astr0b0y
Contributor
After planning a trip for 5 of us to South West Rocks (Aus), we had our dives cancelled less than 36 hrs before we planned to hit the road on our 14 hour trip from Melbourne. While we were pretty gutted, we weren't surprised as weather forecast had been pretty clear that rough seas were approaching.
So what to do with the 5 days we had up our sleeve? Go back to work (!!!), stay in Melbourne and dive (only one charter available at short notice) or look for alternative destinations? The whole of the lower east coast of Aus was going to be blown out, and last minute booking are expensive here. So, south east Asia became a choice. Could we, in just over 24 hours, agree on a destination, book flights, accomodation and diving, repack for air travel and do this all at around the same cost as the 6 dives we had planned? Yep.
5 quickly whittled down to 2 of us which made decision making easier: Amed or Gili islands? Neither had been to Amed so we aimed our sights there and started furiously hunting down accomodation and booking dives during work breaks.
Accomodation - Kura Kura Dive Lodges Amed
Clean, spacious and recently repainted with lots of charging and power ports, private balcony between out two rooms, lots of places to hang gear to dry. Nice and simple restaurant and bar with pool table, dart board and board games. Food was fast and consistently tasty, staff just lovely and relaxed an accomodating. Restaurant opened at 7am for breakfast (included in room price of AUD$50 per person per night) but were happy for us to arrive 10 minutes early and feed us as we would be heading off for dives around 7:15 each morning.
Diving
Day 1
After arriving at our accomodation at 1am Wednesday morning, we needed to be up and ready to be collected by Dive Concepts Bali and head to Tulamben. After initially getting into the wrong transport and almost heading back to Denpasar (hilarious for all involved!) we got into the right but with a few others and headed off. Dive Concepts has a centre in both Amed and Tulamben and offer Nitrox only dives. If you're not certified, they will do that for you on the first day for a fee (no need for us). They seem to be about the cheapest outfit to dive with, so were very busy with about 30 divers while we were there which was apparently quiet. Gas analysed while we watched, all at 30%.
First dive was on USAT Liberty (55 minutes, 25 metres max). Short dive briefing and we splashed. Great conditions, vis about 25m with a bit of cloudiness. Dive guides were fine, but very heavy on tank bangers and sticking their reef stick into the sand to deal with poor buoyancy. They also messed with wildlife a lot, no hesitation to dig things out of the sand. This guy wasn't too happy with being exposed.
Second dive at the Dropoff, a short distance south east of USAT Liberty site. Great dive, lovely spot. 56 minutes, 29 metres max.
Dive three for the first day at Coral Gardens. Lot's of artificial substrates with some planted coral (found a few tags with species and transplanting date info). 52 minutes, 21 metres max.
Kura Kura (our accomodation) have Reef Divers Bali dive outfit attached. At the time of booking our accommodation, Reef Divers didn't have any free dive spots for the first two days of our trip so we found alternatives. They were able to accommodate two night dives for us on Wednesday and Friday nights. We had a fantastic and energetic dive guide who was a great diver and really looked out for us.
First night dive on day 1 was at Melasti, Amed and did not disappoint. After a slow start, likely due to splashing a bit early, things really took off. Loads of octopus, frog fish, eels, cuttlefish, slugs and other marvels. 80 minute dive and I would have swapped out a new tank immediately if one was available. Loads of fun.
Day 2
My dive buddy and I have most of our training through RAID and so I was delighted to find Prana Dive literally next door to Kura Kura lodge. They too have accomodation but had no vacancies for our trip. Their accommodation looks very very nice at around AUD$100 per night per room. I contacted Prana via WhatsApp the day before we flew out and received a reply pretty promptly - sorry, can't fit you on Wednesday but can do Thursday and Friday. Great, lock it in I said. I knew of some of the team there from trip reports here on Scubaboard and was delighted to be met by @ScubaWithTurk when we rocked up at 7:15 Thursday morning. We had organised via messaging to do 4 dives Thursday and 3 on Friday (Turk had to travel Friday night for a house he was giving the next morning). We went through the standard checks and Turk eyed us up and peppered us with friendly questions, a nice way to try and get an idea of who he was going to be leading around. His plan for our day was (all on air) USAT Liberty and Dropoff in Tulamben (we assured him we were more this happy to dive there again) then Pyramids in the afternoon and Melasti night dive in Amed.
