial reefs. Listed as one of the best wreck dives in the world you will find here the home of a hudge jackfish group, one large solitary living baracuda (app. 1.6metres) and lots of other reef animals.
The dive site starts depending on the tide at a depth from 3 to 5 metres (around 9 to 15 feet).
DIVE SITES IN BALI
Amed
Tulamben
Padang Bai
Menjangan/Permueran
Candi Dasa
Nusa Penida
Amed
Amed is a little village living from fishing and salt panning. When you arrive you can see all this colourful wooden boats called jukung and the wooden squares where the people from Amed collect there salt from the seawater. You should have a look on it! Who is looking for an easy and nice beach and dive holiday – with family as well - will never forget Amed.
Amed`s greatest charm is its wide range and variety of sites. You can dive on a shipwreck, vertical drop-offs, and pretty coral gardens and over sand slopes in a smooth drift dive. You will see unforgettable and for this island single hard coral formations substitute by a variety of colourful soft corals and marine life.
The shallow slopes are highly recommended for beginners and for snorklers because the beautifully corral gardens reaches directly under the surface and in the bay of Amed you will find no current. Therefore the bay is perfect for children as well! The visibility is usually very good (over 40 meters) because the volcano stones of the beach keep the water crystal-clear and gemstone blue. You can start your dives directly from the beach and in the water you will find a splendid diversity of tropical fauna which includes next to the corals huge sponges, gorgonians, nudibranches and fishes. You will hear sweetlips and parrotfish making crazy noises under the water when they pick a coral for example or you see all these colourful reef fish like groups of surgeonfish and many more.
1. Jemeluk Drop-off
Amed offers excellent dive sites for training dives and shows all the beauty for experienced divers as well. The magnificent reef of Jemeluk which covers the total wide of the beach grounds starts directly in front of our dive school. If you enter the crystal-clear water you find a flat bottom lagoon for instruction and a drop-off, only a five minute swim away. This area can be highly recommended for introductory dives. And even if you are an experienced diver you will find along the wall always something new on each dive, no matter how many times you will dive here. It is a spectacular site for night dives as well.
The wall falls down until app. 30 meters and it is covered with a variety of colourful hard and soft corals. You will see 3 meter gorgonian fans which are open in the smooth current to take there dinner and huge sponges with jumping craps and shrimps. There is a splendid diversity of big and small tropical fishes which include for example angelfish, batfish, barracuda, butterfly fish, napoleon fish, lionfish, parrotfish and Bump head Parrotfish as well. Octopus shows us there talent to change there colour and we will see colourful nudibranches like Chromodoris and Phyllidia species. With a little luck you will discover Spanish Dancers and the Pink Nudibranch. This dive is recommended for all level of divers. You will dive against a very smooth currant in a dept of app. 20 meters along the wall and you come back with the current in shallower water to the point where you have been started.
2. Amed Ghost Bay
The coral garden reaches directly under the surface and follows a sandy slope until we reach the drop-off of app. 40 meters. In shallow water (on the sandy slope) the Indonesian government designated on concrete blocks a conservation area to rebuild the corals which were damaged before. Here you will see the coral growing and lots of fishes and “critters”. In the sand slope you can see blue spotted rays. Blacktip and Whitetip Reef Sharks sleep under Table Corals. Along the wall we find intact magnificent and colourful hard and soft corals.
Sometimes there can be a current. For this smooth drift dive we are using local outriggers called jukung. These local fishing boats will follow us while we are diving and pick us up at the end of our dive to bring us back to the beach. This dive is recommended for beginners and experienced divers.
3. Bunutan
Along a shallow slop which falls down from five until app. 40 meters you dive with a sometimes in a nice drift. You will discover an eel garden and wonderful coral formations at fife different diving sites here along the bay of Bunutan.
In 28 meters you will find an interesting wall which shows us lots of different hard and soft corals. When we go with the current we can see schools of barracudas, boxfish, puffers, lionfish and whitetip and blacktip reef sharks. The boat will follow the experienced divers while the drift.
4. Japanese Shipwreck
South of Amed in a little bay you will find a small steel and wooden shipwreck. We don’t know anything about the history of this wreck but we can highly recommend this dive site.
