DIVING IN BALI

Divers on a tight schedule could dive Cemeluk in the morning, and the Tulamben wreck-just a few kilonieters away-in the afternoon, But these are both excellent dive spots, so why rush? Cemeluk-sometimes called Amed-offers the best variety of fish life we have seen in all of Bali. In this regard it matches even the teeming reefs of Manado and eastern Indonesia.Cemeluk is just off Bali’s main east coast highway passes through Klungkung, then Candi Dasa, then swings inland past Karangasem skirting 1,175 meter Mt. Seraya, Bali’s easternmost mountain. Just before it reaches the coast again, about 10 kilometers before Tulamben, a paved side road from the little town of Culik drops directly to the coast at Amed, kilometers away. From Amed, the paved road turns right and passes a long stretch of traditional salt works. Two kilometers from Amed, you’re in Cerneluk, a fairly small bay with a beach of black, volcanic sand, crowded with dozens of color jukung, local outrigger fishing canoes powered by sails or small outboards.

The reef off Cemeluk curves around a rock outcropping just east of town. We took a jukung, out into the bay, and dropped into a very slight current pushing us southeast along the reef. At about 8 meters we came down on an extensive spread of staghorn Acropora teeming with with damselfishes and cardinalfishes. A short slope led to a coral wall, where we dropped to 43 meters, hanging there about 8-10 meters above the sandy bottom. The wall was magic. Schools of fish of several species cascaded down the wall or took the electric stairs back up in orderly, two-way traffic. The numbers were staggering, the best we have seen in Bali and only rarely matched or surpassed to the east. The schools included black triggerfish, lots of banner fish, black snappers, pyramid butterflies and countless others. Further off from the wall, the usual school of yellowtail fusiliers kept an eye on proceedings. According to Wally Siagian, my stellar dive guide, by beginning our dive towards the southeast part of Cemeluk Bay we left the best coral formations behind, although there were still impressive outcrops along our 200-oddmeter journey, covered with sponges, sea fans and crinoids.One sponge sheltered a small lionfish, and in another a wellcamouflaged tassled scorpionfish would have passed unnoticed except for Wally’s sharp eyes.

Towards the end of dive, the dense growth of sponges and gorgonians created a tunnel between two of the outcrops. Inside, it was wall-to-wall with life. Large barrel sponges poked out from clearings in this forest. Acouple of mean-looking Titan triggerfish eyed us with undisguised hate, but refrained from charging. A clown triggerfish approached, then fled. On a small sandy patch next to an out crop, a little juvenile blue ribbon eel (the juveniles are black stood his ground bravely. The larger fish included a longnose emperor, a patrolling giant trevally, and several bluefin trevallys. Two very large tuna both over a meter and in the 30-40 kilo range, shot by quickly. As we finished the dive, we saw a mismatched pair of Napoleon wrasse: a very large adult and a very small juvenile. Wally often sees reef white-tip sharks here, although we saw none on this day. Our visibility was around 10 meters, but can double under the right conditions. The area is calm year around with only very occasional surge and high current conditions.