Michael McFadyen's Scuba Diving, Cantik Point, Indonesia
In 2023 I travelled to Tulamben for the third time and spent just over two weeks diving the north-eastern coast of Bali. I used Liberty Dive Resort, click here to read about the town and dive operations. This was a new site that I had not previously dived in my trips in 2011 and 2014. There are literally hundreds of potential dive sites located within a few kilometres of Tulamben but only a dozen or so are able to be visited.
Cantik Point is located about 2.5 kilometres to the south-east of Tulamben (by road) and is just south of the windy hills as you head south. An approximate GPS mark for the dive spot is S8° 17.266" E115° 36.333" (using WGS84 as the datum).
|
A satellite photo from Google Earth that shows the location of the dive site |
After heading south-east out of town, you travel along the main road and then down about 2.4 kilometres from town you turn left onto a side track towards the ocean. This is straight after the bends over the hill. There are a couple of large shade shelters, some tables/seats, a toilet, shower and camera wash tank.
This is a newer site as on my two previous trips it was not even available for diving. It is quite close to Melasti which is just to the south-east about 250 metres.
| |
An ornate ghost pipefish | Another photograph of the ornate ghost pipefish |
Once geared up, you enter water over the black sand beach. It was an easy entry and exit, there are some small rocks and then larger ones to 6 metres. Once past here you seen some mooring blocks and ropes. Deeper there are a few reef structures created from bits and pieces. The first thing I spot is a small ornate ghost pipefish. This one is absolutely beautiful.
| |
A snake eel | A blind shrimp and its goby |
There are some Shaun the Sheep nudibranchs here (look for the green leaves). There is a photograph of one at the bottom. There are plenty of other species of nudibranchs too. We head north-west a bit and then turn around and head back towards the entry spot getting shallower as we go.
| |
An orangutan crab | A nudibranch in a hydroid |
In the shallows there are some orangutan crabs and plenty of blind shrimps and their gobies. The shrimp are very colourful red, white and yellow ones. Of course, there are all the usual tropical fish, especially shallow.
This is a very good dive site and it is well a number of dives. So much to see! Well worth doing it if you have the time. Note, in 2024 I also went to Amed and from there we did boat trips to dive near here. We had our surface interval here as we also picked up our second tanks.
MORE NUDIBRANCHS
Some more photographs, this time of nudibranchs.
|