The freighter lies in shallow water from 3 until 15 meters. It is wonderful encrusted with colourful Christmas Tree worms, soft corals, gorgonians and black corals. You will see lots of big and small reef fish which have found a home inside the freighter. The rich variety of colourful species makes this dive site so special. Also the area around the boat is rich of species like nudibranches, lobster, barracuda, tuna and lots of colourful reef fishes. Because we will find always a little current in this place a boat will follow the divers and pick them up at the end of the dive. This dive site is also recommended for beginners.
5. Gili Selang
Gili Selang is the most beautiful dive site in Bali and one of the best in the world! But it is not possible to dive here as beginner because you will find in some places a strong rotate up- and down current like in a washing machine. If the conditions are good you will dive in an underwater paradise! We reach the dive site with a traditional Balinese outrigger called jukung. The small island Gili Selang is divided from Bali through an only five meter deep channel.
North of the island is a shallow lagoon where we start our dive. Here you will find a marine life which is virtually untouched. This underwater world offers a rich array of fish and hard and soft coral which you see nowhere else. The lagoon is only 18 meters deep and you will notice similar no current. If you leave the lagoon to dive around the island you find a wall falling down in the deep blue. Sometimes you will find here a very strong up and down current. You should be an experienced diver to stand this washing machine! With a little luck you can see here hammerhead sharks as well.
Not far away from this you can see an old Balinese temple were two other unbelievable wonderful dive sites are absolutely breathtaking because of the colourful coral gardens and a small but very deep wall with lots of living marine life in it.
6. Seraya
North of Amed on the way to Tulamben you find Seraya. We start the dive from the boat. In only fife meters small coral formation and white hydrozoans grow on black lava stones and sponges as well. You will find here a countless number of small marine lives. You will see different kind of colourful nudibranches, different kind of seahorses (like Pygmy Seahorses, Thorny Seahorses or Kuda Seahorse or Ghost Pipefish) and a lot of colourful reef fishes as well. It is a spectacular dive site for mug diving like in Secret Bay or in Monkey Reef! It is highly recommended for underwater photographers!
7. Batu Kelebit
Batu Kelebit is a beautiful place to dive and can be only reached by the traditional Balinese outrigger sailing boats called Jukung. Batu Kelebit is situated between Amed and Tulamben in front of a steep cliff, which offers no way on foot to the sea. If you like dive sites with lots of soft and hard coral, gorgonians, and plenty of macro-scale life, where you can see big animals as well as fantastic underwater structure you will love this place! Here you will find one of the best dive sites of Bali!
Tulamben
The former fishing village Tulamben is located in the northeast of Bali on the main road to Singaraja. It lies about 1 hour from Candi Dasa towards north. On your way to Amed or Tulamben you will have magnificent views over rice fields in beautiful valleys up to the steep mountains. On some lookouts you have a breathtaking view to the Mount Agung. In Tulamben you find some good accommodation for all budgets and a costal reef with the U.S.A.T. Liberty shipwreck. More quite you can stay in the only a few kilometres distant fishing village Amed.
In Tulamben you can dive three dive sites from the shore. Sometimes the waves are a little bit bigger and to entrance the water can be a little more difficult. It is better to ware the dive shoes on the slippery stone beach.
1. U.S.A.T. Liberty Shipwreck
One of the best known dive sites in Bali is the U.S. Liberty. The original freighter was 125 meter long and 16 meter
wide.
The American ship was torpedoed in the Lombok-Street at the 11th of January in 1942 from a Japanese submarine. Because the boat had a load of military charge the crew tries to bring it into the harbour of Singeraja. But it starts to sink faster and faster therefore the crew decided to go ashore in Tulamben. Nobody of the crew was hurt and they safe all the military cargo.
On the beach of Tulamben the steel shipwreck began to rust. The lava of the 1963 erupted volcano Agung brought the ship back into the sea.
You can easily reach the shipwreck from the beach and you can dive around it or into it. Because there is usually no current this dive can be recommend for beginners as well as for experienced divers. In the area of the shipwreck you will have a look on lots of big fish like barracudas, napoleon wrasse, surgeonfish and many other reef fishes which have found a safe home inside the wreck.
