DIVING Tulamben
Tulamben
Tulamben is a little village in the northeast coast of Bali, the beach is
black sand covered by smooth, fist-size rocks. The remains of Gunung Agung
exploding in 1963 has sent the lava flows along this coastal area. There is a
bay here that invites divers to visit this village to explore under water
scene. The bay was later known as Tulamben Bay amongst the divers. The
excellent diving sites in this bay are Ship Wreck (USAT Liberty Cargo),
Paradise Reef and Drop Off (actually rugged wall). These sites are the
best beach entry scuba diving in all of Bali, further east about 15 minutes
cruising in a small out rigger fishing boat, will bring you to other diving
sites known as Alamanda Reef and Batu Kelebit. A car ride 10 minutes further
west of Tulamben and you will be in Kubu village with its beach similar in
condition to Tulamben Bay offers a diving on the pristine Kubu Reef.
Ship Wreck (USAT
Liberty Cargo)
Just 30 meters from the beach at Tulamben is a World War II cargo ship
broken up but still an impressively large wreck, stretching 120 meters long on
a steeply sloping sandy bottom. The top of wreckage is just 3 meters below the
water surface and the bottom is at 29 meters. January 11th, 1942, this ship was
hit by torpedoes from a Japanese submarine while crossing the Lombok Strait
carried rubber and railroad part on World War II service. The damage was
critical, but two destroyers hitched up to the ship and tried to tow it to the
port at Singaraja. The wounded cargo ship was taking too much water, however
her crew ran the vessel up on the beach at Tulamben. The volcanic explosion of
Gunung Agung in 1963 rolled Liberty off the beach to its present location, in
the process breaking in pieces. The wreck is completely covered with variety of
corals and hundreds of species of fish inhabit it, an Australian Rudie Kuiter,
author of the definitive guide to Indonesian reef fishes, estimates that some
400 species of reef fishes live on the wreck, which is also visited by perhaps
100 species of pelagic. This is a remarkable number for an area just 120 meters
long. On the slack tide is a good time to do night dive, remarkable flashlight
fishes (Anomalops katoptron) in the black corals at the bow blink the like
starslight in the sky. Visibility is average 15 to 20 meters and water
temperature is roughly warm 28 to 29 degrees C.
Paradise Reef
The name of this reef has been taken from the hotel standing on the beach,
Paradise Hotel. This shallow patch reef is delightful and richly covered more
than 200 meters long and lies in 5 to 15 meters of water. This reef is
dominated by Acropora, hard corals, some large table corals and Fire corals,
there are also large Clownfish Anemones, Crinoids, Leather corals and bushes of
Hydroids and supports diversity of fish population in this area, Parrotfish,
Wrasse, Snappers and the rest of other marine fish, as well as rarities like
Ribbon Eels, Frogfish and unusual Scorpionfish. Past the patch reef down the
slope is a rubble sandy bottom at 20 to 35 meters, in a single Crinoids feather
star is sometimes a pair of Ornate Ghost Pipefish found with many other unusual
and weird critters, like Steene’s Dotty Backs (Pscudochromis Steene) bright
orange face with spiky teeth and pushed lower jaw and variety of Nudibranchs.
Photographers and divers who like macro sea life this is a favourite site to
discover and experience unusual animals. For night dive this is a very
convenient location due its position close to main resort at Tulamben.
The locals of Tulamben call this reef “Drop Off”, it is actually rugged wall
reef stretching out seaward, and the reef wall descends down over 70 meters.
Black corals, soft corals and hard corals grow well on the crannies and
overhangs at around 18 meters, there live an abundance of Cleaner Shrimps and
large fishes are waiting in overhangs to be cleaned. The hook of the wall at 28
meters where the reef extends to the sloping eastern reef stands a huge purple
sea fan Gorgonian, over 2 meters wide this is a sticking land mark on the reef
wall. A prolific variety of schooling fish swim around the corner of the wall,
and even invertebrate animals are often encountered at this rugged wall reef.
In the shallow crannies the reef is delightfully rich with a marine life.
Flashlight Fish (Photoblepharon palpebratus) during night dives is a remarkable
scene on bushy black corals at the overhang of the wall. The current normally
runs north, as the beach entry we have to think to travel back with the ample
air in the tank, the Divemaster or Instructor will assist with this problem.
Water temperature is always warm roughly 28 to 29 degrees C underwater.
Pick up a small wooden local outrigger fishing boatuse it to
cruise beyond the Drop Off, you will find a healthy Alam Anda Reef. The steep
slope reef is dominated by dome hard corals, soft corals and variety of
Gorgonians, below 20 to 30 meters is rich ridged reef with large number of
sponges, Barrel sponges, variety of reef fishes, Pygmy Seahorse on purple sea
fan is favourite macro critter amongst the experienced divers, sometime on a
single sea fan you can find 5 to 10 Pygmies. Current mainly bring the diver
toward the Drop Off, water
Is named after the local fishermen, literally the Kelebit Rocks, are two
large underwater boulders lying just offshore, one of two pointed jagged crest
of lava is always submerged, the other point is crusted by water used as a
marker for the diving area. Sand channels between two reef ridges is covered by
fire corals leading to the reef edges at 25 to 40 meters, which are rich and
healthy reef is covered with an extremely diverse growth of hard corals,
sponges, gorgonians and every other encrusting animal. The current runs towards
the north, sometimes strong but mostly mild brings planktons that has
accumulated at the reef edges, inviting larger pelagic animals to appear like
White Tip Reef Sharks, schools of Jacks, Dogtooth Tuna and even Sunfish. Water
clarity is always good and its temperature is a bit cooler compared to the rest
of Tulamben Bay dive sites.
From Tulamben Bay cruising with a small wooden local outrigger fishing boat
takes about 15 minutes to this site.
| Price for Tulamben |
|---|
| Description |
Acces |
Duration |
Price/person |
Book Here |
| Certified Divers | Shore Dive |
2 Dives |
US $ 86 |
US $ 60 |
| Certified Divers | Boat Dive (boat on site) |
2 Dives |
US $ 92 |
US $ 80 |
| Snorkeling | From Beach |
|
US $ 40 |
US $ 35 (min4P) |
| Introductory Dive | Shore Dive |
2 Dives |
US $ 127 |
US $ 99 |
