Diving Bali
east coast | the Liberty wreck, Tulamben

East coast Bali scuba diving features

MARINE LIFE:
Harlequin shrimp
Seahorses
Mola-mola

EAST BALI'S TOP DIVE SITE:
The Tulamben wreck

DESTINATION OVERVIEW
While the entire island of Bali is ringed by exciting dive sites, the eastern coast has some of her most impressive diving. The most famous is, of course, the Liberty wreck. Old hands may sometimes find the crowds that flock to dive this site at Tulamben a little frustrating, but there is nothing about it that is less than wonderful. Even when it's rainy, even when the surf makes entry difficult, the Liberty is part of diver folklore.

Just 30 metres from shore lies the broken hull of an American WWII supply ship. Torpedoed in 1941 by a Japanese submarine, she lay beached for 20 years before mighty Mount Agung erupted. The force pushed her down the sloping seabed where she broke up and became one of the best artificial reefs you will ever see.

The dive involves wandering up the pebble strewn beach before entering from shore. Fin towards the hull, passing the resident oriental sweetlips, and the wreck materialises from the blue. There can be jacks swirling above, large napoleon wrasse in amongst them and, rarely, magnificent mola-mola. The superstructure is thick with corals, sponges and fans. Although you can't penetrate the ship you can see guns, boilers and the anchor chain.

The bay to the side of the wreck, and others like Seraya nearby, have black sand slopes which drop to 15 metres or so before heading into deeper waters. Amongst the small patches of coral and sponges is some fabulous critter life, from seahorses to pipefish, harlequin shrimp to frogfish – even the blue-ringed octopus. Further away from Tulamben, along the coast there are dives near the town of Padangbai and even more offshore, near Nusa Penida in the Lombok Channel.

Seasons
Year round
Visibility:
10 – 40 metres
Water temperature:
25 – 29º C.
Deco chambers:
Bali

Flight to Bali then a two hour road transfer

Accommodation
There is a lot of fabulous options along the east coast: The Watergarden and Alila Manggis in Candidasa. Anda Amed Resort in Amed and back on the South Coast the Elysian in Seminyak

Dive centres: More numerous than you can mention just about, however, we mostly use AquaMarine Diving.

PROS AND CONS
While the calibre of diving around Bali is a given, the wreck can get crowded at certain times when the day-tripper contingent arrives. All the same, Tulamben bay and the ones directly around it, are still some of the best dives on Bali. Perhaps the only downside is that the hotels closest to the wreck are less spacious than staying in villages nearby, which can mean travelling by car each day to get there. Always bear in mind that Bali is a big island – with dive sites in several locations – so plan your trip to take advantage of that. Cross island journeys are the perfect opportunity to see the island and it's culture.

SCUBA DIVING
Visibility can be variable, and the currents can be strong at different times of the month yet the rewards at Tulamben can be outstanding. We saw our first mola-mola here and incredible numbers of fish including the school of sweetlips near the pipe that have been there on every single dive. Night dives can be outstanding, too. We've been diving on the wreck on and off since the late 80's and we have never been disappointed.

OPINION
We love Bali, as anyone who has ever met us knows well. We first visited when the island had little more than a handful of guesthouses, a lot of hippies and just one dive centre. Since those times, the island has blossomed, grown and developed into a thriving and modern destination yet the Balinese people never lose their sense of place and their incredible integrity.