The wreck is wonderful encrusted with soft and hard corals. We dive the shipwreck from 3 until 32 meters. The safety stop will be in five meter in an interesting eel garden. We can highly recommend this dive site for snorkelers as well because you can reach the ship from three until five meter under the surface.
2. Tulamben Drop Off
At the south end of the bay of Tulamben we start our dive directly from the shore. When we enter the water from the beach we usually find a really big group of Jackfish. They are swimming in circles and inside you can see
sometimes other fishes looking for protection. In the shallower water several small spurs lead off into the bay. We only swim around the corner of big volcanic rocks and dive down to a wonderful and rich wall. This drop-off is an old lava flow as well. The wall goes down from fifteen meters about seventy. It is a steep, rough and even undercut a bit
what makes this dramatic topography of this beautiful reef. Here you will find impress hard and soft coral formations, huge gorgonians, amazing big sponges and Agropora species. Interesting is the variety of different reef fishes as well. Sometimes we see here a Bumphead parrotfish group. These are amazing fishes. They are huge and with there bumphead they are looking very majestic when they pass by. We will find here and in Jemeluk many different kinds of Angelfishes like king angelfish, emperor angelfish, yellow-mask angelfish, regal angelfish or the blue girdeled angelfish. Colourful as well are all the different kind of
butterfly fishes and all the other reef fishes. Here you can also find the blue stripped snapper.
It is a very easy dive. You only need to have a look on your depth and your buoyancy when you are diving. We will dive against a smooth current and he will bring us back to the place where we have started.
The safety stop will be at the corner of the protected bay in shallow water where you will see lots of fishes in the corals as well.
3. Tulamben Coral Garden
Directly in front of the hotels stretches a shallow slope along the beach down into a coral garden. This coral garden in Tulamben is a perfect place for snorkelling. The coral garden starts in two meters and falls down until app. 15
meters.
In this nice coral garden live lots of reef fishes in spectacular hard and soft corals. Here you can see very pretty blue, yellow and black ribbon moray eels. The blue ones are the females and the black ones are the males which can become 120 cm. You can see here also a lot of different ghost pipefish and box fishes. In a weld fuselage you can see some small and big reef fishes as well.
This dive side is a perfect place for introductory, for beginner and dive refreshing courses. And it is perfect for everybody who takes his time to look for all this huge variety of smaller critters.
4. Kubu / Monkey Reef
North of Tulamben you will find a little fishing village called Kubu. Here you will find two wonderful dive sites which we can enter by the shore. This is one of the most interesting places in Bali to see all the different kinds of hard and soft corals in which lots of small animals have found there home. You can see nudibranch, pygmy seahorses, harlequin shrimps, durban hinge-beak prawns or banded boxer shrimps, etc. Sometimes you can see turtles here and sleeping reef sharks at this beautiful dive place.
Padang Bai
This little ferry harbour is located at the east coast of Bali on the way from Klungkung to Candi Dasa only a few kilometres away from the main road. Padang Bai situated in a beautiful bay with white sand beach and crystal clear gemstone blue water next to the harbour. It is a perfect location for relaxation or walking on pristine white sand beaches, for fishing, snorkelling or diving as well as it is a cultural destination with one of the oldest temples in Bali. Visit the over 1000 years old interesting Silayukti Temple and you will see authentic Balinese ceremonies at this place. The Silayukti Temple is one of the four oldest temples in Bali. The Hindu priests who came from Java to Bali more then 1000 years ago brought the Hinduism to our beautiful island. They started with strong and deep meditation at this place.
If you pass the harbour where you can catch a ferry to Lombok and you go to the north (left) you will visit a little fishing village called Padang Bai.
From here a lot of interesting dive sites can be easily reached by boat. In some of this dive sites it is easy to dive but in others you will need some experience to feel good! Have a look in our descriptions and make your decision.
