Wave Shape
Wave Shape

Bali Holiday, June 11th to 30th June 2024

Waves Shape

Club Trip to Bali June 2024

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Pemuteran, first half.

We flew via Kuala Lumpur from Heathrow to Bali’s Denpasar, then it was almost another 6 hours from the airport to our first resort of Pemuteran.

Arjuna Homestay, our accommodation was a couple of hundred metres down a side track from the main coast road. Place was nice with a small pool, restaurant and breakfast area on the first floor.

The dive centre classed as “next door” was attached to the main building.

 Our first full day was spent relaxing around the accommodation area and checking out the local facilities.

 Next day (Friday) was our first diving day. We were diving off Menjangen island. This was about a 20 minute minibus ride to the port, where we had to wait while the kit was brought up in a pick-up truck. Once the kit was on board we were taken to our boat.

While waiting for the boats to be prepared some of us took a look around the area. I found a snake curled up in a damaged tree. We had several dogs to entertain us and a few monkeys were scavenging for food.

 The boat trip out to the dive site off Menjangen Island was flat calm.

Our first dive at “Eel Garden” was a dive on a wall which dropped away to probably a little over 30m. There was a good selection of life and corals and a turtle passed close by at the end of the dive while we were doing our safety stop. Water was a very pleasant 29°C.

 After the dive we went to the island for lunch and our surface interval. Lunch had been brought by the guides . The island is designated a nature reserve, while eating and relaxing several deer came around, probably hoping to get some food, despite there being warnings that it was illegal to feed the wildlife.

 Second dive of the day was at a site called Pos 2. Here we had a shallow start to the dive before dropping down a wall. There were a lot of cornet fish here , our guide pointed out an Electric Flame Scallop, we had a small (3-4ft) white tip reef shark swim through the group and another turtle, closer than this morning come past us on the safety stop.

 In the evening we took a walk down to the main road where we found a nice restaurant for a beer and some local food.

 On Saturday we dived locally in Pemuteran. We and the kit were still bussed down to the beach but it was just a few minutes ride. Again, kit was loaded on the boat, then we were taken out to the first dive at Napoleon Reef. This site had a bit of a swim at 5-6m before we reached the drop-off. There were some lovely corals, and at the end of the dive I saw what I thought was a sea snake but was probably a moray eel, out and swimming around the coral heads.

 Because we were in the local area we stayed nearby for our surface interval, and carried out the second dive before returning to the dive centre by midday. This allowed us to have lunch then have the afternoon for our own leisure. Today three of us took an afternoon walk to explore further up the track & into the hills.

 Sunday was again local dives

 Monday was a non-dive day and we all took a tour, taking us on a boat trip around the mangrove forest in the Menjangen area. There were a lot of kingfishers, shoals of tiny fish would often jump out of the water as we passed.

 Tuesday & Wednesday we again dived around Menjangen island, although due to a big swell, especially Tuesday, the planned dive sites were changed in order to find more favourable conditions and the visibility was a bit less than previously. On Wednesday’s dive we went into a small cave where there were a couple of electric flame scallops and in a rocky crevice a group of cleaner shrimps.

 On Thursday John & I went on an early morning birdwatching trip (06:00 pick-up). We saw and learned a good number of species unknown to us. In the afternoon We started preparing our kit for the transfer to the other side of the island.

 Friday, after a leisurely breakfast, we completed our packing and were picked up mid-morning for a minibus transfer to Amed.

Amed, second half.

Arrived in Amed mid afternoon, said hello to many of the staff at the resort that we knew from previous trips, unpacked & went to our regular bar – The BARracuda for an evening beer, then out for dinner.

 Saturday we did local dives, going 2 people plus kit and a dive guide in each boat as that is all they can carry. The boats here are tiny with outriggers

 Sunday we went over to Tulamben where we did 2 shore dives on the Liberty wreck.

 Monday our first dive was Emerald, a boat dive and the second Jemeluk Wall where we were shown another electric flame scallop, ghost pipefish and there were a load of almost invisible shrimps in a gap in one of the rocks. On the swim back to shore our guide spotted a couple of stonefish.

 Tuesday – non-dive day, Peter, John & I had another day trip out by minibus. First we visited Lahangan Sweet, a viewpoint where you can see Mount Agung off to one side and the other side we could see Mount Rinjani on Lombok apparently floating in mid air. We then moved on to Maha Gangga which is mainly rice terraces but with nice floral borders, there were butterflies, dragonflies and quite a lot of herons around here. There was a huge swing and in a small gorge, down some steep steps a river and a small waterfall.

We then went to a local Warung where a meal each, including the driver and three drinks cost the IDR equivalent of a total of £7.50 including a tip.

After lunch we went to Turta Gangga water gardens, this was a lot more commercialised and very busy. The lakes held thousands of very large koi carp & other local fish, for which it was possible to buy food to feed them. The gardens were very pleasant, just a bit busier than we had become used to.

Our last 2 days of diving were:

Wednesday the Boga wreck and nearby reef.

Thursday Amed wall and Buntan. As it seems to me is often the way, the last dive was particularly interesting, we had a whole area with lots of octopus, there were a couple of green turtles, one of which allowed a really close approach. There was a large colony of big garden eels which also allowed quite a close approach. There was a big area full of barrel sponges and several had a few cleaner shrimps on them. There were also some large lionfish, blue trigger fish and a few moray eels..

 Thursday afternoon and Friday we used to get our kit dry and start packing for the trip home.

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