We were nice and early getting to USAT Liberty and had a much nicer tour from Turk, aided by our new familiarity with the wreck and less crowded dive. I had a bit of a headache before the dive and was worse surfacing, I put that down to lack of sleep and not enough coffee. Prana Dive helped out with the second problem with a hot steaming cup of Bali coffee made right there. 49 minutes, 30 metres max.
Second dive at the Dropoff was lovely, clearer conditions than the previous day. Headache and nausea upon surfacing. 56 minutes, 30 metres max.
After packing up and getting into the back of the truck, I let Turk know I wasn't feeling great. He paid quiet attention for a minute or two and then we discussed in more detail, with obvious concerns. I was very confident it was all down to exhaustion. We spent the surface interval back at Prana Dive and by this time I was 100% that is was not DCS but that I should not do the next dive and sleep instead. It was agreed that my Buddy would still do the dive and I want to my room, mixed up electrolytes and drank that and hit the pillow. 2 hrs later, I was up and raring to go, very happy that I'd get my night dive in (my buddy kindly assured me that Pyramids was nothing great and they had lots of current to deal with).
Dive 3, muck night dive at Melasti. Another amazing muck dive. Started at dark so immediately ran head first into many creatures. This is a fantastic spot. 76 minutes, 6 metres max.
Day 3
It's Saturday, our last day of diving so we could have a rest day before flying out on Sunday. Three dives with Turk, then another night dive with Bali Reef Divers.
Turk was a box of birds and excited to take us to Kubu show us Boga Wreck (also know as the Japanese Wreck) then Kubo Reef and then his new find Finger Reef back in Amed. We had asked for Nitrox for these dives and so Turk ordered that in.
The Boca wreck was just fantastic. Turk took us on a great approach, sloping black sand and a view into the blue and then, at 30 metres, turn west and there loomed the silhouette of the wreck. Penetration was easy and the wreck has many openings. We were first there for the day with was a treat as we got to watch the next group of 6 pile inside and silt it all up. One of my favourite wreck dives in a long time. No photos as too deep for my TG-6 with no housing (more on that later). 52 minutes, 33 metres max depth.
Dive 2 was a short distance south east of Boca wreck entry and didn't disappoint. Vis was getting better by the hour. At our halfway point, I was dreamily looking north into the blue when cruising in at a good speed was a 2 1/2 meter white tip. It cruised past us about 15 meters away and lazily headed up the slope and off again. Guessing at its size but it was much longer than Turk with fins. 64 minutes, 25 metres max.
Dive 3, Turk was a bit worried that he might not deliver the goods and we might not seeing anything noteworthy. Finger reef is an amazing spot, we were the only divers there. It has the perfect slow drop off and 5 or so large ridges to traverse. I felt like I was flying and did a few barrel rolls for suit. You must go here, it's a magical area. 67 minutes with a max depth of 35 metres. At 35 I was still another 20+ meters from the bottom at that point as it sloped away. Would be amazing for deep dives. Spectacular reef on the slow ascent with a huge green turtle have a good feed while we watched.
Dive 4, night wall dive with Reef Divers Bali at Jemeluk Bay, Amed. I haven't done a wall night dive before and it was very interesting. A bit of current and what felt like a thermocline about half way in at 22 metres. The site sits under a headland that has had recent development of a bar and sunset viewing area. It appears this has caused a lot of large rocks to fall into the reef on approach to the wall and caused lots of damage. 58 minutes, 24 metres max.
We were really grateful of the time we spent with Turk and wished we could have kept diving together. Both myself and my buddy plan on returning soon to do side mount trying with him. I highly recommend Prana Dive.
11 dives in three days was perfect, almost twice the number of dives we had planned for the cancelled South West Rocks trip. We did our sums and were amazed that the cost of the two trips was almost exactly the same. Outstanding!