1. Blue Lagoon (Tanjung Sari)
This varied dive site in the north-east of Padang Bai offers dives for novice divers but the wall is also interesting for experienced divers. It is a very good place to start diving again after a pause. In shallow
water in the depth of three until five meters you can exercise your buoyancy first on a sandy slope and visit afterwards a wonderful wall which is falling down until 30 meters. Here you will notice a variety of healthy hard and soft corals and a lot of smaller critters which tend to stay in more sheltered areas. On this boat dive you can see a lot of gorgonians, shrimps and prawns, sweet lips, perch, scorpion fish, frog fish and the blue and yellow striped ribbon eel and lots of colourful nudibranches. In 20 meters you can visit sometimes sleeping reef sharks and from august to September you can look of Mola mola.
Blue Lagoon is a perfect beach for snorkelling as well and the white sand invites you for relaxation.
2. White Beach (Bias Tugal)
Bias Tugel is one of the most popular beaches with pristine white sand and a couple of small warungs which serve food and drinks. White Beach is located in the south of Padang Bai a perfect place for relaxation and snorkeling as well. But sometimes the waves can be a little bit bigger here. Only a few meters away from the beach we start our boat dive at a pretty drop off falling down into the deep blue. Here you will see a variety of different soft and hard corals. In the depth area you will see lots of gorgonians which are the home of tinny little pigmy-seahorses and you will look of ghostpipefish, scorpionfish, batfish, nudibranches etc. It is a good place to see Mola mola from august to September as well.
3. Padang Bai Chanel
Only 100 metres away from the beach this dive site starts near the harbour where you will visit a beautiful drop off with little caves inside. Sometimes you can see sharks, turtles and Stingrays and Mola mola as well from august to september.
4. Gili Biaha („Shark Cave“)
This is a dive site for experienced divers! At this dive side the conditions can vary quite dramatically. Depending on the waves and currents which can be strong and unpredictable some days this dive site
can be easy or quite difficult sometimes. The currents can be like a washing machine. When we arrive with the boat at this place we can watch this. On the island is a Blow-hole. If the conditions are fine the water is quiet. If the waves are high water will be pressed into the cave which is located app. seven meters under the surface. In this time it is impossible to dive here. In the cave you can look of sleeping white-tip reef sharks. The cave is big enough that some divers can swim together into it. If the conditions for the dive are fine the boat will follow us along a nice wall falling down into the deep blue.
5. Mimpang / Batu Tiga
At this dive site we start at a slope and follow until we find a nice drop off than. This drop off is rich of
hard and soft coral species and colourful fishes. You will see huge gorgonians and sometimes reef sharks cross our way. You can watch big schools of different fishes and it is hard to identify all the different animals you can see on this dive site. Sometimes the current can be a little bit stronger but you will know at this place where it comes from. Only at the end of the dive you should be a little bit more careful because at the end of the wall you find a down current which can bring you 40 meters down if you don’t care.
6. Tepekong (Island of the goat)
The small - only 50 meter long - island is surrounded by deep blue water.
We start our dive in a canyon. Dense hard and soft coral colonies are growing on big basalt stone blocks. Huge groups of fishes will swim around us and with a little luck you will see reef sharks as well as moonfishes.
This dive site can be the same like in Gili Biaha. Therefore we can recommend this place only for experienced divers! At the wall on the east side you can find sometimes strong down currents which can make this dive difficult as well.
Menjangan
In the north-west of Bali you will find this beautiful 1, 5 km long and only 500 meter spread out island called Menjangan which belongs to the Bali Barat National park and it is one of the most protected dive sites in Bali. The National Park Office limits the number of visitors who are allowed to dive here. The dive sites belong to an underwater protected area. Fishing is forbidden and therefore we have a good chance to see also big fish. You will find here the best coral formations and reefs in Indonesia! This dive site is one of the best in the world! Australian Biologists have count here only 46 different kinds of Agropora species.
We start opposite the island from the national park office in small wooden vessels. The island is only 30 minutes away from the main land.
On the island you find a bird sanctuary and the oldest temple in Bali where the Balinese Hindu people are celebrating there full-moon ceremonies.
