Dive 2000 Dive Club - Sydney :: Mola Mola and More in Bali!

After 25minutes clinging to the reef in the current with nothing happening we were heading back up to the boat anchored inside the little bay when all the divemaster rattlers went off at once. Mola Mola at last!

These fish never knew what hit them. Forgetting completely the instructions during the briefing to approach slow and give them space there were now a squadron of divers making like kamikazes towards the 3 Sunfish down at about 32m. With little regard for air, or our fellow divers for that matter we approached the magnificent fish. Lifting our viewfinders up and Whoa…these guys are BIG! Time to back up a bit to get them in frame.

The mood on the boat after that first dive was electric with excited conversations happening all over the vessel. The after lunch dive was a bit more controlled with another 4 Molas showing up to keep us entertained and the photographers busy.

The Mola Molas were probably the highlight of the Dive 2000 Bali holday in July 2008 but there was sooo much more. Altogether 25 of us descended on the small village of Tulamben during the 2 weeks in July. Apart from the experience of Bali with the great food, visits to the local cow & pig market, $7 massages, suckling pig feasts there was also a smorgasbord of great diving.

We were hosted by Tulamben Wreck Divers with Tony Medcraft, Wayan Ambek and their fantastic team. Most of the diving in Tulamben is shore diving with the locals carrying all your gear the 200m from the dive centre to the entry point of the various sites which included;

Liberty Wreck: This fantastic wreck is 120m long sitting on its side in only 30m of water. As well as being a great shipwreck which keeps revealing more with every dive it is also a living reef with many special residents such as a friendly great barracuda, magnificent school of jacks, pygmy seahorses, leaf scorpionfish as well as hard and soft corals.

Drop Off: This site had a great variety with fans & seawhips and lovely hard corals. Critters includes cleaner shrimp, mantis shrimp, longnose hawkfish and many varieties of reef fish.

Coral Garden: Located directly in front of the main resorts at Tulamben it had an amazing array of macro subjects such as pipefish, ghost pipefish, blue ribbon eels, orangutan crabs, crinoid shrimp and hairy pink squat lobsters etc.

Seraya: A short 5min drive or boat ride from Tulamben this easy site is a critterfest. As well as the amazing harlequin shrimp cutting up starfish, we spotted hairy ghost pipefish, tiger shrimp, orange & white frogfish, crinoid squat lobster, and coleman shrimp to name a few.

We also loved the diving at Kubu and slightly further afield at Ahmed with picturesque reefs of hard and soft corals.

All in all, our Bali holiday combined a great diversity of diving with a relaxed holiday setting. The people are friendly and the food is tasty and cheap. We loved it so much we are already planning a return trip in July 2009 so watch for more details.