Greetings from Villa Alba, Tulamben, Bali

[Searcaigh]

What ?? @outofofficebrb is here in Bali?? I would love to see all of you.

Sorry Turk, with three dives a day and night dives I just didn't have time to log on to SB.

I'm only now just finished editing the photos from Day 1 today back in DXB having flown back on Sunday night.

Besides the usual nudis we did come across Harlequin Shrimp at three locations

 

[Searcaigh]

And now for the Trip Report

My buddy Kerstin and I left Dubai at approximately 02:30 on Friday 30th September and arrived at Denpasar at around 15:30, there's a four hour time difference so approximately a nine hour flight.

We were meeting up with Kerstin's nephew at the airport and all travelling together to Villa Alba (VA). Hs flight from Germany via Taiwan arriving two hours before us.

We had four queues to deal with:

1. Health check for Covid Vaccination status. This took approximately five minutes
2. Visa on Arrival to purchase the visa. This took approximately 35 minutes.
3. Immigration. This took two and a half hours
After immigration we found Kerstin's nephew in the baggage reclaim waiting for us. Our bags were already off the carousel so no need to wait.
4. Customs queue. I had completed an online customs form but was unable to print off the barcode as I don't have access to a printer. I did have a screenshot though on my phone. However they required a paper form to be completed, and another 20 mins passed as I completed this in the queue.

So in total three and a half hours just to get out of the airport.

The VA driver was patiently waiting for us and he recognised me from my previous trip last May.

We stopped at a petrol station for some snacks for the three hour drive to VA arriving just before 22:00.

Off the other three who arrived earlier that day, only G83 was awake. WE had a beer and some food then crashed out around 23:00.

On the Saturday morning Kerstin and I were up early to assemble our dive and camera equipment. The plan was for the first dive on the house reef at around 09:00.

Happily to report that the pygmy seahorse is still there at 22m and the reef still very healthy looking. Loads of fish and of course nudibranchs

The pygmy seahorse shot was taken using 105mm lens with a +10 diopter, in fact I used this set up for most of the dives and was shooting macro all of the time.



One of several small frogfish on the house reef



After the dive we had lunch then headed to Seraya where @outofofficebrb popped her Harlequin Shrimp cherry.



Loads of shrimps to photograph too



So that's it for Day 1 of diving

 

[Blackcrusader]

And now for the Trip Report

My buddy Kerstin and I left Dubai at approximately 02:30 on Friday 30th September and arrived at Denpasar at around 15:30, there's a four hour time difference so approximately a nine hour flight. We were meeting up with Kerstin's nephew at the airport and all travelling together to Villa Alba (VA). Hs flight from Germany via Taiwan arriving two hours before us.

We had four queues to deal with:

1. Health check for Covid Vaccination status. This took approximately five minutes
2. Visa on Arrival to purchase the visa. This took approximately 35 minutes.
3. Immigration. This took two and a half hours

Wow. When I arrived on China Airlines from Taiwan I was out of the airport with my luggage in 45 minutes and arrival was at around the same time in the afternoon. I guess I got lucky as I had read on Bali forums about long queue times. I arrived on a Tuesday. I assume you had lots of people in the airport then. Thanks for the update. PS My pigmy seahorse was at 32m depth but between the Matahari Resort and the Liberty Wreck, but closer to the Matahari.

 

[Searcaigh]

Some shots from Day 2 dives at Pura Gerombong









And the night dive on the house reef

Gymnodoris predator



and the prey



Several Spanish Dancers on the house reef, very challenging to photograph with the 105 as they are huge

 

[Searcaigh]

Day 3

Two dives at "Melasti" with a current running on both dives.

This made it very challenging especially when using the +10 diopter where the depth of field is grossly reduced.

This site is famous for:

Sheep nudis (Costasiella sp)



Donut nudis (Doto greenamyeri)



And Stilliger sp.

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Of course there's other critters too, but this site is primarily for nudis.

Ornate Ghost pipefish (Solenostomus paradoxus)



And Orangutan Crabs

 

[Luko]

And Stilliger sp.

Still not Stiliger (costasiella sp.)

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

Sorry Turk, with three dives a day and night dives I just didn't have time to log on to SB.

I'm only now just finished editing the photos from Day 1 today back in DXB having flown back on Sunday night.

Besides the usual nudis we did come across Harlequin Shrimp at three locations

No worries bud. I figured you had a full dive schedule booked. I still have yet to see a pygmy seahorse!! Saw my first Harlequin Shrimp two weeks ago. The divers I was guiding didn't seem to know what it was but I screamed through my reg LOL

 

[Searcaigh]

Still not Stiliger (costasiella sp.)

What are the key differences @Luko

 

[Searcaigh]

Day 4, fantastic day dives at Bulakan, two dives in fact and more Wunderpus than you can shake a muck stick at.

The shore site area has changed a fair bit since I last dived here four years ago, with dunk tanks and some shelter. More buildings are now present around the temple.

Getting in and out is very "bouldery" at this site but it's worth it. We were the only divers at this site too

Plenty of Cuthona sp here





And there were at least five different Wunderpus spotted, although I only managed to photograph three of them, taking around 42 shots in total, including one of an individual stalking and capturing something to eat.



This is by far one of my favourite sites besides Melasti and VA House Reef where we did the night dive that night and my first camera issue occurred.

I decided to change the lens to the 60mm in order to get better shots of Spanish Dancers, however despite every thing working on the surface when I did all my pre-dive test shots after changing the lens and port, my first shots of a small frogfish were black, which I couldn't understand as the strobes were firing.

I ended up doing the whole dive without taking any more photos and competed with the guides finding stuff for the others to photograph and surfaced after 60 mins.

When I dried off the camera, I discovered that the flash on the camera had popped up! I use an electronic flash connector with my YS-D2s, and never have the pop-up flash on, so I guess somehow it was activated whilst getting in the water.

It happened again a couple of days later after changing back to the 105mm lens, which made me paranoid and taped the pop up flash to prevent it happening again, but more about that later.

 

[Luko]

What are the key differences @Luko

Eyes mainly.
Costasiella have a flat face with their eyes right in between the rhinophores like the ones in your image, while Stiliger species have their eyes besides and back to the rhinophores on a more rounded front. (NSSI 2 are wrong about the illustration of what they call Stiliger ornatus)

This is what is supposed to be Stiliger ornatus : The Sea Slug Forum - Stiliger ornatus
I have never seen a real one yet, FWIW this is below a stiliger sp. nudi in Tulamben, nothing like ornatus, just to show the eyes position