A couple of weeks ago I returned to Villa Alba in Tulamben.
My last visit was just before the evacuation due to Mt. Agung spluttering and farting 2 years back and Villa Alba was in the middle of a refurbishment, which is now completed.
Fortunately Mt. Agung did not erupt and all of Alex's plans came to fruition.
Following my visit to Adex mid April, I met up with my usual local buddy from UAE and we arrived in Bali on the 14th April, a week prior to the full moon, so timing was a bit off.
Weather wise it was fine, and the only rain we had was during the night, which was fine by me.
On Day 1 we did 3 dives on the house reef, including one night dive where our guide found several examples of Cyerce elegans at 26m. and at 6m two large Spanish Dancers (Hexabranchus sanguineus).
Other dive sites during the 4 days of diving included;
Kwanji, Melasti, Liberty Slope and Bulakan.
Liberty Slope was disappointing, but the other sites were really great for nudis, in particular for Costasiella sp.
I still haven't gotten round to identifying everything basically the total number of species was no less than 57 in 10 dives over the 4 day period. 2 of the dives were night dives and although I had an opportunity to do an additional 2 dives, I was knackered, in particular when I was bowled over by surf when coming back from my second last dive at Bulakan, which is an awesome site.
Species size varied from 3mm to 300mm with an average 5mm to 10mm. I used my Nikkor 60mm on Day 1, 85mm on Day 2 and on Days 3 and 4 the 105mm with +10 wet diopter, which is the lens I should have used from Day 2 to be honest. It would have been a challenge to shoot the Spanish Dancer with that lens, but I'd be looking for a +25 next time given what we found on subsequent dives.
Water temps were a pleasant 28-30C with occasional cool upwellings that made photography challenging whilst pivoting on a muck stick and on maximum magnification with the 105 and +10 (Manual Focus).
My favourite shot of the trip is this Stiliger ornatus taken at Bulakan.
Other photos can be found here
My last visit was just before the evacuation due to Mt. Agung spluttering and farting 2 years back and Villa Alba was in the middle of a refurbishment, which is now completed.
Fortunately Mt. Agung did not erupt and all of Alex's plans came to fruition.
Following my visit to Adex mid April, I met up with my usual local buddy from UAE and we arrived in Bali on the 14th April, a week prior to the full moon, so timing was a bit off.
Weather wise it was fine, and the only rain we had was during the night, which was fine by me.
On Day 1 we did 3 dives on the house reef, including one night dive where our guide found several examples of Cyerce elegans at 26m. and at 6m two large Spanish Dancers (Hexabranchus sanguineus).
Other dive sites during the 4 days of diving included;
Kwanji, Melasti, Liberty Slope and Bulakan.
Liberty Slope was disappointing, but the other sites were really great for nudis, in particular for Costasiella sp.
I still haven't gotten round to identifying everything basically the total number of species was no less than 57 in 10 dives over the 4 day period. 2 of the dives were night dives and although I had an opportunity to do an additional 2 dives, I was knackered, in particular when I was bowled over by surf when coming back from my second last dive at Bulakan, which is an awesome site.
Species size varied from 3mm to 300mm with an average 5mm to 10mm. I used my Nikkor 60mm on Day 1, 85mm on Day 2 and on Days 3 and 4 the 105mm with +10 wet diopter, which is the lens I should have used from Day 2 to be honest. It would have been a challenge to shoot the Spanish Dancer with that lens, but I'd be looking for a +25 next time given what we found on subsequent dives.
Water temps were a pleasant 28-30C with occasional cool upwellings that made photography challenging whilst pivoting on a muck stick and on maximum magnification with the 105 and +10 (Manual Focus).
My favourite shot of the trip is this Stiliger ornatus taken at Bulakan.
Other photos can be found here
