Bali dive safari

Pemuteran: Town that time forgot
Having experienced the two extremes of Bali diving — the adrenalin rush of Lembongan’s huge reefs and the gentle-critter spotting of Tulamben — our curiosity is piqued by Pemuteran, our final Bali dive destination and the most remote. With Wayan at the wheel again, we follow the road west along the northern coast through Bali Barat National Park for a couple hours, occasionally glimpsing at the sea as we pass through sun-parched forests, their brown beauty awaiting the rainy season. While no volcano broods over Pemuteran, sharp-edged mountains rise like the spine of a sleeping dinosaur around the large, black-sand bay, seemingly protecting it from the outside world. Like Tulamben, Pemuteran itself is a sleepy straggle of houses and resorts along one small road, with several picturesque temples. Renaud and Mireille, the Swiss husband-and-wife team running Bali Diving Academy Pemuteran, welcome us on arrival, with Renaud showing us how to scoop up lunch with our hands, local-style, while we discuss our dive itinerary.

Nusa Menjangan, a protected island nature reserve and Pemuteran’s most famous dive area, is on the menu. And I’m surprised to hear Renaud say that excellent muck diving awaits nearby. Komang, our local guide, tells us that we might even spot the shape-shifting mimic octopus on these sites.

The mimic is the last thing on my mind the next morning — despite the lure of experiencing Menjangan, it’s hard to tear ourselves away from the luxury of Taman Sari Amertha Villas, a newly built complex boasting soaring Balinese architecture, huge rooms, sumptuous beds, and individual plunge pools specially designed to maximize privacy and peace and quiet for each guest.

When we drop in by Menjangan, nothing prepares me for just how vibrant the coral is down the length of the sheer walls here. Dozens of species of hard and soft corals overrun each other in a glorious abundance of shades and textures that continually bewitch the eye. It’s enough to simply hang in the gentle current and take in the big picture as we drift. The wall abruptly breaks off into a large, smooth, blindingly white sandy slope. Approaching it, I see thousands of eels halfway out of their hidey-holes and undulating in the current en masse.

The reef plateaus into broad table corals that jut defiantly from the bommie’s summit. Slowly finning between two bommies, which form an underwater boulevard, it’s hard to dispel the fanciful notion of flying past aquatic skyscrapers, the neon-vivid colors like the lighted windows of a nighttime cityscape.

I’m wondering if we should have returned to Menjangan as we plunge into the cold, murky waters of Secret Bay on our final day — our first muck dive, which yields some demon stingers, stripey fish and flounders. Not bad, but there’s not much else to look at and certainly little hope of seeing a mimic octopus. As if reading my mind, Komang drives us to Puri Jati, past bright-green, tiered rice paddies that surround the eponymous gray and red stone temple. From there the water is steps away.

Bali listings Bali Tourism Board Dive centers Bali Diving Academy Dive Centers Dive resorts/hotels Taman Sari Amertha Villas Hai Tide Huts Mimpi Resort Tulamben

As we wade in, the sand continues straight under the water, with its contours this gentle slope’s only features. Komang tells us that such an empty landscape is ideal for finding the mimic octopus. I’m skeptical that we will see one with just a dive here, but I am cheered by his enthusiasm. The dive is great anyway — we encounter reptilian eels, big flatworms, demon stingers and a common octopus with only its eyes showing above the sand. I’m thrilled momentarily and then disappointed: I realize it’s not what I had hoped for.

Then, just seconds later, the usually laid-back Komang bangs his tank insistently. Joining him, we watch the mimic octopus’s impossibly fluid black-and-white shape transform first into a starfish shape, then a stingray with all its tentacles trailing behind into a V, and finally a mantis-shrimp shape with stalklike eyes. When it finishes its performance by shrinking into a tiny sand hole, we feel as if we should applaud.

When we finally leave Pemuteran to drive back down Bali’s west coast, we experience more of the island’s breathtaking interior. We lunch at a mountain viewpoint overlooking a rice terrace that spreads for miles. With a couple of days left, we’re undecided if we should go to the cultural village of Ubud and take in Balinese dance and music, or head for the beaches, spas and designer shopping of Seminyak and Kuta. Either way, we’ll rejoin the crowds after nearly two weeks of blissful semi-isolation. Perhaps one day Bali’s interior and its amazing scuba diving will become as well-traveled as the tourist haunts of Kuta and Sanur — but for now, they still await exploration by anyone willing to head off on a safari.

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