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Nusa Penida, across the Badung
Strait from Bali's southern tip, offers some of the best diving to be found anywhere. But
conditions around Penida and its two small sister islands-Nusa Lembongan and Nusa
Ceningan-can sometimes be difficult, with unpredictable currents reaching four or more
knots. This is not a place for beginning divers, inexperienced boatmen, or engines in less
than perfect condition. Also, Upwellings from the deep water south of Bali, which keep
visibility here clear, can also make the water uncomfortably cold. Even if you are an
expert diver, contract with one of Bali's well-organized diving services to dive Nusa
Penida, and make sure that You get a reliable boat and a guide with plenty of experience.
 The currents in this area can usually be
predicted from the tide tables, but they can increase, decrease or shift direction with no
advance notice, and vary dramatically with depth. We recommend that your guide bring a
buoy, and that you do not wander off by yourself. The dive locations are all close
together, and an experienced guide can easily shift you to an alternate site if the
conditions at your planned location are unsatisfactory.
Dive boats to Nusa Penida leave from Nusa Dua or Sanur, or from Padang Bai. (See map page
101.) From either of the resorts the 34-kilometer (18-nautical-mile) trip takes 1.5 hours;
from Padang Bai, just 17 kilometers (9 nautical miles) from Penida, it takes 45 minutes to
1 hour, depending on the boat. You can also rent a speedboat at Padang Bai (about $110
round-trip) to shave tlip time to the minimum, but if you do, make sure your dive guide
knows the boatman. 'ne chap could fall asleep while You're under and be out of whis-tle
range when you come up with the current. It has happened.
Coral Walls and Pelagics
Most of the dive spots are around the channel between Nusa
Penida and Nusa Ceningan.The standard reef profile here has a terrace at 8-12 meters, then
a wall or steep slope to 25-30 meters, then a fairly gentle slope to the seabed at 600
meters. Pinnacles and small caves are often encountered. At 35-40 meters, long
antipathatian wire corals are common, spiraling outward more than 8 meters.Pelagics are
the main attraction here, and you have a good chance to see jacks, mackerel and tuna. Reef
sharks are so common that after a while you stop noticing them.
Mantas are frequently sighted. Perhaps the most unusual pelagic visitor to Nusa Penida is
the weird mola-mola or oceanic sunfish (Mola-mola), a mysterious large, flattened
fish with elongate dorsal and ventral fins, and a lumpy growth instead of a tail fin.
 Dive
guide Wally Siagian says he has seen a mola-mola here about once every 15 dives. On two
occasions he has been able to swim up and touch the bizarre, up to 2-meter-long animals.
The most common dive spots are just south of the dock at Toyapakeh, or a bit further cast,
at Ped, the site of an important temple of the same name, Sam palan Point, and
"S.D.," named for the sekolah dasar or primary school there. There are
other dive spots down the northeastband southwest coasts of Penida but these areas, swept
by tricky currents, require an experienced guide and more time than is available in a
daytrip to reach.
A Dive off Penida
We were staying at Baruna's Puri Bagus Beach Hotel in Candi
Dasa when the opportunity came to dive Nusa Penida. One of the hotel's minibuses picked us
up early, and after a 15-minute ride dropped us off at Padang Bai, where the large diesel
- powered Baruna 05 dive boat was already waiting for Us. We waded through
waist-high water to load our gear, and were soon on our way for the hour-and-a-half trip.
The boat anchored off the Ped/S.D. area, and we dropped into a practically currentless
sea. From an initial 7 meter depth, we followed the slope of 45 degrees down to 37 meters.
There good hard coral cover, and an occasional pinnacle reared 5-6 meters from the slope.
We crossed a big school of black triggerfish mixed with a few sleek
unicornfish. A small cave in one of coral knolls held a densely packed school of pygmy
sweeps
(Parapriacanthus ransonetti). These greenish, semi-transparent fish feed at night
on small plankton attracted by the bioluminous organs located just in back of their
pectoral fins.
Early in the dive we crossed paths with a large black-spotted stingray. He allowed us to
approach to within just over a meter, but after just one photo flew off to his next
appointment. Shortly after we saw a hawksbill turtle, one of the largest we have ever
seen.This 1.3-1. meter animal flippered off before I could approach within decent camera
range.
The rest of our dive passed through busy schools of tailed and lunar fusiliers and
occasional schools of longfin bannerfish. We saw several groupers and even more sweetlips,
and an occasional clown or Titan triggerfish. A good-sized barracuda observed us from
above. Visibility was good, in the 15-meter range. When we ascended we noticed the surface
current increased markedly since we seen in pairs or small began our dive. Wally
complained that we had not spotted any big sharks, which are common in this area.
Toyapakeh
We motored a bit further west along the coast of Nusa Penida,
and dropped anchor a few hundred meters from the dock at Toyapakeh. We descended through a
slight current (less than 1 knot) into veritable clouds of peach fairy basslets (Pseudanthias
dispar), each the exact color of a blue-eyed Nordic tourist who had done too much
time in the sun. The anthias were mixed with large aggregations of firefish, which are
more often increased markedly since we seen in pairs or small groups. A long stretch of
our dive route-this at 25-30 meters- consisted of an almost unbroken thicket of
pastel-tinted Dendronephthya soft corals. A school of two dozen or more greater
amberjacks swam several lazy circles around our group, mixing sometimes with a larger
school of bigeye jacks. As we started upwards, we saw a huge black spotted moray, with
about 1 meter of its snaky body sticking out of its lair.
