The Capital of Macro - Amed, Tulamben & Kubu
A little over a year after the world pandemic, I managed to enter the wonderful country of Indonesia. After a week of quarantine, I headed straigh to one of the best places in the world for macro diving: the North-East Coast of Bali. Amed and Tulamben are very reputated for diving: some of the best muck dives at a worldwide level, one of the best wreck in the world, the USAT Liberty sank almost 60 years ago, now home to a great variety of corals and the mighty Bumphead Parrot, and on top of that the prices are very low, as for living and diving. This area should be on the list of every Underwater Photographer.
Drone footage of Amed
My first trip to Bali was in September 2019: back then I only did a short trip to Pemuteran, on the North-West side of the island, where a beautiful national park (Menjangan National Park) offers great walls for diving. I unfortunately didn’t have enough time to see the true beauty of the island.
I came back in late September 2021, at the end of the dry season, but still got to enjoy the clear and blue calm waters of summer. Beautiful Corals, loads of nudibranchs, Frogfish a bit everywhere (I have only seen 4 in my entire career before coming back) and many more surprises made me fall in love with that little remote place in the North of Bali.
Diving in the North-East of Bali
Most of the dive sites are shore dives: you can park your car or bike literally on the beach where you want to dive in pretty much any of the dive sites. Pretty much at every dive site, a mandatory fee has to be paid to the locals: depending on what services you enquire (parking, porter, shower…etc) , the location, and, most importantly, the mood of the guy that gives you the ticket. You can go 2 days in a row to the same dive site and the fee wouldn’t be the same: it tends to go between 10.000 IDR to 50.000 IDR (0,61€ to 3,10€).
As most dives are little bays or protected beaches, it doesn’t tend to be much strong currents, specially in the sandy macro dives, where the smallest animals can live without worrying about getting swoop out. On more exposed sites, corals are stunning and healthy, and bigger animals such as Giant Trevallies, Napoleon Wrasses, Bumphead Parrotfish and Turtles can be found.
After over 4 months of daily dives in this area, I did a selection of my personal favourite dive sites:
Ghost Bay / Pacha Wreck (Amed)
In early 2019, the Sri Kandi Speedboat, that was doing trips between Amed and the Gilis, misteriously sank on its mooring line at 18m. After a couple of seismic activities in the area, the wreck slowly sank to its actual depth, at -27m deep. After a little more than 2 years underwater, the wreck is finally starting to become a proper little reef: some sponges/corals are starting to grow on it, attracting loads of life, like a big school of juvenile Yellowbanded Snappers, a huge black Giant Frogfish on the top and even a big Honeycomb Moray, playing hide and seek under the speedboat’s hull.
The true attraction of that wreck is not the wreck by itself, but the area around it: this “sandy desert” is home to many tiny critters, a brilliant muck diving area. Coconut Octopus, Longarm Octopus, juvenile Frogfish, Mantis Shrimps, Ghost Pipefish and even Pipehorses and Seahorses are some of the many animals living in this muddy/sandy area.
Ghost Bay is very close to Pacha, and you easily drift from the wreck to there: right in front of Amed Beach Resort, there are some rocks and a bit further on the right some metals frames for coral restauration projects. A bunch of Frogfish of all sizes and colors have called this place home, along with loads of Sheep Nudibranchs living on the shallow water leaves. This dive site goes from 3m to 25m, but the most interesting part is between 7m to 12m, perfect for long easy macro dives. On an average day, visibility tends to go from 10m to 30m (on a great day), but if the past few days were a bit rainy or windy, as the bottom is mainly sand/mud and the area is close to a small river, visibility can be drastically reduced (sometimes less than 2m), but as it is a macro dive site… it doesn’t really matters! :)
USAT Liberty (Tulamben)
If there is one dive that you should do in this area, it is this one! The USAT Liberty is considered one of the best wreck dive in the world, along with the SS Yongala in Australia and the SS Thigelstorm in Egypt.