You can dive Menjangan any time of the year because the island is situated protected enough to provide good diving even during the rainy season. You can
choose your dive side on the north or the south depending on the soft current and the direction of the wind. The visibility at Menjangan is one of the best in Bali and reaches sometimes 50 meters! It is possible to dive all around the island at more than ten different dive sites. And also if there are plenty of different dive sites around Menjangan the best area is stretch along the
southeast coast of the island and from the northwest down into the channel between Menjangan and the main land. Our favourite dive place is Pos Dua and Garden Eal. At the drop off the nooks and crannies are rich. You find huge gorgonians and beautiful little paccagnella´s. You see hundreds of angelfish, butterfly fish, anthias, gobies you will see all the different reef fish swimming here! Quite often you can see turtles here as well. If you are lucky you can find here also whale sharks and moon fish but also if you don’t see them it is one of the best dive sides in Bali!
The National park office offers some guided walks through the rainforest of the National Park of Bali Barat.
Nusa Penida, Nusa Caningan und Nusa Lembongan
These islands are located in the southeast of Bali in the Lombok Strait between Lombok and Bali. Nusa Penida is the largest of the small islands. To the northwest lie two smaller islands called Nusa Ceningan and Nusa Lembongan. Bali and Lombok are separated through a deep water ditch. This line is also a geographical border called Wallace-Line. Therefore Bali and Lombok show a different flora and fauna. One is more in Asian and the other is more in Australian influence. It was impossible for the plants and animals to cross this geographical border because in this Strait water is exchanged between the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. Measurement shows an annual mean transport of around 1.7 million cubic meter water per second. This means in the end you will find here a very strong current! Most of these dives are not for beginners! Here you will find often very strong and unpredictable currents and undertows. The underwater world is very rich of species and you will find them in huge numbers because with all the cold and fresh water comes also plenty of nutrient to feed all this numbers of animals. The visibility is absolutely clear and the sight is more than 30 meters. The dives will be around the high tide because then the currents are smoother.
You will find here some really remarkable animals - the Mola Mola sunfish as well as large pelagic fish such as tunas, rays, manta rays, different kind of mackerels and sharks (even grey reef sharks, white-tip sharks) or turtles in pristine hard coral reefs.
All dive sites are steep slopes or walls which go down very deep. If you want to have an impression of the currents in this area have a look an this satellite maps from the University of Hamburg:
http://www.ifm.uni-hamburg.de/ers-sar/Sdata/oceanic/intwaves/lombok/index.htmlNusa Penida is a dive site to be conservative because of the strong currents! Always stay close to the reef! In difficult dive sites we will go only with one customer for one dive guide. Listen to the advice of your dive operator and the boat skipper, and always stay near with your group than the conditions are, if not easy, at least manageable.
Nusa Penida
Nusa Penida is the largest of the three islands and shows many interesting dive sites. Do you want to see a Manta Ray? You will have a very good chance because there is a Manta cleaning-station at the south of the island. From July to September you can have the fortune to see sunfish (Mola mola). Mola molas belong to the family of Puffers and reach a size of three meters. Therefore they are the biggest bony fishes on the earth. In Padang Bai and here are the only places in the world where you can see them regular from July until September. Usually they live in the deep blue. Here in Bali are some cleaning-stations where the sunfish get clean by banner fishes. In spite of there huge size sunfish have only a tiny little mouth to suck for example jellyfish.
1. Crystal Bay
Nusa Penida´s Crystal Bay is part of the Ceningan Channel which divides Nusa Penida from Nusa Ceningan. Outside of the bay there is a strong current
because the water which flow down the Lombok Strait has to pass this Channel between Nusa Penida and Nusa Ceningan. Inside of the bay you will dive in sparkling clear water protected from the current and it is possible to go snorkelling as well or relaxing at the white sand beach of this beautiful bay. The visibility here is very good! At the wall you can see sunfish cleaning station where Mola molas get cleaned by groups of banner fishes. But you can see so much more marine life at this place like sharks and eagle rays or large school of glassfish as well as redtooth trigger fishes, schooling banner fishes, doctor fishes, anthias, and angelfishes everywhere.
Approximately ten meters under the surface you will find the entrance to an underwater cave. Inside the cave there is a hole where you can see the sky and on the ceiling of this cave bats are sleeping.
