Scuba Diving in Komodo and Bali

Posted on November 10th, 2006.

Bali is the gateway to the island of Komodo, famous for its Komodo Dragons but also one of Indonesia's best dive destinations underwater too. Bali itself has a wealth of world class dive sites as well, making a visit to the region a double divers delight.

Bit of a dream come true for me is about to happen later this month, barring any unforeseen disasters: I'll be heading off to Bali at the end of November to go diving around the north eastern coast of the island for a few days, before heading out on Peter Hughes' Komodo Dancer for a week long liveaboard around Komodo island. I'm writing a report on Komodo for Scuba Diver AustralAsia magazine, and given the liveaboard departs from Bali it seemed like a great opportunity to arrive a few days early and get some Bali diving in too, thus seeing two of Indonesia's prime dive areas in one go.

In Bali I'll be heading for Tulamben Wreck Divers, which is owned by Australian couple Tony and Dot Medcraft. I've blogged about TWB before, having heard great things about them over the last year or so, so I am really pleased to be able to finally meet them in person and get a crash course in the best Bali dive spots. TWB's operation is well suited to my limited budget, with nice looking rooms at their resort starting at $20 US a night and 2 dives per day with all gear and guide at $50 US, depending on which sites you want to take in.

Tony and Dot previously pioneered the whale shark expeditions at Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia in the early 1990s, running a dive shop in Exmouth for over a decade before deciding to retire to Bali. I'm looking forward to getting the inside story about how the whale sharks were discovered in Ningaloo and how awareness about them grew - and what they think of the burgeoning whale shark tourism industry that exists there now. That's assuming I can get them to talk about it besides talking about Bali diving, which everyone but everyone seems to describe in nothing but superlatives.

As this is my first time diving in Indonesia, I asked Beth Tierney, co-author of Diving The World, if she had any tips about diving there. The Indonesia section of her book is packed with rapturous reports on diving throughout the country, with several Bali and Komodo sites getting singled out.

Beth kindly found the time to give me some advice, recommending investing in a reef hook for some of the stronger rips around Komodo - apparently there can be some extremely powerful currents that pull you in all directions - including down - which can be pretty full on. That'll be another first for me, as I've never used a reef hook before, although I have experienced getting unceremoniously ripped off the reef and dumped into the blue by unforgiving currents while I was at Sipadan.

Peter Hughes' Komodo Dancer is apparently one of the most well reputed liveaboards in the area - certainly it looks somewhat more luxurious than the boats I'm used to being on. A couple of friends of friends are apparently working on the boat as instructors, so I'm also hoping to pick up some more tips and insights from them about Komodo too.

So, as you can probably imagine, I simply cannot wait to get down there and get in the water. I haven't been diving since my back to back liveaboard trips in the Similan Islands in April, so I'm pleased I'll be doing some easy dives to begin with on Bali before entering the potential washing machine andrenalin madness of Komodo! Most of all, I'm thrilled to be diving somewhere wholly new to me that I've heard so much about and which, I suspect, will not be the last time I visit.