OP
lukeROB
Contributor
The conclusion to my trip, sorry I took a long time. Also sorry for the bad writing but your gonna have to deal with it.
PART 5 - Secret Bay (Gilimanuak) and Menjangan
The diving up until now has been fantastic and we still have six dives left in an area which I thought had some of the most promise. We headed first to Gilimanuak Bay which is the crossing to Java and has been listed everywhere as a muck diving extravaganza. This is true to some extent but comes with its own drawbacks. Firstly this site is interesting if you are looking for some strange creatures but is otherwise unappealing. It is literally a trash heap and a lot of the creatures are using this trash as their homes. The water is very green, it is shallow and the visibility was no more than 5m when we dived it. Apparently the conditions are a little better with a rising tide instead of a falling one, but not much. The water is also colder than the rest of Bali at one point I checked because I was biting the reg a little harder than usual and saw it was only 24ºC. After 95 minutes I was defiantly cold and since the tide was getting low if we didnt jump straight back in it would have been undivable - so we gave the second dive a miss as it was just too cold. Apparently the site had changed quite a bit as there were no sea-grass patches and hence no ghost pipefish and other critters usual found hiding in it. We did find some strange critters including anglerfish (4 different ones), blennies, double-ended pipefish, seahorse, some weird shrimp, snake eels, dragonets, dwarf lionfish, pygmy leatherjackets, varied crabs, razor fish, striped catfish balls and probably a lot more I cant remember. Like Seraya this is not a dive for everyone and the amount of sea cucumbers (the feathered end ones - disgusting) and urchins were off putting. All in all I wouldnt bother diving here again Seraya is far, far, far superior. There are better muck diving sites around and with the limited facilities here it is an out of the way place that didnt live up to expectations.
The last area we dived was Menjangan Island. If you like lots of corals, huge walls, huge fans, huge barrel sponges, lots of fish life, and crystal clear water than these are your sort of dive sites. I really enjoyed the diving here, very peaceful. No currents and reefs walls flatting out at about 6 meters meant long dives and awesome scenery. I wont go on to long about the 4 different sites we dived but they each offered something different and if you go here you should do at least 2 days of diving. All this sounds perfect but I wouldnt come back here why? It is a long way to travel about 3.5 hours back to Denpassar. The diving appears similar to Pendia which is far closer and has the chance to see Molas. And it doesnt have the same variety of critters as the Tulamben area. Although if you want to get away from the hussle and bussle of the Kuta area and dont want the fast drifts found in Pendia than by all means this is perfect.
We stayed in the Mimpi Menjangan for a couple of nights after finishing all our diving. This is luxury we had our own personal hot spring tub in our villa. For a relaxing diving adventure, this is your spot, but its defiantly not cheap. The drive home is scenic, but it happened to be the only day it rained while we were there. I wont go through everything we saw at the dive sites but will say that Pos II is probably the best spot we dived. I think the wide angle shots I took here give you an idea anyway, but they still dont seem to do justice to the grandeur of the walls. The wreck is also a good dive but is pretty deep I think it starts at about 32 meters. Sorry for all the waits in between and Ill slowly post up some pictures from the sites mentioned above. My final tip for accommodation while in Menjangan would probably be Pondok Sari for the budget diver and Taman Sari if you want a little more luxury but dont want to blow the budget on a place like Mimpi.
To all those heading to Bali soon, youll love it. Considering how little a trip can cost there you defiantly get value for money. For me Id love to head back soon, but I want to dive in North Sulawesi first. I hope this report helped you make decisions on where to head and the spots to dive. If you have any more specific questions feel free to ask.
Things I recommend besides diving are white water rafting, heading up to Ubud for monkeys, elephants and great crafts (it is cheaper here than Kuta). Seeing the volcanoes, lakes, temples and rice fields is also worth a day trip. Besides that I didnt do much else but relax (for 5 minutes) and get dragged around shopping small price to pay for going diving for 9 days. Also get massages and the likes it is so damn cheap.
The END.
First two are from Gilimanuak. Second two are from Menjangan. I'll post some more from each site soon.
