Bali - Scuba & Culture

The island of Bali is known for its lush rice terraces, rugged mountains, forests, coconut plantations and sandy beaches as well as the abundance of varied marine life below the surface of this stunning island. Thousands of temples have been built throughout the island, all playing a major part in the lives of the deeply spiritual people.

Because Bali is a destination that offers so much more than just world class diving we have tailored our guided land based safaris to include the best of everything it has to offer with our 12 or 7 night safari packages.

Whilst geographically a small island, Bali offers a very diverse range of diving. From tiny pygmy seahorses to the world famous military USAT Liberty wreck and giant ocean roamers, the marine life around Bali is simply breathtaking.

Climate

Lying just 8 Degrees South of the equator, Bali enjoys a tropical climate. The average temperature hovers around 30°C all year round. The wet season usually starts middle November to middle of March, leaving most of its tropical downpours for the Months January & February. Although diveable year round, the dry season (middle March till Middle November) is generally sunnier, less humid and from a weather point view, the coolest and best time to visit.

Water and Air Temperatures

The water temperature varies from site to site and is generally set between 24°C and 28°C (75F and 82F), an eventual drop to 22°C can be encountered at open ocean dives where we dive to spot ocean giants like Manta & Mola Mola (Oceanic Sun Fish).
We recommend a 5mm wetsuit.

Opening times and seasonality

In order to offer you the best possible service and diving, we organize all safaris at a set schedule. Nearly all dive safaris are organized during the dry season where we can enjoy Bali at its best.

Dive Sites

The Island of Bali is situated on the Wallace borderline, where transition from the Asian wildlife and flora is made into the Pacific Island biotope. Bali is virtually the southernmost island with specific Asian flora and fauna and with very few influences from the pacific. All of this creates the opportunity to encounter exotic birds to macaque monkeys on land and down below from the tinniest shrimp to the ocean roaming giants, the Mola Mola (Oceanic Sunfish) and Manta Rays.

Below you find a selection of dive sites visited during the safari:



Menjangan Island is within the National Bali Barat (National Park) and is known for pristine coral gardens and dramatic walls with gorgonian fans and teeming fish life cruising the reefs.

At certain sites here we can encounter up to three different kinds of garden eels. Diving here is pretty easy, however the currents can make the dive a bit sporty, therefore most of the diving we do here is done as drift dives.

• Dive sites: Over 20 dive sites
• Type of diving: Wall/ Drift/ Slope/ Reef
• Visibility: +/- 25m
• Current: none to mild
• Depths: 2 to 40m.
• Min. Level: OWD/ 1* CMAS
• Non Diving: Suitable for snorkelling
• Fauna: lots of soft coral, Gorgonian fans, Sponges, Large snapper, spotted Trevally and occasionally reef sharks
• Highlights: Offers the best wall dives on the Island
• Conditions: calm surface condition with occasional currents (Boat dive)

Gilimanuk is also known as "Secret Bay" and as the name suggests, this is where we look for the bay's "secret" critters on black volcanic sand! Don't let the term "Muck diving "put you off as this place is fantastic for spotting rare and unusual critters and in the shallow patches of sea grass we can find well camouflaged Thorny Seahorses, Dragon Sea moth, Ghost Pipefish, Nudibranchs, Mimic octopus and even the Ambon Scorpion fish.

Diving at "Secret Bay" is from a beach entrance, another top diving spot during your journey bringing you to the shallow depths of the black sand.

• Dive sites: 4 dive sites
• Type of diving: Muck/ shallow/ Sea grass
• Visibility: 5 to 15m
• Current: Tidal current
• Depths: 2 to 10m
• Min. Level: OWD
• Non Diving:
• Fauna: Macro heaven, critters, gobies, sea horses, frogfishes (up to 5 different species)
• Highlights: Amazing critter diving
• Conditions: close adherence to tidal chart required, calm surface conditions and tidal water movement

Tulamben is famous for the wreck of the USAT Liberty, a United States Army Transport Ship that was built during WWI and torpedoed during WWII by a Japanese Submarine at the Lombok Straight in the early morning of January 11th, 1942. The ship was then towed towards Singaraja but could only make it to Tulamben, where the vessel was beached to keep it from sinking.

