Nusa Penida Quest

Day 1


Every dive is a great dive, only the cold freezing water is the main problem. You can imagine for tropical diver like us with the thickest 5 mm wetsuit jumped into 18° Celcius of water in Batu Abah. Basically the viz is great, current was weak and also the coral reef there is very healthy. But the freezing water prevent my brain to enjoy the beauty of the scene. The low temperature really drove our breath heavy to keep our body warm.

Lucky us, the next dive in Malibu Point and Karang Sari were both in warm water (27° and 28° ). Malibu's reef is quite flat and no current at that time, viz around 10-15 meters. The better one was in Karang Sari, we were heavily drifted by the mild current. Good for us, the current run along the reef so we did not have to maintain our depth by kicking. It was like playing Superman. We go drifted along the beautiful reef until we were getting close to Batu Nunggul, there we had to swim a bit to the shallower area and had our safety stop there since there was almost no current.

Day 2


On the second day we were heading to Nusa Lembongan by a speed boat from Sanur. We got there around 10 o'clock in the morning. We jumped into Blue Corner for the first dive of the day. The water temperature was 21°, but once we were in the top of the ladder of the amphiteather, suddenly for a while we were forget we are freezing. It was amazing. Other good things were there's no current and the "waterfall" is not there that day. Hengky pointed to a giant Black Blotched Stingray (Taeniura meyeni) rested on the top of sandy bottom. On the way back to the boat David called us and showed us a Nurse Shark (Ginglymostoma cirratum) lying under the small cave and also a Black Blotched Stingray (again) flying very close beside me. Second dive was Oceanic sunfish (Mola mola) quest, actually. But again with the Mother Nature, we can not guarantee anything. We chose Crystal Bay with its 21° water to see some Mola mola, since this is the place with the most Mola mola appearances, in fact I saw my first Mola mola also was here (Three Mola mola at a time). We went to the place they usually clean their body from parasite, but this time, no luck, there is no even single Mola mola. On the way back to the surface, suddenly I spotted something familiar, I grabbed my Hamerhead horn and called everybody. It was only one Mola mola but still an experience for the other divers who has not seen Mola mola before.

Last dive was in Gamat Bay, we had to choose between going to the left which is better according to David or right side heading to Toyapakeh. Looking at the current, David decided to dive to the right side. Again 21° Celcius, although it's 2 o'clock in the afternoon, man. The current there allowed us to play Superman once again but need a bit kicking to maintain our level since the current tend to suck us down to the channel. Besides that my Nitrox 38% prevent me to go any deeper than 30 meters. I also missed Mola mola which is seen by David, Thierry, Herry and Hengky, since the viz was 5-10 meters.