Diving in Menjangan
Craggy Walls
The coral walls around Menjangan are vertical down to 30-60 meters, and then slope outward.The reef surface is particularly rugged: caves, grottoes, crevasses and funnel-like splits break up the coral wall, and the surface is textured with little nooks and crannies. Gorgonians of many kinds reach large sizes here, and huge barrel sponges are abundant. Soft corals blanket the colorful walls all the way down.
We found the variety of fish here to be somewhat inferior to other dive sites-we ask for a lot!-but the numbers are good and some of the fish are quite bold, as guides feed them regularly. We were blessed with a curious pack of half a dozen fully grown round-faced batfish, and two aggregations of bignose unicornfish.
A few individuals from a large school of longfin bannerfish approached us, but the majority kept a discreet distance, as did the yellowback fusiliers, which accompany almost every dive in Indonesia.Small boats ferry divers from the Nature Reserve dock at Labuhan Lalang to Menjangan's small beach, where gearing up takes place in the sandy-bottomed shallows.The edge of the reef terrace is at 1-5 meters, and a V-shaped delta of sand points the way out to the edge.Guides usually take their groups to the east (left) on their first dive-keep an eye out for a huge gorgonian at 18 meters and down to 15-30 meters, and then back through the shallows (5-10 meters) on the way back. After a lunch on the beach, the group goes west (right). Here the wall has much more relief, and the guides send their boat to dive, returning them directly to the Nature Reserve dock at Labuhan Lalang.
On the second dive, we saw a couple of names carved into sponges. Please don't join the ranks of the morons.
Menjangan's western tip holds a deeper, but more interesting dive on an old wreck. The so-called "Anker" wreck is just off the coast, near a small dock and guardpost maintained by the Park Service (PHPA). The guardpost-"Pos II"-is about a 30-minute boat ride; our craft anchored about 75 meters from the beach at a point designated by our guide. (Note: few guides know the location of this wreck.)
We entered the water near the reef edge, and dropped some 5 meters through very clear water (more than 20 meters visibility) right onto the large coral encrusted anchor of our sunken ship. Dropping over the reef edge, we followed a fairly steep slope with bits and pieces of wreckage and anchor chain down to 30 meters where the ship was resting, prow shoreward. Along the way, we saw a reef white-tip shark (sharks and rays are common here) and a few lizardfishes.
It seems obvious that the craft, probably a cooper-sheathed sailor from the last century, tried to anchor just off the reef, broke the anchor chain, sunk and slid back to its resting place on the sloping sand bottom. It's a small ship, just 25 meters long, and its stern sits in 45 meters of water.
Flat rectangular sheets, perhaps copper sheathing material, lay in what had been the hold, which also contains an assortment of ceramic and glass bottles. These perhaps had contained arak, a powerful local booze distilled from palm wine that had been a major trade item of the last century. Miraculously, previous divers have not stolen all the bottles-yet.
There were fewer fish on the wreck than usual, according to my guide, but this was because a group of divers had just passed through. We saw several snappers, sweetlips, goatfishes, wrasses and Moorish idols. In the vicinity of the wreck, visibility dropped to just 10 meters, again perhaps because of the last group. Large gorgonians grow on the wreck as well as on the slope leading to it. The wreck and the area around it was dominated by soft corals. The sandy slope beyond the wreck was largely bare.
After less than 10 minutes, we decided to ascend a bit, partially because of the depth, but mostly because my guide had said earlier that the reef life was most abundant above, and a bit south of the wreck. He was certainly right. On our slow upward progress, diagonally to the slope, we crossed a slow, orderly cascade of surgeonfish, broken up by two bright, terminal male filament-finned parrotfish, chasing each other at top speed.
Here, and in the shallows above, were more species of parrotfish, than we have ever seen a There were also many unicornfish, with the blue spine unicornfish being the most numerous. Several large and colorful bignose unicornfish tried hard to keep their harems under control, but on our approach, the ladies beat a hasty retreat into nearby minicaves. A large, spread-out school of longfin bannerfish was much less concerned with our presence.
