Bali dive safari

Tulamben: Under the volcano
We hop off the ferry and are met by our Balinese driver, Wayan, who negotiates traffic around Sanur with an ease that seemingly defies the vehicular chaos all around him. We pass by scores of artisan shops that are haphazardly stacked with intricate wooden carvings, artwork and enormous statues of the elephant god Ganesh. Heading northeast, we wend our way through small villages set among the giant green leaves of tropical vegetation. The road steadily rises as it negotiates Bali’s mountainous interior and gives us tremendous views down into the vast terraced plains of rice paddies that are the heart of Balinese life. I’m glad I’m not driving so I can take it all in.

Equally spectacular is Pura Besakih, the Mother Temple, Bali’s holiest site on the slopes of Mount Agung. This temple has 35 shrines with towering, multilayered pagodas set on several levels of this volcanic mountain. A place of perpetual pilgrimage, Pura Besakih welcomes Balinese families who continually arrive in their finest formal dress to make offerings and celebrate. Not far away is the Tirtagangga Water Palace, a beautifully serene garden of meditation set around an intricate ensemble of water fountains. We finally arrive in Tulamben in the late afternoon, perfect timing to meet with Eli, the manager of Bali Diving Academy Tulamben, before enjoying the view of the spectacular sunset from the vantage point of Mimpi Resort Tulamben’s restaurant. 

The following day, I’m sitting in a rigid-hull inflatable boat, riding over glass-smooth water, watching the early-morning sun illuminate the brooding presence of Mount Agung. Bali’s highest point and still-active volcano is visible throughout Tulamben. Mount Agung’s last catastrophic eruption in 1963 created the black-rock beach and the sand on which sits the USS Liberty. Previously on land, the Liberty was pushed underwater by the eruption’s force, which also created huge trenches of volcanic rock on the seabed. Today, the wreck and the dive sites surrounding it have become a haven for marine life. It’s easily Bali’s most famous dive area. Scores of people visit every day, from Tulamben and beyond, heading up on charter boats from the south. But if, like my buddy and I, you’re staying in Tulamben, you can have the wreck to yourself by simply getting up early and entering the water at 6 a.m.

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As we drop into the water, a huge school of jacks sits in a cyclone swirl directly above the stern, the rising sun catching on their silver bodies. As we move farther down and round the stern, the entire wreck stretches out in front of us, swarming with rainbow runners, fusiliers and more. Perhaps the Liberty is so popular not just because it’s a beautifully easy dive — beginning at 15 feet and running down to 100 feet at its deepest point — but because it looks exactly as a shipwreck should. The arc of the stern remains fully intact, the ribs of the ship frame the sunlight streaming in from above, and marine life encrusts every surface — the smooth metal having long disappeared.

My favorites are the large vase corals perched upright on some of the bow section’s struts and the fronds spilling from the Liberty’s now inert gun. Among the wreck’s ribs hover its resident bumphead parrotfish, their faces set in a perpetual grin beneath their bulbous foreheads. For such large fish, easily the length of my arm, they move nimbly around the wreck’s fallen debris, a flash of almost fluorescent blue-green. 

For many, the Liberty is the sole site they see in Tulamben before being whisked back south. For my buddy and me, three days didn’t seem enough to explore the coastline’s endlessly surprising and nearly deserted dive sites. Kubu provides one of our most memorable dives, not least because upon descent, I see the flash of something large and silver-white above me. As I glance up, I can’t help but smile as I recognize the unmistakable profile of a bottlenose dolphin powering by, disappearing from my view almost as soon as it arrived. Kubu itself is a smooth slope of black volcanic sand that levels out around 60 feet. Scattered across it are man-size vase corals, the only feature on this otherwise unbroken level. Most are upright, but some lie on their side, as if tipped over. It makes for a fascinating and surreal landscape.

The irony that this incredible underwater world was created by Mount Agung’s destructive eruption is not lost on us as we enjoy our final sunset in Tulamben after a soothing Mandi Lulur Javanese massage. The tranquility of this tiny village, no more than a few houses and shops beside the dusty road, belies its recent, dramatic history.

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