Bira, Sulawesi

[matts1w]

Hi all:

I have been doing some reading about Bira on the southern tip of Sulawesi. The pictures look amazing, and there are a few new dive "resorts" opening soon. The downside is a hellish 5-6 hour taxi/car trek after landing in Makassar.

I am all for trying out someplace new, but cannot get a solid idea as to the quality of diving there. I tend to think if an area is still flying below the radar there is probably a reason why. Getting to Makassar is easy, and five hours in a car isn't really all that bad. Consequently I am a bit dubious, but I would love to be wrong.

So... Does anyone here have any experience diving out of Bira?

Thanks in advance.!

 

[Luko]

I almost dived from Bira 10 years ago in august.
Made the trip from Toraja down to Bira and was expecting a dive operator (ie. someone renting tanks) like it was mentioned in the Lonely Planet: it appeared that except from a snorkeling trip nothing was available, certainly no no tanks and nor a compressor ready to pump air. It was like the ex dive operation was gone.

We stayed at Bira beach resort which was at the time held by a kind of indo crook. On the way from Sengkang we booked one of the only aircon room they had, the guy said "no worries, it's for you". As we arrived he put us into a backyard stilt hut which had more to do with a toolshed with rats running on the roof and goats on the terrace... and of course no aircon . Neither running water.

it appeared he also had booked the aircon rooms to 3 or 4 other parties, who where our unfortunate toolshed neighbors as well, while one lucky couple had won the aircon lottery.

Since it was blatant that the owner simply wanted to scam us with little effort on his own, we came out at breakfast with a song of my own that sounded ike "tidak ayer, tidak uang". Otherwise : "no (running) water, no money (for the rooms)".
Suddenly, we had water to shower... needless to say we didn't spend another night in Bira and went back directly to Makassar.

Maybe it has improved until now... or maybe not..

 

[matts1w]

This place is doing a great job of marketing their new dive camp and has me curious:

Bira Dive Camp | Dive, chill, dive, relax, repeat

 

[Wisnu]

never been there but there's few report in the local diving forum forumselam.com - one guy reported on his April trip he always saw white tips and lot of pelagic
I read on this forum, few people looking for buddy to dive bira
since you live in Jakarta, you can also contact the owner of sea pearl - he dived bira quite often in the past

 

[Zippsy]

Hmmm.... it sounds pretty good on websites & tripadvisor. Maybe things have improved there but 10 years ago there was a lot of evidence of fish bombing & over-fishing. The only sharks were at 50m and swimming away fast. It would be great if things have turned around.

 

[Edmund Greyadder]

hi matts1w<br><br>my name is chris and its me who manages Bira Divers (we opened 1 june 2012) and the new opening Bira Dive Camp. I agree is tough to find much info on diving in Bira online. I struggled before i started here. I know everyone is never going to trust staff owners opinions too much but i thought i would take time to tell you a bit about the area. There is a mixture of diving for experienced and inexperienced levels. Close to the Bira Beach area is sloping reefs, max depth of about 20m, good for turtles, stingrays, nice macro. Over on the islands opposite lots of white tips and a few blacktips and plenty of other bigger things like barracudas tunas, eagle rays. For more experienced divers there is great walls on kambing island - if kind of like the walls in bunaken but lots more big fish too. August the water is chillier and lots of sharks, last year we saw just about everything. Currents are stronger in July and August full and new moons but no different to Lembongan or Alor or Pandang Bai or Candidasa. Jan and Feb it isnt great diving due to the West Monsoon so we close then. Yes there is some dynamite fishing damage for sure, nothing on the scale of Mabul though. But the reef is still full off fish and plenty of coral everywhere. Most of the divers we get here are on a travel around Sulawesi and go to Manado then Togeans and pop to Bira not sure about the diving and are pleasantly suprised. I was too and thats why we are opening the second business here. Do check tripadvisor and facebook though for words not from the horses mouth so to speak!&nbsp;<br><br>

 

[pughio83]

Edmund what kind of macro do you have there? Comparable to what? You have hammers and bulls?

 

[matts1w]

Thanks, Edmund. Cool of you to reply. Perhaps I will look at bringing a group over in October. I teach at a large international school in Jakarta and we (my friends and I) are always looking for a new adventure in Indonesia. Is there much to offer topside? A surf break? The beaches look beautiful. Cultural stuff? Trekking? A good supply of Bintang and/or Anker? Haha.

 

[Luko]

The beaches look beautiful. Cultural stuff?

As far as I remember the beach was not the surfing kind but on the cultural side Pantai Bira is not far from one of the most important Bugis shipbuilding village. Very nice to visit and impressive to see almost everyone building 20m long schooners (most of the time larger!) the old fashioned way, in the back of their house.

 

[Zippsy]

Hi Chris, thanks for the information as well as your honesty. Many resorts / operators / LOB's register and just pretend to be satisified customers.

Actually, I am just posting this so people call you Chris rather than Edmund Greyadder. I hate wizards.