Diving in Southeast Asia. David Espinosa
of craggy black walls with beautiful healthy corals and often superb visibility.
You must have a guide who has a great deal of experience in the area. While the sites may be diveable, they are small, and if the current is too fast your dive may be finished in only five minutes.
Padang Bai features white sand beaches and, of course, the famous Blue Lagoon.
BLUE LAGOON
Accessed usually by small jukung from nearby Candidasa or Padang Bai, sites here are worth the ride. While the topography is not spectacular, the variety of fish and critter life can be amazing. On any one dive, expect stonefish, moray and blue ribbon eels, nudibranchs, rays, squid and octopus and leaf scorpionfish in every hue. On lucky days, Napoleon wrasse and reef sharks are also possible.
This is a site used for courses and snorkelers because visibility in the protected bay is typically 15–20 meters. When timed correctly, conditions can be undemanding.
MIMPANG
Also known as Batu Tiga (Three Rocks), the site is part of a north–south ridge, with the richer south end (Shark Point) dropping into deeper water. Shark Point offers one of the best chances in Bali to see white tip sharks and, from August through October, the oceanic sunfish (mola mola).
The topography of Mimpang is diverse, with sloping reefs, craggy rocks and walls, all covered in hard and soft corals and gorgonians. Big schools of unicorn-fish and snappers, many blue spotted rays, Napoleon wrasse, moray eels, trumpetfish, bannerfish, butterflyfish and triggerfish swarm here.
Hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricate) are an endangered species but are still the most commonly encountered turtle species around Bali.
TEPEKONG AND THE CANYON
This island offers some of Bali’s most spectacular diving: steep walls, The Canyon, cold water and strong currents make this a site for experienced divers. The visibility is very good.
Maximum depth at The Canyon is 40 meters, and if there is no current you can see the dramatic beauty of these stunning walls. However, in the usually swirling current, your view is somewhat obstructed by the schools of sweetlips, snapper and big eyed trevally, bumphead parrotfish, unicornfish, batfish, groupers and possible sharks and other pelagics.
EAST TEPEKONG
Enter on the right and there is an excellent wall, which plunges to depths of 40 plus meters. To the left there is a small coral reef (max. depth 24 meters) with hard, soft and table corals. The marine life is outstanding, with the occasional turtle, tuna, parrotfish, barracuda, angel-fish, scorpionfish and several species of triggerfish. Conditions are generally less difficult here than at the Canyon.
BIAHA
This crescent-shaped rocky island is 4 km from Mimpang and Tepekong and is usually a site for experienced divers. The diving is superb although both the surge and up/down currents can be very strong. Most of the awkward currents are on the northern slope.
There is a beautiful reef around the island, a rocky slope in the north, and a wall in the south, which has waves breaking from above. The inner area of the crescent, on the east side, has a cave where white tip sharks sometimes sleep.
GILI SELANG
To the northeast, the island of Gili Selang features, like all of the exposed sites on the east coast, ripping currents, suitable only for expert divers. However, take the plunge here and be rewarded with a healthy reef slope.
—Annabel Thomas/Sarah Ann Wormald
Secret Bay, Gilimanuk
Much Ado about Something
Access 1 minute shore entry
Current 3–5 meters
Reef type Non-existent to light
Highlights None
Visibility Chocolate-colored sand; lots of garbage
Coral Excellent, for muck divers. Exotic and bizarre
Fish Bobbitt worms, seahorses, frogfish and so much more!
Gilimanuk is one of Bali’s quieter dive spots, but despite its relatively remote location it offers some of Bali’s most interesting diving. Secret Bay in Gilimanuk in northwest Bali is about 2 km across and very shallow, much of it less than 5 meters deep. A reef north of the bay’s mouth makes the opening even narrower than it appears on a land map, and creates a channel that sweeps in and hooks around two islands in the bay’s center. This strong flow, with reported speeds of up to 7 knots, through the strait is what makes the diving in Gilimanuk so interesting. The bay becomes a kind of refugium, a catch tank for larval fish and plankton.
This bay harbors a number of rare jewels for the macro photographer, including odd gobies and dragonets, and such rarities as the juvenile Batavia batfish, a beauty with zebra stripes and ragged fins that seems to want to make itself look like a crinoid.
MACRO HEAVEN IS MIGHTY MUCK
Gilimanuk is not a dive for everyone. Nowhere will you find a sounding of 15 meters or rich stands of coral and abundant reef fish. Secret Bay is a specialty site for photographers and for divers who are looking for something a little different. Secret Bay is best dived during a stay in Pemuteran as most Pemuteran-based dive centers offer day trips here. This caters to divers in both Gilimanuk and around Pemuteran and Menjangan. Trips are also available through the major operators in Sanur and the south of Bali but they usually require a minimum number of divers and an overnight stopover.
Secret Bay is home to many critters, including the hispid frogfish. This one is showing its pompom lure.
When diving north Bali, check every anemone for anemone shrimps and porcelain crabs.
Bali is home to numerous species of lionfish, including Pterois kodipungi, pictured here at Secret Bay.
“I [David Espinosa] wasn’t quite sure what to expect of my first dive at Secret Bay. The wall of fame in the dive center was eye opening, with pictures of multi-colored frogfish, juvenile batfish, seahorses and the bizarre Bobbitt worm, but reports I’d heard from diving friends were mixed.
The first thing that struck me was the water’s temperature. I had been warned by friends that the waters in Secret Bay could be as cold as 22° C. Though the divemaster mentioned that the temperatures are in a constant state of flux, I was overdressed in a 5mm wetsuit.
I also wasn’t prepared for the nondescript landscape. The sand in Tulamben or Amed is broken by strands of coral here and there, but in Secret Bay it is colorless and featureless, and no deeper than 9 meters. The mud-colored sand wasn’t broken by so much as a coral head, though there were various bits and pieces of trash—empty cans and bottles, chip wrappers, strands of rope, entire trees, old anchors and chains and barrels.
It was on one of these rusted barrels that we uncovered our first significant find, for hiding on the inner lip of this rusted hulk the divemaster Made found a family of six red ornate ghost pipefish! After the obligatory cries of surprise, we shot our pictures and moved on.
A few feet away, hiding in a tin can, was a curious little goby being cleaned by a small orange shrimp. Inches to the left a dwarf lionfish took refuge in an empty pipe. When I looked up, Made was missing, off somewhere in the murk—visibility rarely tops 5 meters—hooting up a storm to indicate that