Tulamben Drop-Off

This site is an old lava flow from Mount Agung, at the east side end of the Tulamben bay. The dive starts off on a steep sand slope with nudibranches, flounders, goby/shrimp sets. At 12m are sponges with many varieties of shrimp, leaf scorpion fish and crinoids, often with attendant ghost pipefish. Continuing round to the east, the slope develops into a reef with very impressive topography, becoming a vertical wall from 15m and descending to below 60m. Visibility is usually 15-20m (due to the amount of plankton in the water). The wall has profuse sponges, corals, black coral bushes, gorgonian fans - at 30m there is a sea fan that reaches 2m in width. You may see white tip and black tip reef sharks, napoleon wrasse, big bumphead parrotfish, some big filefish (including scrawled) and moray eel. Late afternoon is the time to see the wide variety of lionfish. From southern Bali (Kuta, Nusa Dua, Sanur, Denpasar) drive east via Gianyar town, Semarapura and Amlapura. From Amlapura head north to Culik. Tulamben is about 20 minutes from Culik. Resorts are situated on either side of the road in Tulamben. Those on the right run down to the beach. The drive takes about 3 hours.