Dive Sites: Padangbai & Candidasa

Posted on June 7, 2024June 7, 2024 by Annabel Thomas

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Padangbai and Candidasa Dive Sites: Reef & Muck Diving and Unique Marinelife

Amuk Bay – with Padangbai to the south and Candidasa at the north – has some of Bali’s best dive sites and may be Bali’s premier location for sharks.

The Blue Lagoon area, just outside Padangbai, is a treasure-trove of marinelife that includes reef sharks, rhinopias, cuttlefish, Leaf scorpionfish, frogfish, lionfish, nudibranchs and a huge area of Staghorn coral. The area also offers excellent night-diving with Cat sharks, Spanishdancers, crustaceans, basketstars and hunting cephalopods to be found.

Mimpang is the name given to three rock pinnacles that break the surface. The southern, deeper end offers a spectacular wall with profuse corals, many fish and the opportunity to see pelagics. There are often thermoclines around 20m.

The breath-taking diving at Tepekong, a 300m long rock, is for experienced divers only due to the steep walls, cold water and (often strong) currents. In Tepekong’s famous ‘Canyon’, with its swirling waters and dramatic, craggy walls, we see schooling fish such as sweetlips, possibly Mola-Mola (Ocean sunfish) in season, White-tip reef sharks and turtles.

Biaha, a little to the north, offers some of Bali’s most stunning diving (it’s my favourite site). Here you can see a wonderful mixture of fish, sharks and frequent pelagic visitors set against a backdrop of chiselled black walls with beautiful, healthy corals and often superb visibility. Inside Biaha’s cave you can find anything from Nembrotha nudibranchs to sleeping White-tip reef sharks. Biaha is best dived at slack high tide and can be quite surgy.

It is essential your Dive Guide has extensive experience at Mimpang, Tepekong and Biaha because not only can conditions change without warning – both up and down currents are quite common.

Dive Site: Tulamben Bay

Posted on May 3, 2024May 4, 2024 by Annabel Thomas

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Tulamben Bay: A Dive Site for Everyone

The small village of Tulamben, famous for both its black volcanic sand and the 120m USAT Liberty shipwreck, is quite rightly Bali’s most popular diving location. Tulamben is also the place in Bali where you are most likely to see internationally-recognised underwater photographers and journalists.

Tulamben Bay, like the rest of Bali, is situated in the world’s richest marine biogeographic zone: the Indo-Pacific. Due to Tulamben’s location on Bali’s north east coast, the Indonesian Throughflow (the major ocean current that moves from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean) supplies the bay with very plankton-rich waters.

This, together with the different physical environments within the bay, gives Tulamben a remarkably diverse underwater ecosystem.

Popular Tulamben Bay Dive Sites

The 120m USAT Liberty shipwreck lies 20m offshore in depths of 5-30M, and is completely encrusted with hard and soft corals. The extraordinarily dense marinelife includes Clown frogfish (juvenile and adult), Bumphead parrotfish, a huge school of Big-eyed trevally, Leaf scorpionfish, and various pygmy seahorses. Wonderpus and Mimic octopus can be seen on early morning dives. The Wreck offers magical night diving with flashlightfish, Spanish dancers and cephalopods.

The Coral Garden, which runs eastwards from the USAT Liberty shipwreck, provides wonderful shallow dives where you’re limited by air supply rather than bottom time. You can expect to see a wide selection of marinelife from Thecacera nudibranchs, Harlequin shrimps and Boxer crabs, to frogfish and Ribbon eels in all stages of development.

On The Wall/Drop-off you will find a wide variety of sponges, hard and soft corals, and Gorgonian seafans (one of 3m diameter) – while the larger marinelife includes reef sharks, with occasional sightings of Whalesharks and Mola-Mola. During the rainy season (Dec-March) the reef flats can receive some run-off but continue to yield surprises.

Being shore entry, Tulamben is also great for snorkelling and Discover Scuba Diving. Please note Tulamben has a stony, rather than sandy, beach.

Slightly north of Tulamben is Kubu, home of Bali’s newest shipwreck. Kubu reef has Gorgonian seafans, bommies with soft corals, scores of nudibranchs, and generally calm conditions.

Taking a local outrigger five minutes east of Tulamben Bay brings you to the sites of Palung-Palung/Alamanda, Batu Kelebit and Emerald Point. Within the Tulamben area, these are the sites where you are most likely to see pelagics including, on rare occasions, dolphins.

Dive Site: Amed

Posted on April 5, 2024April 5, 2024 by Annabel Thomas

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Dive Site Amed: A Little Known Treasure

Amed, the village, is located on the north east coast of Bali. Amed was traditionally dependent on salt-panning and fishing. Despite the arrival of tourists, Amed has retained the feeling of making it a place where people stay for weeks at a time.

Amed area is quiet with a lovely scenery. It makes a great location for 1 Day Bali Dive Trips. Conditions here, from the sandy shore or using an outrigger boat, are easy, with good visibility.

The dive sites actually stretch along the coast from Amed village (muck site) to Jemeluk and Bunutan, and beyond to Lipah Bay (Japanese Wreck site). Access to the various Amed dive sites is either from the shore or by jukung (local boat).

Popular Dive Sites in Amed

Popular sites in the area include Bunutan Point, the Japanese Wreck and Gili Selang.

Amed Reef (depth 12-22m), with many different kinds of sponges and Gorgonian seafans, is home to marinelife that includes lobsters, shrimp and goby sets, Blue-spotted rays, pygmy seahorses, and schools of fish from anthias to barracuda.

White-tip reef sharks, Napoleon wrasse, Giant trevally and large schools of bannerfish, snapper, and fusilier can be found at Amed Wall (10-35m). The deep slope after the wall is rich in invertebrates with crinoids and commensals.

Bunutan Point (18-25m) starts with a gentle sandy slope which often has many different nudibranchs and other macro critters. Visibility is usually good although sometimes there are thermoclines.

Lipah Bay (3km south east of Amed), a small black sand bay, is home to The Japanese Wreck, a 20m steel freighter wreck (5-15m) that is encrusted with sponges, Gorgonian seafans and coral bushes, and inhabited by anthias, parrotfish and angelfish. The deeper slope has interesting seafans and is often dotted with a wide variety of nudibranchs.

The small island of Gili Selang on Bali’s eastern point has some protected areas with big bommies and low-lying, healthy corals where you may see White-tip reef sharks, Napoleon wrasse, nudibranchs and pygmy seahorses. The more exposed areas may have strong currents but can provide the opportunity to see large pelagics. Gili Selang can also be reached by fast boat from Padangbai.