The butterflyfishes were well represented, especially the masked bannerfish (Heniochus monoceros). We saw a large pinnate batfish, and several small round-faced batfish. Rabbitfishes, fairy basslets and damselfish were abundant. Perched on coral knobs and gorgonians were two species of hawkfishes, tiny falco hawkfish, and curious longnose hawkfish. From 20 meters on up, stretches of the coral face were cut with caves and narrow, vertical funnels. These offered refuge to soldierfishes and medium-sized groupers,including a couple of clownish polkadot groupers (Cromileptes altivelis). A pair of longnose emperors appeared against the dark blue sea background.
Back in the shallows-5-7 meters-our visibility returned to its original 20+ meters. Here we saw two red snappers, and a small school of blackspotted snappers. A pair of Clark's anemonefish, living in a beautiful green-tentacled anemone, challenged us to a brawl. The tentacles of this anemone (Entactmaea quadtricolor) have strange, bulbous tips.Nearby, a tassled scorpionfish did not defy anyone, secure with the power of its venom. Moorish idols were unusually abundant, but shy.
Colorful Picasso triggerfish played hide and seek amidst the coral, and a large scribbled file-fish seemed unconcerned as we closed in on him to within a half a meter for a photo. Two Titan triggerfish, intent on each other, took little notice of us, nor did a small patrol of bumphead parrotfish, following their meter-plus leader. But a school of black triggerfish seemed almost to wish us Godspeed. We reluctantly left our fantasy playground, out of film and almost out of air. single dive.
Getting to Meniangan
Most of the people who dive Menjangan sleep in the Kuta-Nusa Dua-Sanur tourist triangle.They are picked up around 7:30 a.m. by one of the dive operators, with filled tanks, weights, any rented gear and box lunches already packed in the minivan.
For the first hour or so of the three-hour ride, you might as well catch up on your sleep as the driver maneuvers out of the heavy traffic surrounding Denpasar and continuing past the town of Tabanan. The next hour and a half are worth opening your eyes for, with wide spreads of terraced rice fields reaching to the sea on the left.
The road is a good one (it's the main Java-Bali highway) and the drivers are quite aggressive-if you get nervous at such things, stay out of the front seat. As you approach the town of Negara, the land becomes drier, and there are lots of coconut plantations producing copra. Past Negara, it's a half hour to Cekek, the headquarters of the Bali Barat (West) National Park, just 3 kilometers short of Gilimanuk, the ferry crossing to Java. Macaques, looking for handouts, line the road a bit before Cekik, and after the turnoff for the 12-kilometer stretch to Labuhan Lalang. Labuhan Lalang is a total of 125 kilometers from Denpasar.
At the boat landing, while you register with the park service name, nationality, passport number all your gear is unloaded from the minivan into a boat, big enough for six divers and all their accompanying gear.
While driving through west Bali, keep your eyes out for an unusual bird, endemic to this area.The Bali starling, or Roth-schild's myna, (Leucopsar rothschildt) is a crested, snow-white bird with black on its wing-points and the tip of its tail, and a bright blue patch of skin around its eyes. Unfortunately, you will almost certainly not see one, as fewer than 100 are thought to remain here. As a cage bird, Rothschild's myna fetches a very high price; there are many more now in captivity than in the wild. Do not be fooled if you see a white, crested myna with a black tail and wings.
Ibis is the black-winged starling (Sturnus melanopterus). It has much more black on it than the Bali starling, and the skin patch
around its eyes is yellow.
It's just short of a half-hour ride to Menjangan, and on the way you can see three of Java's eastern-most volcanoes. As you approach Menjangan, keep a lookout for dolphins. Menjangan island is uninhabited-except, of course, by deer.
AT A GLANCE Menjangan
Reeftype: Walls, particularly rugged; wreck
Access: 30 min by boat from Labuan Lalang post
Visibility: Excellent to superb, 25-50 meters
Current: Very slight
Coral: Very good numbers and variety;
abundant soft corals
Fish: Good number, only average variety
Highlights:"Anker" wreck
Other: Past 60 meters, can find the rare
Genicanthus bellus here
Link: balivision
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