| Bali Diving Location : Candidasa | ||||||
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Located in northeast of Amuk Bay, Candidasa is a little outcrop that offers some spectacular diving. The coral walls are steep, the water is cold, and the current can be strong. But for an experienced diver, drifting with a 3-knots current through the Canyon offers an unforgettable underwater experience. 
The reef is steep and sloping with many corals. Some fish seen here include Red Snapper, Clown Trigger fish, and Blue Spotted Stingrays, Trivially, Morays and Whitetip Reef sharks. Pulau Tepekong - On the east and north sides of the island this is a wall dive with many caves. There are large biomes and many fish such as different Triggerfish, Angelfish, Snappers, Butterfly fish, Parrotfish, Moorish Idols and Emperor. The level of visibility is various, from poor to good, from 6 - 20 meters. The teeming fish life makes it well worth whatever effort it takes, however. It is particularly easy here to get very close to normally wary fish. You might even see an oceanic sunfish, the strange Mola mola. Batu Tiga (Three rocks) is accessed by boat from
Candi Dasa or Padang Bai. With an average depth
of 20m, the site is excellent for diving or snorkeling.
The reef is steep and sloping with many corals.
Some fish seen here include Red Snapper, Clown Trigger
fish, and Blue Spotted Stingrays, Trivially, Morays
and Whitetip Reef sharks. Pulau Tepekong - On the east
and north sides of the island this is a wall dive with
many caves. There are large biomes and many fish
such as different Triggerfish, Angelfish, Snappers,
Butterfly fish, Parrotfish, Moorish Idols and Emperor. After one of our aborted attempts on the Canyon, Wally directed our jukung to the far eastern end of the island. We dropped into surging, cold water, and shivered as we descended. Visibility was restricted by the water movement to around 8 meters. And the surge was too strong to allow us to peer into the many caves - between 16 and 32 meters as well as a 10-meter-long passage between several huge boulders that appear to have fallen from the topside cliff. We spotted a tuna, a fairly big grouper and a cuttlefish after we made our way down the slope to about 25 meters. The coral cover was good, including both stony corals and soft corals, and several blunt pinnacles sheltered reef fish in shallow pockets. Fish huddled between overlapping layers of table coral, each irregular "shelf" holding several species. All this was fine, but the strong continuing surge, lack of visibility and cold water led us to surface before our air ran out. Gili Mimpang These same conditions plagued our dive on Gili Mimpang,
a cluster of three little exposed rocks between Tepekong
and the coast of Bali. Despite our wet suits, we were
freezing. Descending to the 12-meter bottom, we disturbed
a small blue spotted stingray, and a much larger black-spotted
ray. We swam against a slight current to the top of
a wall around 30 meters, working our way around detached
clumps of coral. About 10 minutes into the dive I was
ready to quit, mainly because of the cold, but also
because of the cold, but also be increasing current
and restricted visibility. I signalle Wally and we headed
up. Around 18 meters we hit a thermocline, and life
took a very definite turn for the better. Almost instantaneously,
the water temperature increased 6°C. Fish life improved
considerably as well, beginning with a docile star puffer,
three easily spooked (as usual) reef white-tip sharks
and several blue-finned trevally. A school of blue-lined
snappers buzzed us from above. As we stopped on top
of a pinnacle at around 7-8 meters, a school of bignose
unicornfish parted just enough to afford us a glimpse
of a Napoleon wrasse on one side and several bumphead
parrotfish on the other. A small school of longfin bannerfish
accompanied us, from a safe distance, almost to the
surface. Back in the jukung, Wally said that had we
not turned back, we could well have seen lots of large
pelagics ahead. But I was well satisfied, and very happy
to be warm ind dry.
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