The story behind this wreck is quite impressive: this ship was firstly used in WWI to transport cargo and horses to France for the US Army, and later on served in WWII in the Pacific. On the 11th of January 1942, she got torpedoed by a Japanese submarine near Lombok, and had to get towed back by an American destroyer and a Dutch destroyer to Singaraja, which was the nearest harbour in the area. As the Liberty was taking too much water, the US Army decided to beach her near Tulamben to save the cargo she was transporting, where she remained for over 20 years. In 1963, after some seismic activity near Mount Agung, the wreck totally sank and slided to its actual depth, between 8m and 27m.
Being sank for almost 60 years, this wreck is home to an impressive range of marine creatures: Hawksbill Turtles, Marbled Groupers, Napoleon Wrasses and the occasional White Tip Reef Shark are some of the inhabitants of the remains of the USAT Liberty. Corals of all types and colours covered the wreck, along with huge Sponge Barrels, creating home to wide variety of smaller reef fish, like Sweetlips, Damselfish, Bannerfish and Surgeonfish, and loads of macro life, like weird nudibranch and sometimes even a Frogfish or 2 can be found near the wreck.
Even thought the wreck is huge (125m long), has loads of chambers and overhangs to explore, is covered by beautiful corals and huge sponges, the highlight of the wreck are the Bumphead Parrotfish: during the night and until sunrise, they stay around the wreck and even allow the diver to get a bit closer to them, offering great opportunities for pictures.
Batu Niti (Tulamben)
Right before the entrance of Tulamben, just before crossing the bridge, there is a very narrow dirt road leading to a tiny village, barely big enough to fit a car, where you have to be careful not to hit a cow or a goat. Once you arrived on the parking, you set up your gear and just head straight to the water.
At first, this dive site seems dull and muddy: it is mostly sand and rubble, along with some small coral reefs and occasional sponges. The macro life there is absolutely stunning: loads of little Frogfish hiding a bit everywhere, very unique Nudibranchs on the top of sponges and hydroids, and even sometimes Seahorses can be spotted in the area.
There are a couple of different entrances to this dive site: the closer you get to the rock on the right side of the beach, the more corals and the less macro you would find. The dive site starts 5m and has a sandy slope until 25/30m. Most macro life are around 10 to 15m.
Seraya’s Secret (Tulamben)
If there is one spot where you are almost guaranteed to have a great macro dive, it has to be Seraya’s Secret.
This sandy beach is home to many different critters: loads of little fish live next to the shallows on some artificial reefs, between the corals and the sponges. As you descend the slope, you start finding little “islands” of reef, where you can pretty much find anything you expect: Frogfish, Harlequin Shrimp, Seahorse, Emperor Shrimp, Spearing/Peacock Mantis Shrimps, many Hypselodoris zephira/nigrolenata and Mexichromis multituberculata, Ribbon Eels and etc. Far from the entrance on the right side of the dive site, there is a Seafan Coral with 2 Pigmy Seahorses, and on the shallow left side of the entrance, there is a big metal structure where lives one of the biggest Giant Frogfish I have ever seen.
Batu Niti and Seraya’s Secret are neighbouring dive sites, so you have chances of seeing the same animals.
Deep Blue / Bunutan Drift (Amed)
These 2 dive sites are slightly different than the rest in this list: they are drift dives, where bigger fish and corals can be found, proving that this area has also stunning landscapes dives.
Either Bunutan Drift and Deep Blue are home to huge sea fans, where the occasional Pigmy Seahorse can be found (if current and LUCK allow you), giant Sponge Barrels, some of them almost big enough to fit a person inside, and, thanks to the “bit” stronger currents, bigger animals, such as Groupers, Turtles, Barracudas and sometimes Bumpheapd Parrotfish, White Tip Reef Sharks and Napoleon Wrasses, can be spotted there. Starting from the shallow waters of the shore, you can drift sometimes for over 1km, and just come out on another beach, where big colonies of hard corals, like the Staghorn Coral, are home to many smaller reef fish and nudibranchs.