2. Gamat Bay
The conditions of this dive site are nearly the same like in Crystal Bay. Gamat Bay is located between Crystal Bay and Toyapakeh. Inside the small Bay in some shallower areas you will find similar no current. Here it is possible to snorkel between nice coral formations, mantis shrimps, leaf fishes, nudibranches and dragonets. If you swim to the corner of the bay the protection ends and you will start a drift dive along a beautiful wall where the boat will follow the dive group. Here you can see eagle rays and sharks and sunfish.
3.Toyapakeh
This little bay is located at the beginning of the Ceningan Channel in the northwest of Nusa Penida
where the ferries from Bali arrive. This little Bay is partially protected from the strong current flowing through this small channel. You will find the same conditions in this Bay like in the other ones in the Ceningan Channel. You will see pretty hard and soft coral formations like gorgonians, huge table corals and pillars. Big group of fish can be seen as well as sunfish and sharks. South of the bay where the Ceningan channel begins there is a beautiful wall with rocky overhangs and caves. If the current is not to strong and the waves not so big we can do a nice drift dive along the wall.
4.SD (Sekolah Desar)
At the top in the north of Nusa Penida you find the dive sites Sekolah Desar (SD), Sental, Ped and Sampalan. At this point all the water which flow down from the Pacific meets the cost of the small island and divides. Some water flow down the west coast into the Ceningan Channel and some flow to the east side. The conditions you can expect are fast currents which sometimes change there direction.
Try to stay together in your group but this can be difficult and the distances covered during the drift
dive can be amazing and your air bubbles will rise behind, in front, below and in whirls around you. It is a wild ride! And only possible for experienced divers, good dive guides and very good skippers.
These dive sites are steep slopes and walls covered with corals and sponges. The best dive site is probably SD. It is possible to see large pelagics like manta rays, white tip and black tip shark, barracuda, tuna, sun fish or even very rare whale sharks!
Manta Point
The conditions at the southeast cost of Nusa Penida can be quite rough. The coastline is wild with divided high and white limestone rocks and high waves tossing against it. The conditions do not allow diving here all the time. Depending on the large waves crashing against the high cliffs we can sometimes not reach this dive site all the time. We dive in two bays which are a little bit more protected. Because of the high waves you will find nearly no corals here. The only reason to dive this site is to have a look at the mantas! The cleaning station operating with huge groups of wrasses can be found in four until twelve meters. Therefore it is not necessary to dive deep the mantas are gathering around this shallow cleaning station and we can wait for them. These huge animals with a span of seven meters seem to arrive out of the deep blue. It looks like they are flying under the water. In the time when they will be cleaned you can carefully swim closer to them. Diving with these huge animals is an amazing feeling!
Nusa Lembogan: Blue Corner (Ental Point)
Depending on the tide the dive conditions can change at this dive site at the northwest corner of Nusa Lembogan very fast. Therefore this dive site can be only strongly recommended for experienced divers. Refer to the other dive sites you should dive here at the time around the high tide as well to avoid the strong current. Sometimes you will say after the dive this dive side is the greatest I have ever seen or you will say outright boring or dangerous, depending on the current you will find. But if there is no current at all large animals are rare. And if the swell getting up from the south with big waves the visibility can be very bad. But if all conditions are good this is one of the best dive sites in Bali. You will dive at this dive site for a longer time at 30 meters into a wide canyon. Therefore you will need a dive computer. You will follow a steep slope with overhangs and outcroppings. When we start our dive we will first try to hide behind some of these outcroppings or overhangs to protect ourselves against the current. Some of the big fish will do the same. If we are lucky we will see manta rays and banner fish as a sunfish cleaning station.
The wall providing a home to thousands of marine animals, hard and soft corals, sponges, colorful reef fishes and other reef animals like angler fish, sea horses and many species of different nudibranches.
Between the wreck and the wall you find the coral garden with lots of hard and soft corals, reef fishes, leave fishes, ghost pipe fishes, imperator fishes and sometimes a reef shark is hunting for fish here.
Do not take or buy any marine products from the Indonesia ocean. The animals are important for the sensitive ecological balance of the reef and the health of the nutrient-poor reef system.
