EDITORIAL

On Bali (By Chris Cunnold)

A handful of us recently did a week of diving at Tulamben in the North East of Bali. Tulamben has become Bali’s most popular diving destination due the WWII transport ship USAT Liberty being wrecked just off the shore here.

We stayed at Tulamben Wreck Divers which is right in the middle of the village and has the advantage of being only 200 metres from the wreck dive. The accommodation here is great, with lush gardens and a lovely swimming pool and the apartments are large, clean and are air-conditioned. Tulamben Wreck Divers is owned by Australians Tony and Dot Medcraft formerly of Exmouth dive.

The first couple of days diving were a bit slow, we only dived the wreck as we had also arranged for each of us to do a half day underwater photography course with Jeff Mullins from Reef, Wreck and Critter Dive Tours. Jeff and Dawn are also West Aussies who spend most of their time in Tulamben leading dive tours and conducting photography courses. Because one of us was always up at Jeff’s house we couldn’t cram in all the dives we would have liked in the first two days but it was well worth it as the results of Jeff’s tuition on our underwater images is incredible.

Inside the Liberty Wreck

The USAT Liberty was built in 1918 and was being used as a transport ship during WWII when it was torpedoed in the Lombok Straight. Under tow, she was limping toward Java when it became impossible to keep her afloat so she was run aground at Tulamben. From 1944 she sat on the shore until in 1963 when Mount Agung erupted just behind Tulamben and the ship slipped off the shore into the water. She is 120 metres long and lies parallel to the shore and after you scramble and then swim across the vast area of rounded volcanic rocks you encounter her at 5 metres and on down to 30 metres plus.

Despite the rounded rocks, all the shore diving here is really easy. Your gear is carried to the water’s edge by a porter and far from the commando style shore entries sometimes needed in Perth; in Tulamben you just walk in to the water.

Early morning dives are best at the wreck so that you miss the hoards of ‘once a year’ divers who travel up from Kuta by bus. Twilight and night dives are pretty special as you usually have the wreck to yourself.

This wreck is unique as normally a dive of this type would be in deep water & involve major logistical planning. Here you just slip in to 28 degree water and see everything from the smallest nudibranchs, crabs and shrimps, to the beautiful soft and hard corals and large pelagic fishes such as Tuna, Barracuda and Bumphead Wrasse. It is also home to smooth Pygmy Seahorses which you find at around 27 metres on Gorgonian Fan Corals. The wreck was one of our favourites.  We ended up doing five dives on the Liberty during our week stay.

The other two dives sites that are close the village are the Coral Gardens and the Drop Off. For one reason or another we only managed one dive at the Coral Gardens but it was a good one.

The first amazing sight was a huge Barracuda sitting down at 15 metres, nosed into the current and hovering in one spot. It seems this big guy is the same one who frequents the wreck and although he is diver friendly one look at those teeth meant my dive buddy couldn’t convince me that the photo ‘op” of me patting him on the head was worth it regardless of how hard he tried. We also came across an area that had more Anemone Fish than we had ever seen. We were discussing this afterwards and we had all assumed that each species of Anemone Fish had a specific Anemone it lived in, but here we saw five different species of fish in a small area all living in the same species of Anemone.

Twin Cromodoris                                               Pygmy Seahorse

The Drop Off is a great site too. We did a heap of dives here spotting numerous Nudibranchs, cleaner shrimps and even an Ornate Harlequin Pipe Fish.

 We also did a couple of boat dives near the Drop Off, one called Palong Palong and another called Alam Ander. The highlight of which was the ‘lumpy’ Pygmy Seahorse.

 Boat diving involved hiring a local Outrigger type canoe which has a small engine and a long shaft drive attached.  With two divers per boat it’s very cheap to skip around to the next bay for a dive.

Speaking of the next bay, Seraya Beach is my favourite spot in Tulamben. It is ‘muck diving’ heaven as nearly everything is small and it lets you concentrate on macro photography. We did three dives at Seraya and spotted Harlequin Shrimp, Zebra Crabs, Coleman Shrimps, Nudibranchs, Moray Eels, Lionfish, you name it and it was there.

If you have never dived overseas but are keen to do so, this is the place to start. If you are like me the thought of Bali (the Kuta part) really put me off going the first time but the real Bali to the north is beautiful, the people are gentle and friendly and the diving is easy and spectacular.

Don’t be fooled though, Tulamben has little else ‘touristy’ other than diving. It is a small fishing village with a couple of diving resorts.

Diving in Bali is very inexpensive. Our week (6 diving days) including flights, transfers, accommodation and 14 dives was around $1600 and we ate cheaply at a local restaurant for around $7 a sitting each. We had such a good time we’ve already booked a handful of rooms for 2 weeks at the same time next year.

If you are interested in some really good photos of Tulamben under water and topside, check out the images on http://reefnet.ca/gallery/. The site is the work of a Canadian family we met in Tulamben.

Travelling to Seraya Beach with Mount Agung in the background

JUST ADD WATER – Schemes and Dreams for a sunburnt country

Western Australian Museum – Perth. 30^th May to 27^th July. Entry by donation.

For more information check out:-  http://www.naa.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/on-tour/just-add-water.aspx