This week in Lembongan… The adventure continues for new dive sites. Tepekong and Mimpang were this weeks targets. Noted in the Bali dive site book as; probably the most single most dangerous site in Bali and nicknamed the toilet because of the currents. Let the adventures begin.
The night before was stormy, heavy rain, thunder and lighting as instructor Bryce tucked up in Candidasa waiting for his dives the next morning. The morning broke to clear skies and sunshine, the adventure was set. The boat ride from Candidasa to Mimpang took 10 mins and we were ready for our first dive. Sea conditions were clam and the tides were perfect for the dive. After the heavy rain from the night before visibility was limited as we started to make our descent on to the rumble bottom. At 15 meters we were greeted by a ‘road sign’ indicating the direction of different cities around the world and the way to the drop off.
As we made our way along the mix of coral reef and sand towards the drop off, we were meet my schooling batfish, fusiliers and snappers. Ding, ding, ding, broke the silence of the dive as I looked to my guide, who was pointing out in the distance. The noise not only interrupted the diver’s silence but also a resting white tip reef shark, who pushed himself off the bottom and cursed by the divers as he headed into the darkness. As we reached the last corner before the drop off, our guide checked with us if we were conformable to face the ‘famous’ current, that up until this point had been mild and easy to swim against. We all signaled ‘ok’ and with our reef hooks at the ready we made our way around the corner to wall of Mimpang. Bubbles flying down, bubbles flying up, bubbles flying all around as we tucked into the reef and hooked in with our reef hooks. These crazy currents brought great schools of banner fish, red tooth trigger fish and more snappers as we hung there and enjoying the show. When the time came, we unhooked and drifted into the blue for our safety stop.
After our surface interval it was time to jump in for our 2nd dive at Tepekong. By this point the currents had picked up and it was not possible to dive the so called ‘toilet’ but we were able to jump in on the east side of the island which is the safest and most protected. Visibility had started to improve as we made our way down. the first point of interest, was the ‘shark cave’. This was a series of rock formations that formed over hangs in which the reef sharks like to hide and rest, it also provided a interesting swim through. We were able to see one large and many juvenile white tip reef sharks, tucked away in these overhangs. After making our way through the swim through, we drifted our way along the island until the southern point before we headed back to our entry point. We were able to spot juvenile scorpion fish, many batfish, cuttlefish and nudibranchs.
An interesting two dives and something different from the dive sites around Lembongan but we will need to go back on a day with better visibility to ensure it meets our high diving standards.
