Blue Season Bali Newsletter September 2010
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Tulamben Drop Off
It is quite possible to spend a week diving the eastern coast village of Tulamben, there are so many dive sites offering different topography and marine life that you can forget you are in the same resort; for those of you that enjoy wall diving then I highly recommend the Drop Off.
This site, made up of a series of lava flows, is only a five minute walk from the famous USAT Liberty shipwreck; it offers gentle warm conditions suitable for any level of diver and a quieter diving experience during the busy summer months in Bali. The reef, rich in marine life and with a staggering diversity ranging from frog fish to reef sharks, descends to over 70 meters.
The last time I dived the Drop Off I was greeted by two long nose hawkfish hiding out in a vivid purple gorgonian sea fan; it was a beautiful discovery but one I found particularly difficult to photograph as this species seem very shy and refused to pose! You will always find the normal marine life such as scorpion fish, lion fish, nudibranchs and moray eels but keep an eye out for clever octopus as I guarantee they will be there. I was fortunate enough to spot quite a large one along the wall at about 15 meters; it shuffled uncomfortably as I watched it before lunging down to deeper depths revealing it's his true size in the process - a good three feet. My dive buddy took some video of the octopus and back at the dive school we replayed it in slow motion and watched as the octopus spread himself out slowly along the reef in an effort to trap a shrimp; only a coral cod swooped in at the last minute and gobbled it up right before its eyes. We never spotted it on the dive but it was quite fascinating watching nature at work on the replay.
Tulamben's goofy loveable bumphead parrot fish are well known for sleeping inside the shipwreck at night but during the day they come out to feed so there's a good chance of seeing them on the Drop off as well; after all it's as good a place for feeding as any. As on any wall dive, keep an eye out in the blue as dogtooth tuna, reef sharks and mola mola have all been spotted in the past............I'm sure you won't want to miss out!
For more information on Tulambens dive sites, please visit our website or e-mail us with any questions.
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