Tulamben Dive Sites

[frogfish]

I'll be in Tulamben next week. I have been there many times and know well the wreck, coral gardens, the drop-off and Seraya secrets. I am looking for some recommendations for other sites in the area, with specifics on their highlights.

I am not interested in Amed, but more for sites very close to Tulamben e.g Kubu, Alam Anda, Batu Kebelit etc.

Thanks in advance for your insights !

 

[Luko]

Melasti, 400m west to Seraya : Lots of doto "donut" nudis, GPF.
There's a Balinese temple/shrine in between Melasti and Batu Kelebit, I don't remember its name, excellent for small stuff. Juvenile frogfish, doto nudis
Liberty slope (not the wreck, eh!), 50m east of Liberty wreck, much overlooked : very fine black sand slope diving, lembeh style. Amazing at nighttime for macro & supermacro (BRO, small cephalopods, donald duck shrimp, various crustacea, lots of nudis).

Weirdly enough I don't dive Batu Kelebit nor Kubu, too many corals for macro, not enough time ...

Even not it's not close, won't you have a try at Padang Bai jetty for Rhinopias?

 

[JohnN]

I'll be in Tulamben next week. I have been there many times and know well the wreck, coral gardens, the drop-off and Seraya secrets. I am looking for some recommendations for other sites in the area, with specifics on their highlights.

I am not interested in Amed, but more for sites very close to Tulamben e.g Kubu, Alam Anda, Batu Kebelit etc.

Thanks in advance for your insights !

Gili Selang http://www.asiadivesite.com/indonesia-dive-sites/bali/gili-selang.php . South of the island for big currents (and the pelagics that go with it), North for a fast but beautiful drift dive over some nice coral.

 

[frogfish]

Thanks Luko, excatly the sort of inputs I am looking for !

Yes I have also planned a few days in Padangbai : I confirmed that the rhinopia can still be seen

---------- Post added November 6th, 2013 at 01:27 PM ----------

Gili Selang http://www.asiadivesite.com/indonesia-dive-sites/bali/gili-selang.php . South of the island for big currents (and the pelagics that go with it), North for a fast but beautiful drift dive over some nice coral.

Thansk JohnN, I have been to Gili Selang before. Agree it's a nice site, but not very close to Tulamben

 

[JohnN]

Thansk JohnN, I have been to Gili Selang before. Agree it's a nice site, but not very close to Tulamben

Hmmmm. . . I usually stay at the Blue Moon and the put-in for Gili Selang (and the Japanese wreck) is just a short walk down the hill

Transport to Tulamben is easy (well the last time I was there, the "roads" were washed out in at least three places), but welcome to Bali

Don't overlook Jemaluk Bay, (between Amed and Tulamben) some nice muck diving

 

[frogfish]

So I repeat: I am not interested in Amed in this thread, only Tulamben and it's immediate neighborhood. Thanks again.

 

[jcclink]

Just returned yesterday. Try Blue Hill (across road from Blue Hill Resort), Ocean View Resort (just west of the Liberty) & Melasti. Didn't do as well with critters this year as in the past. Water temp is 87 & some of the animals seem to move deeper to chill out. PJ's is worth the trip. We did pretty good the 2nd day. Didn't see any ambon scorpions thou but others saw a couple. The normal slopes off Tulamben & Seraya were not as productive as in the past. Ocean warming does effect the marine life that we seek for photos.

 

[Luko]

The normal slopes off Tulamben & Seraya were not as productive as in the past. Ocean warming does effect the marine life that we seek for photos.

I am returning Tulamben every year since a while. It happens that Tulamben had a week of very high waves in the months of april/may that, aside from tearing down some visible parts of the USAT Liberty, heavily changed the bio-environment along the coast from Seraya to Kubu.

It seems as you noticed that most of the usual midsized critters have gone AWOL, but that said where I don't agree with you is that they were replaced by other even more supermacro sized critters.
I had a ball using my Subsee +10 lens this august shooting odd nudis, juve octopi, micro sized shrimps (also looots of GPF all kinds too, I really mean lots!!!) while I remember struggling to put the whole cropless frogfish and even bigger chromodoris into one frame the years before.
Maybe... -I say maybe- ...an explanation comes from the smaller critters feeling better off without the missing intermediate foodchain predators.

 

[frogfish]

So just came back from a week's diving in Bali, 4 days in Tulamben and 3 days in Padangbai. Diving was very good as always, even though the schooling jacks and the George the big barracuda were not to be found on the wreck.

As suggested by Luko, I tried the Liberty slope and Melasti in addition to the usual Drop-off, Coral gardens, wreck and Seraya sites. Also went to Kubu to dive the wreck that was sunk there last year.

In Padangbai, do not miss the cruise ship jetty, awesome macro site.

Link to a few pictures from the trip:
Tulamben and Padangbai November 2013 - a set on Flickr

 

[Immeriswas]

Planning a trip to Tulamben next autum. Is any of the places mentioned in this thread good for snorkeling ?
Has anybody stayed in Matahari resort Tulamben ?