We surfaced just at funnel mouth of the channel between Nusa Penida and Nusa Ceningan. The
local fishermen were unfurling the sails of their jukungs, and we climbed back on
board just as the current began to pick up speed.
The Baruna 05 tied up to dock at Toyapakeh, and Wally borrowed a bystander's
bicycle to go fetch us some food. While he was gone, a fisherman pulled up in his
outrigger, a bought a just-caught 20-kilo yellowfin tuna for dinner.
Sunset Show
Just before sunset, the current picked up,to 5-6 knots. We
watched the jukungs literally shoot through the channel on their way out for a
night's fishing. Others, taking advantage of the wind and a back current, headed for
"mainland" Bali in the direction of towering Gunung Agung. This was one of the
finest sunset shows I had ever admired in Indonesia.
The tuna we bought ended up as sashimi and charcoal-grilled tuna steaks, and combined with
a lobster Wally had snatched from a grotto on our first dive, we had a splendid supper. We
then spread our mattresses on the top deck, and settled down to drinking beer. A
few little boats fished around us with bright pressure lamps, and we drifted off to sleep.
The night was surprisingly cool, and I woke up at midnight to a sky full of stars. I
quickly discarded all thoughts of a night dive as I heard the current rushing by the boat.
The beer had taken its usual route, and I relieved myself overboard creating swirling
bioluminesce on the water's surface.
Another Dive at S.D.
The next morning, after the sun had
warmed us thoroughly, we headed back east along Nusa Penida's coast to begin our next and
last dive where we had ended the previous morning: in front of the long, red-roofed
elementary school.This was a drift dive, in a
1.5 to 2 knot current that occasionally "gusted" to 3 knots. The fish hovered
effortlessly in the current as we sped by. Swimming diagonally, we approached two large
map puffers, and several smaller, but exquisitely patterned cube trunkfish. We also took a
closer look at a hallucinogenic scribbled filefish.
Between two coral knolls we came on an aggregation of some 40 sweetlips.The fish were
split into four groups, all facing the current. The sight of these attractively patterned
fish was too much to just pass by, so we carefully grabbed onto some hard corals and
crawled along the bottom for a closer look at the sweetlips show. Perhaps feeling there
was safety in numbers, these magnificent animals allowed us to approach to within 2 meters
before they drifted off to find a new spot just a bit further away. While we watched our
sweetlips, a turtle rose up just ahead and, with no effort at all, swam off straight into
the current. Then, a huge grouper, well over a meter long, appeared out of nowhere,
buzzing one of our group before disappearing just as suddenly. Consulting the fish books
later, we came to a consensus that our visitor was likely to have been a blotchy grouper
(Epinephelusfuscogattus). We later saw triggerfish, a barracuda and a reef white-tip
shark; still, it was anticlimactic.
WALLY SIAGIAN
The Best Dive Guide in Bali
Take a group of the most experienced divers in Indonesia and
ask them who they think is the best dive guide in the islands. Wilhelm
Siagian-"Wally," to one and all-will be at the top of the list, every time.
Wally has shown off his Balinese reefs to top underwater pros, including Gerald F, Allen,
Rudie Kuiter, John E. Randall, and Roger Steene-the leading authorities on the
archipelago's marine life and some of the world's top underwater photographic
professionals. As a result, Wally has become an informal student of Allen, Kuiter and
Steene, learning the Latin names of the fish with which he is so familiar.
Wally was born in Bandung, Java in 1960 of Sundanese, Batak and German blood-lines. He was
16 when he first started diving, with a CMAS certificate from Jakarta's Ganesha Diving
Club. After some 200 dives around Pulau Seribu and about 30 off Ujung Kulon, he left for a
bit of travel. Stints of working and diving around Sorong, Irian Jaya and Balikpapan, East
Kalimantan led Wally to decide that diving was all that really mattered in life. (It was
while diving near an oil rig off Balikpapan that Wally saw the biggest barracuda of his
career-more than 2 meters and fa-a-a-t.)
After Kalimantan, Wally decided to settle with his Swiss wife in Bali. Times were
difficult for a while, until he landed a miserably paying job with Baruna Watersports in
1985. Since then, he has made thousands of dives around Bali, pioneering new sites and
working his way up the diving ranks: Dive Master rating in 1988 from CMAS, Open Water
Instructor from SSI in 1990, and SSI Advanced Open Water Instructor with Dive Control
speciality, awarded in Australia, in 1991.
Though training is important, it is his experience and motivation that makes Wally a
superior guide. He knows the Latin and English common names of hundreds of fish in the
reefs around Bali. He really knows the dive locations, and can set up a sequence of dives
to suit the interest and level of competence of any divers in his charge. If necessary, he
can cure wounds with traditional medicine and even deliver an excellent massage. A true
Renaissance Man. He has an open personality, a sense of humor and an infectious enthusiasm
for diving-and he'll find a cold beer in the most unlikely places. He is my friend,
drinking buddy and, of course, my favorite dive guide. |
