TULAMBEN & NUSA PENIDA - DIVING BALI THE FUNKY WAY

Bali is one of those very special places where you feel there are secrets to be discovered around every corner. It's a big island full of mystery and - call me a hippie - spirits… But no man can visit Bali without realizing or at least NOTICING how holistic it is.

JEEP SAFARI AND SHORE DIVING IN BALI
With a good friend of mine, I set out to discover as many of these secrets as possible. The cool thing about Bali is that you'll find just as much mystery off shore in the surrounding ocean as you will on land. Defining our mission based on our passion, we rented a jeep and loaded it with dive gear.

On previous visits, I have focused on the diving around Nusa Penida and Tulamben. These two areas are defined by two completely different types of diving… Nusa Penida is wall diving, brilliant corals and bigger pelagic fish like the Oceanic Sunfish. Tulamben's diving revolves around a stunning wreck just off the shore and odd little macro life on black sand. Feeling adventurous and lucky we set off to explore the Northern coast west of Tulamben, which is rumoured to have equally as good diving; some may say it is even better.

MACRO DIVING IN "SECRET BAY" AND MUCK DIVING IN PURI JATI
Right on the North Western corner, just next to the ferry port to Java is a dive site with the alluring name "Secret Bay". It has been a hot topic for several years now, supposedly one of the best macro dive sites in Bali. It had our names written all over it as our first stop. There is no accommodation in this area except for the ones on Menjangan Island. We didn't want to get stuck out there, so we sourced out a cosy little home stay in Pemuteran 45 minutes East of Secret bay.

I had high expectations for the dives we did in the bay, but unfortunately, Secret Bay had decided to keep its secrets to itself. Talking to people of knowledge, Secret Bay has been dull the last couple of years, and the new "hotspot" is Puri Jati.
Staying an extra night in Pemuteran, we decided to drive 30 minutes to the East and Puri Jati… And behold, some crazy little animals we found. Muck diving in Puri Jati is terribly good. Diving from the beach we found different types of octopus, a cool frogfish, a thorny seahorse and lots of crazy snake eels and billions other strange creatures. We dove a bit along the Northern / North Eastern coast but decided after a couple of days to make it over to Amed and Tulamben.

DIVING THE LIBERTY WRECK
It was not to be regretted… Dive centers make their way over to Puri Jati and Secret Bay; some even check their guests in on Menjangan… Admittedly the diving is good, but personally, I can't justify the drive when you have diving at such a high level right there in Tulamben, on the eastern coastline. The Tulamben wreck… the good old USAT Liberty Wreck, resting just few meters off the beach, is one of the best wreck dives I've ever done, and for some reason it just seems to get better and better. Despite the amount of divers visiting this wreck every day, the Barracuda didn't cease to outsize me. The corals growing on this wreck are massive, hiding enormous fish in most cracks, it is just crammed with life making the wreck look like it is moving, breathing… or more like hyper ventilating, basically just thriving with life. Yes, Bali made me become "Spirituella"…

After diving the wreck, we initiated our treasure hunt for little strange marine life. And again, hands up for the area around Tulamben. It has it all, we found some really mad macro on the numerous surrounding dive sites, and had a brilliant dive on the drop off, a wonderful wall dive crammed with fish.

You can dive corals and walls in many parts of this world! Just a bit further to the southeast you have some amazing coral gardens and some really big fish in Nusa Penida. But on this trip, the black sand and the ugly but funky fish hiding on it was the big turn on. Tulamben is like a treasure hunt on another planet.

SECRETS OF TULAMBEN & NUSA PENIDA
As for uncovering some of the secrets… If you rent a tank and go diving the northern / northeastern coastline by word of mouth, you might get really lucky. But if you want to hit the jackpot in the first roll of the dice, then stick to the Tulamben and Nusa Penida areas. The accommodation might be slightly overpriced in Tulamben, but the diving will certainly compensate for it! It is cheap and world class!

SEE IT FOR YOURSELF
Go check out the dive and stay packages for Tulamben and Nusa Penida on the Blue Venture Diving website or on the Kilroy website.