Image by lukeROB (Copyright) posted at ScubaGallery
Image by lukeROB (Copyright) posted at ScubaGallery
Image by lukeROB (Copyright) posted at ScubaGallery
Image by lukeROB (Copyright) posted at ScubaGallery
PART 5 - Secret Bay (Gilimanuak) and Menjangan
The diving up until now has been fantastic and we still have six dives left in an area which I thought had some of the most promise. We headed first to Gilimanuak Bay which is the crossing to Java and has been listed everywhere as a muck diving extravaganza. This is true to some extent but comes with its own drawbacks. Firstly this site is interesting if you are looking for some strange creatures but is otherwise unappealing. It is literally a trash heap and a lot of the creatures are using this trash as their homes. The water is very green, it is shallow and the visibility was no more than 5m when we dived it. Apparently the conditions are a little better with a rising tide instead of a falling one, but not much. The water is also colder than the rest of Bali at one point I checked because I was biting the reg a little harder than usual and saw it was only 24ºC. After 95 minutes I was defiantly cold and since the tide was getting low if we didnt jump straight back in it would have been undivable - so we gave the second dive a miss as it was just too cold. Apparently the site had changed quite a bit as there were no sea-grass patches and hence no ghost pipefish and other critters usual found hiding in it. We did find some strange critters including anglerfish (4 different ones), blennies, double-ended pipefish, seahorse, some weird shrimp, snake eels, dragonets, dwarf lionfish, pygmy leatherjackets, varied crabs, razor fish, striped catfish balls and probably a lot more I cant remember. Like Seraya this is not a dive for everyone and the amount of sea cucumbers (the feathered end ones - disgusting) and urchins were off putting. All in all I wouldnt bother diving here again Seraya is far, far, far superior. There are better muck diving sites around and with the limited facilities here it is an out of the way place that didnt live up to expectations.
The last area we dived was Menjangan Island. If you like lots of corals, huge walls, huge fans, huge barrel sponges, lots of fish life, and crystal clear water than these are your sort of dive sites. I really enjoyed the diving here, very peaceful. No currents and reefs walls flatting out at about 6 meters meant long dives and awesome scenery. I wont go on to long about the 4 different sites we dived but they each offered something different and if you go here you should do at least 2 days of diving. All this sounds perfect but I wouldnt come back here why? It is a long way to travel about 3.5 hours back to Denpassar. The diving appears similar to Pendia which is far closer and has the chance to see Molas. And it doesnt have the same variety of critters as the Tulamben area. Although if you want to get away from the hussle and bussle of the Kuta area and dont want the fast drifts found in Pendia than by all means this is perfect.
We stayed in the Mimpi Menjangan for a couple of nights after finishing all our diving. This is luxury we had our own personal hot spring tub in our villa. For a relaxing diving adventure, this is your spot, but its defiantly not cheap. The drive home is scenic, but it happened to be the only day it rained while we were there. I wont go through everything we saw at the dive sites but will say that Pos II is probably the best spot we dived. I think the wide angle shots I took here give you an idea anyway, but they still dont seem to do justice to the grandeur of the walls. The wreck is also a good dive but is pretty deep I think it starts at about 32 meters. Sorry for all the waits in between and Ill slowly post up some pictures from the sites mentioned above. My final tip for accommodation while in Menjangan would probably be Pondok Sari for the budget diver and Taman Sari if you want a little more luxury but dont want to blow the budget on a place like Mimpi.
To all those heading to Bali soon, youll love it. Considering how little a trip can cost there you defiantly get value for money. For me Id love to head back soon, but I want to dive in North Sulawesi first. I hope this report helped you make decisions on where to head and the spots to dive. If you have any more specific questions feel free to ask.
Things I recommend besides diving are white water rafting, heading up to Ubud for monkeys, elephants and great crafts (it is cheaper here than Kuta). Seeing the volcanoes, lakes, temples and rice fields is also worth a day trip. Besides that I didnt do much else but relax (for 5 minutes) and get dragged around shopping small price to pay for going diving for 9 days. Also get massages and the likes it is so damn cheap.
The END.
First two are from Gilimanuak. Second two are from Menjangan. I'll post some more from each site soon.
Image by lukeROB (Copyright) posted at ScubaGalleryImage by lukeROB (Copyright) posted at ScubaGalleryImage by lukeROB (Copyright) posted at ScubaGalleryImage by lukeROB (Copyright) posted at ScubaGallery
LOL
