I did a total of 25 dives covering Tulamben area, Seraya, Amed, Padangbai, Tepekong & Nusa Penida. It wasn't the best time of the year to dive in Tulamben & Seraya as there were strong waves from the shore, making the entry/exit from the water difficult. We fell & have scratches and bruises all over but I have no complaints!! At Tulamben, we doved at the Drop-off, Coral Garden & the USAT Liberty wreck. The wreck was a magnificent sight with many healthy soft coral growth of vibrant colours. We saw huge school of jacks & barracudas, lots of ambon, hinge-beak & cleaner shrimps, octopuses, crinoid shrimps in feather stars, one funky looking rock shrimp, scorpionfishes, few nudibranchs & many more. It was muck diving in Seraya & the dives here are my favourite. I would rate them better than the ones in Lembeh Straits. It was here that I have come & found what I am looking for, the unique pattern boxer crabs, Lybia tessellata.We rummaged around the black sandy bed looking for bizzare looking critters & saw many new species of nudibranchs, lots of shrimps (harlequin , rock, commensal), crabs (spider, arrow-head) , frogfishes ( a 1.5cm clown frogfish), seahorses, flounders and many more. This is definitely a macro heaven to see & photograph Bali's rare underwater treasures. The dives in Amed were not as good due poor visibility & strong currents. There are so many huge barrel sponges & rock formations but we were drifting so much that we barely have a chance to really look amidst them. Nevertheless, we did see a harlequin ghost pipefish, some cleaner shrimps, pink squat lobsters, a cute looking spider crab on broccoli coral, Hoplophrys oatesii & an intimidating 1.5m giant barracuda.
At Padangbai, we made 3 dives at a site called the Blue Lagoon. The dives were great especially the 2 night dives where we practically parked ourselves at one big piece of rock for the whole dive. There were so many hinge-beak shrimps littering all over the rock & we also saw cuttlefishes, bubblebee shrimps, leaf & frog fishes, wasp fishes, scorpion & devil fishes, spanish dancer with emperor shrimps, seastar shrimps, many funky looking crabs. We were lucky on our first day diving at Nusa Penida. We saw 5-6 manta rays at Manta Point during the first dive & also 3 mola molas at Crystal Bay, one that stayed with us for ~10 mins & was so close that I was able to see the parasites on it's body. The diving at Nusa Penida & Tepekong were drfit dives with unpredictable strong currents at times, making photography almost impossible. There are signs of coral bleaching but the reefs in some sites like The Canyon & SD Point, with their profusion of colourful soft corals, gorgonians and thriving hard corals are quite spectacular. I came, I saw the ocean sunfish, unfortunately I didn't manage to capture them on the camera due to housing fogging but I was ecstatic!! I have "stole" two shots from Samuel for my gallery.
I have uploaded some pictures onto my gallery & here is the link: http://sg.homeunix.com/jovin/Bali-Aug-06
There were actually many more but I gave up sorting them through......
Happy bubbles,
Jovin-
At Padangbai, we made 3 dives at a site called the Blue Lagoon. The dives were great especially the 2 night dives where we practically parked ourselves at one big piece of rock for the whole dive. There were so many hinge-beak shrimps littering all over the rock & we also saw cuttlefishes, bubblebee shrimps, leaf & frog fishes, wasp fishes, scorpion & devil fishes, spanish dancer with emperor shrimps, seastar shrimps, many funky looking crabs. We were lucky on our first day diving at Nusa Penida. We saw 5-6 manta rays at Manta Point during the first dive & also 3 mola molas at Crystal Bay, one that stayed with us for ~10 mins & was so close that I was able to see the parasites on it's body. The diving at Nusa Penida & Tepekong were drfit dives with unpredictable strong currents at times, making photography almost impossible. There are signs of coral bleaching but the reefs in some sites like The Canyon & SD Point, with their profusion of colourful soft corals, gorgonians and thriving hard corals are quite spectacular. I came, I saw the ocean sunfish, unfortunately I didn't manage to capture them on the camera due to housing fogging but I was ecstatic!! I have "stole" two shots from Samuel for my gallery.
I have uploaded some pictures onto my gallery & here is the link: http://sg.homeunix.com/jovin/Bali-Aug-06
There were actually many more but I gave up sorting them through......
Happy bubbles,
Jovin-
