Part 3 The Liberty and Paradise Reef
Second dive that day was on the USS Liberty Wreck Balis most famous dive location. The vis here was not that fantastic and I found on other dives here that the early morning is the best time to dive it. There was also a little swell which didnt help. But still it was reasonable vis and warm temperatures close to 30ºC near the surface a little less deeper. It is a beautiful place - so much to see whether you want wide angle, macro or anything in between. It has corals, a wreck, rare marine life what more could you want? However there is one drawback lots of people. There are at least 10 people in the water at any one time and others sitting, eating and waiting to head back in. Obviously this many people have an impact and hence the dives in the early morning were always better. Also dont be surprised to see a few disrespectful divers (through inexperience or otherwise). One photographer I saw was standing on a dendronephthya soft coral bush to photographer something. This is why it looks a little weathered I guess. It is still an excellent dive and after diving it in good condition I would always go back. You just never know what you are going to see. Some stuff we saw for example were banded pipefish, robust ghost pipefish, napoleon wrasse, surgeonfish which get so close it is annoying, clown triggerfish, titan triggers, many different anemone fish, bluespot rays, varied stone and scorpion cod, large potato cod, massive schooling jacks which swirl around you, leaf fish, reef sharks, barracuda and bumphead parrotfish and thats not all (check the photos if your not convinced). This list is off the top of my head and doesnt do justice to the variety here, you could do many dives and see different things every time its your choice I only managed three.
Directly in front of the Mimpi and Paradise Hotels is their house reef and is often called Paradise Reef because this was the first resort here. Do not miss this one. It is shallow and you can head from here to the wreck, which we did. It is easy to spend nearly 2 hours here. Max depth is only about 15m but most time is spent between 8 12m. We did a 90 minute night dive here which was defiantly in the top 5 of the trip. It is also sometimes called coral gardens and it lives up to the name. The fish are actually friendly here, as like the rest of the Tulamben area it is a total marine sanctuary. The life is abundant and if it was affected by El-Nino it is one of the best recovered sites we dived. There is lots of strange fish here like the wreck and it is just such a relaxing dive that you could do it most mornings. One time we barely made it to the wreck because we saw some many things along the way. See the photos for some of the stuff I saw here. Of particular interest to me was the fact that I saw many blue-ribbon eels (and the black version also). At night the crabs are out in force with crinoids fully open and the commensuals out you really just dont have enough air and warmth to get bored. Although an unplanned site beside the night dive we ended up doing another 1.5 dives (half here half wreck) here in the day because there was just so much to see. Between this little reef and the wreck you can see why people come and stay only in Tulamben for a weeks.
To be Continued
.
(Part 4 Tulamben Drop-Off and Amed)
I have only put 5 more photos in my gallery so far all from the wreck (the others are
here ! as I only attached 3 to this thread). Ill post the another heap on the wreck and Paradise Reef over the next couple of days. Gives me something to do. I have also started naming them by location so it is easier to link them with the report.