Due to the 1963 eruption of Mount Agung, the ship rolled of the beach and sank to shallow depths, she now lays about 40m of the coast and reaches depths of about 6 to 30m, an easy dive in -most of the time- calm conditions. Due to her size of 120m from bow to stern, one can easily make a couple of dives exploring this majestic combination of history and wreck/reef and still haven't seen it all. Next to the USAT Liberty lays the drop off, a dramatic wall formed by volcanic lava covered by corals, teeming with vibrant reef life and at times large schools of Barracuda can be spotted of the drop offs edge, out into the blue. A dive that should not be missed!

Amed covers some very interesting reef structures, with its well known Bayuning (The Japanese wreck), reachable by a beach entrance that takes you over black stones to a sandy patch where this small steel Japanese freighter lays in the shallows of about 6 metres depth. The wreck is covered in beautiful gorgonian fans and bushes of black coral. Further down awaits a stunning reef for you to be discovered. In the shallows, the many stag horn corals provide a safe haven for thousands of small reef fish which makes it the 'place to be' for Jackfish trying out their hunting skills whilst sheering over the reef tops.

Diving Tulamben & Amed

• Dive sites: Over 10 dive sites
• Type of diving: Wall/ Wreck/ Slope/ Reef
• Visibility: +/- 20m
• Current: none to mild
• Depths: 2 to 40m.
• Min. Level: OWD/ 1* CMAS
• Non Diving: Suitable for snorkelling
• Fauna: lots of soft coral, critters, pygmee seahorses, occasional Pelagics.
• Highlights: Stunning 120m long Wreck (USAT Liberty)
• Conditions: calm surface condition with occasional currents.

USAT Liberty

• Type of diving: Wreck/ Reef
• Visibility: +/- 25m
• Current: zero to mild (Always sheltered areas on the wreck)
• Depths: 9 to 30m
• Min. Level: OWD
• Highlights: The USAT Liberty Wreck, abundance of soft corals, amazing fish life, surgeon fish, snappers, fusiliers, mantis shrimp.
• Conditions: usually calm surface conditions, currents can sweep through the wreck, extra attention required not to harm its fragile fauna & flora.

Jemuluk is another fantastic dive, we access this site by colourful Jukung (a Local out rigger) and a 5 minute boat ride brings you to a gentle slope that bring you to depths of about 20/30m and from there dramatically drops to greater depths. The deep slopes are rich with black coral and sponges and the gorgonian fans boost a large amount of vivid reef fish. Let the current take you on a gentle drift over this fantastic scenery and its beauty.

Diving Candidasa & Padangbai:

• Dive sites: Over 10 dive sites
• Type of diving: Wall/ Slope/ Reef/ Boat
• Visibility: +/- 20m
• Current: mild to strong
• Depths: 2 to 40m.
• Min. Level: OWD/ 1* CMAS
• Non Diving: Suitable for snorkelling
• Fauna: lots of soft coral, critters and occasional Pelagic.
• Highlights: Dramatic walls & Pelagic encounters, Mola Mola during season
• Conditions: depending on site, normally calm to wavy

Nusa Penida: a popular dive to be made here is called "Manta Point", and you can guess the main attraction! This site is famous for being a cleaning station where those big ocean roamers come and get a cleaning session. 95% of the year graceful Manta's are spotted here at very close encounters, the site is rich on reef fish but due to its exposure to the big Indian Ocean swells, not too much coral growth is present here. We make this dive by speedboat and -due to its exposure- is weather dependent.

Crystal Bay, another interesting place is placed in the channel between Ceningan and Nusa Penida. This bay offers great shelter for the boats to be moored up and this is where we search for the fascinating and mysterious Mola Mola (Ocean Sunfish). This pelagic giant is mostly seen during the months August - October depending on the ocean currents that bring the colder waters up to the surface. The Mola Mola comes to visit the cleaning stations to remove itself from parasites encrusting its giant moonlike body shape.

Diving Nusa Penida & Lembongan:

• Dive sites: Over 15 dive sites
• Type of diving: Wall/ Slope/ Reef/ Boat
• Visibility: +/- 20m
• Current: mild to strong
• Depths: 2 to 40m.
• Min. Level: OWD/ 1* CMAS
• Non Diving: Suitable for snorkelling
• Fauna: lots of soft coral, critters and occasional Pelagic.
• Conditions: calm surface condition with occasional currents.