CLASSIC MENJANGAN
My tour kicks off at Menjangan
Island in the northwest. The
morning sun is already hot, and I am
glad to backroll off the wooden dive
boat into the refreshing water. We’re
at a site called
Eel Garden
, and I am
blown away. I surface, babbling that
it is the most beautiful dive I can
remember doing in years. The water
is blue, and in the strong sunlight the
reef wall and shallow bommies that
sprout from the sandy slope are as
colorful an underwater scene as I’ve
seen anywhere. I ramble on and on,
boring anyone who will listen.
The reef buzzed with small fish,
and schools of larger yellow and
blue fusiliers swept past in the blue.
We were treated to encounters with
reef sharks, Napoleon wrasses, leaf
scorpionfish and pygmy seahorses.
There is always something magical
about the first dive of a trip.
The second dive is less spectacular
because the visibility has dropped,
but the site, called
Pos 2
, has great
scenery with craggy, vertical walls
that are plastered with reef fish and
other life. The dive guide finds a
pretty group of ghost pipefish that
leaves me wishing I had a macro
lens. We eat our pack lunch on the
island’s beach and then head for
home, making our third dive on the
reefs just offshore from the hotel.
My guide explains that this is the
normal itinerary, as the wind and
sea usually pick up in the afternoon.
The coastal reef is decent and full of
life, but it’s a step down in quality
from Menjangan.
I am staying in a resort in
Pemuteran for the first few nights
as I make a clockwise road trip
around the island. Getting the
most out of diving in Bali requires
a little effort as the best dive sites
are spread around the coast.
Everything is here, but it can take
a bit of initiative to find it. I liken
it to shopping on the High Street
as opposed to a large superstore
— an homage to my British roots.
While this diamond-shaped island
is smaller than Delaware, the
twisty, motorbike-packed roads
and mountainous terrain make it
just a little too time-consuming to
explore thoroughly in day trips.
The best solution is to split your
stay between two or three different
hotels. Bali has many elegant
boutique hotels, and sampling more
than one will enrich your visit. This
approach will also put you within
easy striking distance of different
dive sites. If this sounds like too
much of an organizational chore,
many of Bali’s leading operators will
organize a road trip for you. You
may pay a bit more, but they will
take care of the details.
On this trip I have picked two
hotels, one in Pemuteran in the
northwest and one in Tulamben in
the northeast. Tulamben is Bali’s
most popular dive spot and offers
very easy access to a host of sites
along the north coast, including
the celebrated
Liberty Wreck
,
Seraya
and
Amed
. Pemuteran
is best known for its interesting
shore dive, where coral growth is
promoted on metal frames that
are charged with a mild electric
current. It is a good base camp for
boat trips to Menjangan Island
or 40-minute car journeys to two
critter-rich bays:
Gilimanuk
and
Puri Jati
, both firm favorites with
underwater photographers.
KEEP A SECRET
By now you may have noticed
that the Balinese language is often
challenging for English-speakers,
so Gilimanuk Bay is better known
as
Secret Bay
. It’s a shallow inlet
off the narrow strait between Bali
and Java. Its sheltered waters look
inviting but can be shockingly cold
some days — 10 to 15 degrees colder
than the waters around Menjangan
Island less than 10 miles away.
But the cold water, upwelled as
the ocean is funneled through the
two-mile-wide strait, is part of the
reason for the strange creatures
that abound here. Secret Bay has a
reputation for revealing species that
have eluded even the most dedicated
underwater photographers for years.
I recommend taking an extra layer
of neoprene, though, as excitement
can counter only so much thermal
deprivation.
We kit up on benches on the beach
and wade out into the shallows. The
water is cool, but I still rack up three
90-minute dives — there is just too
much to aimmy camera at, and it is
easy to get warm luxuriating in the
sun on the beach. The underwater
scenery is bland, but the sea life
is interesting; highlights include
seahorses, dragonets, striped catfish,
tozeuma shrimp, Banggai cardinalfish,
cuttlefish and a handful of large,
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WINTER 2014