RIP TG-6
Well aware of its 15m max depth rating without a housing, I threw caution to the wind and paid for it.
So what to do with the 5 days we had up our sleeve? Go back to work (!!!), stay in Melbourne and dive (only one charter available at short notice) or look for alternative destinations? The whole of the lower east coast of Aus was going to be blown out, and last minute booking are expensive here. So, south east Asia became a choice. Could we, in just over 24 hours, agree on a destination, book flights, accomodation and diving, repack for air travel and do this all at around the same cost as the 6 dives we had planned? Yep.
5 quickly whittled down to 2 of us which made decision making easier: Amed or Gili islands? Neither had been to Amed so we aimed our sights there and started furiously hunting down accomodation and booking dives during work breaks.
Accomodation - Kura Kura Dive Lodges Amed
Clean, spacious and recently repainted with lots of charging and power ports, private balcony between out two rooms, lots of places to hang gear to dry. Nice and simple restaurant and bar with pool table, dart board and board games. Food was fast and consistently tasty, staff just lovely and relaxed an accomodating. Restaurant opened at 7am for breakfast (included in room price of AUD$50 per person per night) but were happy for us to arrive 10 minutes early and feed us as we would be heading off for dives around 7:15 each morning.
Diving
Day 1
After arriving at our accomodation at 1am Wednesday morning, we needed to be up and ready to be collected by Dive Concepts Bali and head to Tulamben. After initially getting into the wrong transport and almost heading back to Denpasar (hilarious for all involved!) we got into the right but with a few others and headed off. Dive Concepts has a centre in both Amed and Tulamben and offer Nitrox only dives. If you're not certified, they will do that for you on the first day for a fee (no need for us). They seem to be about the cheapest outfit to dive with, so were very busy with about 30 divers while we were there which was apparently quiet. Gas analysed while we watched, all at 30%.
First dive was on USAT Liberty (55 minutes, 25 metres max). Short dive briefing and we splashed. Great conditions, vis about 25m with a bit of cloudiness. Dive guides were fine, but very heavy on tank bangers and sticking their reef stick into the sand to deal with poor buoyancy. They also messed with wildlife a lot, no hesitation to dig things out of the sand. This guy wasn't too happy with being exposed.
Second dive at the Dropoff, a short distance south east of USAT Liberty site. Great dive, lovely spot. 56 minutes, 29 metres max.
Dive three for the first day at Coral Gardens. Lot's of artificial substrates with some planted coral (found a few tags with species and transplanting date info). 52 minutes, 21 metres max.
Kura Kura (our accomodation) have Reef Divers Bali dive outfit attached. At the time of booking our accommodation, Reef Divers didn't have any free dive spots for the first two days of our trip so we found alternatives. They were able to accommodate two night dives for us on Wednesday and Friday nights. We had a fantastic and energetic dive guide who was a great diver and really looked out for us.
First night dive on day 1 was at Melasti, Amed and did not disappoint. After a slow start, likely due to splashing a bit early, things really took off. Loads of octopus, frog fish, eels, cuttlefish, slugs and other marvels. 80 minute dive and I would have swapped out a new tank immediately if one was available. Loads of fun.
Day 2
My dive buddy and I have most of our training through RAID and so I was delighted to find Prana Dive literally next door to Kura Kura lodge. They too have accomodation but had no vacancies for our trip. Their accommodation looks very very nice at around AUD$100 per night per room. I contacted Prana via WhatsApp the day before we flew out and received a reply pretty promptly - sorry, can't fit you on Wednesday but can do Thursday and Friday. Great, lock it in I said. I knew of some of the team there from trip reports here on Scubaboard and was delighted to be met by @ScubaWithTurk when we rocked up at 7:15 Thursday morning. We had organised via messaging to do 4 dives Thursday and 3 on Friday (Turk had to travel Friday night for a house he was giving the next morning). We went through the standard checks and Turk eyed us up and peppered us with friendly questions, a nice way to try and get an idea of who he was going to be leading around. His plan for our day was (all on air) USAT Liberty and Dropoff in Tulamben (we assured him we were more this happy to dive there again) then Pyramids in the afternoon and Melasti night dive in Amed.
