Diving
Just imagine yourself laying on the deck of your boat, by yourself or with just a small group of divers and snorkelers. Skipping across the waters of Northeast Java heading towards Menjangan Island, with the volcanoes of East Java like sentinels in the distance.
As you get closer, the colour of the water changes from deep blue, to crystal clear turquoise. As your boat slows its speed, you will start to see the colours of the coral and a myriad of different fish. Menjangan Island is a short 30 minute cruise from the beaches nearby Bangsring Breeze, and offers warm waters with stunning visibility that can reach 50 meters plus.
Famous for its beautiful wall-diving with easy gentle conditions, Menjangan Island is testament to the variety of diving sites our area has to offer. The island’s white sand beaches provide good, and well-protected, snorkelling opportunities. The underwater topography depends on the exact dive site but most of them start on the island shelf where we tie to a mooring. We will start the dive on the shelf at about 5 meters which is also a great place for snorkelling. This shelf extend out from the island for about 200 meters, then begins to descend at various angles. For the most part the Northeast of the island gently slopes down to about 40 meters, and the Southwest features a much more dramatic wall dropping to more than 50 meters.
Even though Menjangan Island may not offer a wide variety of marine life, massive pelagic or challenging drift dives like other sites, it’s a reliable site for enjoying some of the best soft corals, gorgonians, standard reef fish species and even its own humble wreck. Wall diving at Menjangan Island is very popular and the walls plunge to depths of around 60 meters so there is always a lot to see. Because of the lack of currents the walls are covered in gorgonian fans attracting high numbers of small fish. All along the wall are tempting little crevices, cracks and hiding places providing constant discoveries, activity and marine life. Turtles are regular visitors.
Menjangan Island holds more than a dozen recognised sites, ranging from sheer drop offs up to 60 meters plus in depth, small caves, sandy slopes and a beautiful blue green lagoon. The more popular dive sites at Menjangan Island are: Eel Garden, Sandy Slopes, Coral Garden, Temple Point / Bat Cave, Pos II and, for the more experienced, a deep dive (40m) to the Anchor Wreck, a 150-year-old wooden boat.
Although the best diving in Menjangan Island is said to be from April to November (during the Southeast monsoon), the island can be dived all year round as it offers some of the most protected diving in Bali. The clarity of the water can at times be amazing, July to September often yields the best visibility and a current of more than 1 knot is unusual. However, as Menjangan is protected from the cold currents coming in from the open sea, there are only rare sightings of larger fish.