Most of these dive sites are between 10m to 35m: if your air consumption is good enough, Nitrox 32% is recommended to make your dive more enjoyable and you don’t have to worry about Decompression procedures. If you are unsure about the current, I would recommend renting a “jukung”, a local boat, to assist the divers, for safety reasons (you can bargain the price with the locals in the area). Depending of the time of the year and if current is a bit stronger, visibility can be really good, being easily over 30/40m.
Melasti (Amed)
There are 2 Melasti beaches in the area: one in Amed and one in Tulamben, both being exceptional macro sites. Melasti Tulamben is world famous for its amaziung Donut Nudibranchs, various species of Ghost Pipefish, muilticolor Frogfish and many more, but its beauty is also its loss: as being very popular, it can get very crowed, and loads of unrespectful photographers and poor divers go there by the tens and destroy all the beautiful tiny creatures of the dive site. Melasti Amed, also called Amed Secret, is for absolutely amazing: it is a very wide dive site, and not very known (yet), so the few of us diving this dive site get the best out of it.
Melasti Amed is a long flat sandy bottom that very progressively drops down to 8m, and then is a sandy slop that goes maximum 20-25m deep. Mostly sand, there some corals boomies and some grass. A couple of old mooring lines provide great refuge for tiny creatures in the middle of this big sandy desert. During the day you can find Ghost Pipefish, Sheep Nudibranchs, Frogfish, Harlequin Shrimps, Emperor Shrimps, Sea Moths, Pigmy Pipefish and even Mimic Octopus and many more. But during the night… it is when the show starts: Bobtail Squids can be find all over the site, from a couple of meters deep to all the way at the bottom, Octopus everywhere, Frogfish hunting with your light, Bumblebee Shrimps and so many nudibranchs, big and small. The amazing part is that the dive is very shallow, so it allows you to do long dives, without worrying about your No-Stop Limit and your air consumption. I did my longest dive to date there, a whooping 133min at maximum 8m on a 12L tank!
Pura Gerombong (Kubu)
Pura Gerombong is the name of this small temple at the western border of Kubu: this dive site is also known as Secret Rock, due to a big rock underwater that make a little cave, big enough to fit 3 divers at once. Even though this big overhang is a cool feature of this dive site, this place is mostly known for its incredible amount of macro critters: loads of nudibranch call this place home, you just need to pay attention to the sponges and rocks at the bottom.
A bit further after the cave on the right side, big sea fans and schools of fish can be spotted where the current gets a bit stronger.
Others great dive sites
Japanese Wreck
A lot of mystery surrounds this wreck: no one really know for sure how and when this ship sank. Rumours say it was a Japanese patrol boat that sank during WWII. This small wreck (around 20m long) is in the very shallows of the Banyuning Bay, a bit after Amed: it lies between 2 and 6m, which makes it also a very nice snorkelling spot. The whole boat is covered with hydroids and soft corals, and is home to loads of smaller fish. If you go a bit deeper, you will encounter a beautiful reef that goes all the way to 25m, where you can find nice sea fans and lots of life.
Melasti Tulamben
As mentioned before, there are 2 Melasti Beach. Melasti Tulamben is very well known for its macro life: just at the begining of the site, there is a rock where 2 huge Harlequin Shrimp live. Around 12m and around 25m, there are big mooring blocks where, if you are a bit lucky, you can find some Pikachu Nudibranch, and next to them are a field of small leafs where live the classic Sheep Nudibranch and also the “Rasta” Sheep Nudibranch (Coastellia sp.) . Leaf Fish, Frogfish, Whip Coral Shrimps, Ribbon Eels and many more can be found there.
Alamanda/Drop-off:
These two dive sites probably have some of the most interesting and beautiful coral in the area: Drop-Off is a very deep wall (+60m deep) that is home to huge sea fans and overhangs, and Alamanda is a shallow beautiful Lettuce Coral Garden (2/3m), that descends into a sandy slope with stunning corals and sponges. As theses dive sites descend deep and can be home to stronger currents, you might get “big” surprises: Little reef sharks, schools of Barracudas, Bumphead Parrotfish, Napoleon Wrasses but also the occasional Eagle Ray, Mola-mola and even Whaleshark can be seen passing by. It is just a matter of luck!!