We were nice and early getting to USAT Liberty and had a much nicer tour from Turk, aided by our new familiarity with the wreck and less crowded dive. I had a bit of a headache before the dive and was worse surfacing, I put that down to lack of sleep and not enough coffee. Prana Dive helped out with the second problem with a hot steaming cup of Bali coffee made right there. 49 minutes, 30 metres max.
Second dive at the Dropoff was lovely, clearer conditions than the previous day. Headache and nausea upon surfacing. 56 minutes, 30 metres max.
After packing up and getting into the back of the truck, I let Turk know I wasn't feeling great. He paid quiet attention for a minute or two and then we discussed in more detail, with obvious concerns. I was very confident it was all down to exhaustion. We spent the surface interval back at Prana Dive and by this time I was 100% that is was not DCS but that I should not do the next dive and sleep instead. It was agreed that my Buddy would still do the dive and I want to my room, mixed up electrolytes and drank that and hit the pillow. 2 hrs later, I was up and raring to go, very happy that I'd get my night dive in (my buddy kindly assured me that Pyramids was nothing great and they had lots of current to deal with).
Dive 3, muck night dive at Melasti. Another amazing muck dive. Started at dark so immediately ran head first into many creatures. This is a fantastic spot. 76 minutes, 6 metres max.
Day 3
It's Saturday, our last day of diving so we could have a rest day before flying out on Sunday. Three dives with Turk, then another night dive with Bali Reef Divers.
Turk was a box of birds and excited to take us to Kubu show us Boga Wreck (also know as the Japanese Wreck) then Kubo Reef and then his new find Finger Reef back in Amed. We had asked for Nitrox for these dives and so Turk ordered that in.
The Boca wreck was just fantastic. Turk took us on a great approach, sloping black sand and a view into the blue and then, at 30 metres, turn west and there loomed the silhouette of the wreck. Penetration was easy and the wreck has many openings. We were first there for the day with was a treat as we got to watch the next group of 6 pile inside and silt it all up. One of my favourite wreck dives in a long time. No photos as too deep for my TG-6 with no housing (more on that later). 52 minutes, 33 metres max depth.
Dive 2 was a short distance south east of Boca wreck entry and didn't disappoint. Vis was getting better by the hour. At our halfway point, I was dreamily looking north into the blue when cruising in at a good speed was a 2 1/2 meter white tip. It cruised past us about 15 meters away and lazily headed up the slope and off again. Guessing at its size but it was much longer than Turk with fins. 64 minutes, 25 metres max.
Dive 3, Turk was a bit worried that he might not deliver the goods and we might not seeing anything noteworthy. Finger reef is an amazing spot, we were the only divers there. It has the perfect slow drop off and 5 or so large ridges to traverse. I felt like I was flying and did a few barrel rolls for suit. You must go here, it's a magical area. 67 minutes with a max depth of 35 metres. At 35 I was still another 20+ meters from the bottom at that point as it sloped away. Would be amazing for deep dives. Spectacular reef on the slow ascent with a huge green turtle have a good feed while we watched.
Dive 4, night wall dive with Reef Divers Bali at Jemeluk Bay, Amed. I haven't done a wall night dive before and it was very interesting. A bit of current and what felt like a thermocline about half way in at 22 metres. The site sits under a headland that has had recent development of a bar and sunset viewing area. It appears this has caused a lot of large rocks to fall into the reef on approach to the wall and caused lots of damage. 58 minutes, 24 metres max.
We were really grateful of the time we spent with Turk and wished we could have kept diving together. Both myself and my buddy plan on returning soon to do side mount trying with him. I highly recommend Prana Dive.
11 dives in three days was perfect, almost twice the number of dives we had planned for the cancelled South West Rocks trip. We did our sums and were amazed that the cost of the two trips was almost exactly the same. Outstanding!
RIP TG-6
Well aware of its 15m max depth rating without a housing, I threw caution to the wind and paid for it.
