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Published: June 26th 2009
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After a hectic week or so in Kuta we decided that it was time for another slice of island life. There are not too many options around Bali itself and as we only have a week left in Indonesia we decided on the near by island of Nusa Lembongan, famous for its awesome surf breaks, all of which have very appealing names like ship wrecks and lacerations……. Needless to say we didn’t try our hands at surfing as it was well out of our league! Nusa Lembongan is also well known for its diving, with one dive site in particular being the most popular - Manta point!
After reading this needless to say I (Andrew) was utterly convinced it was the place for us to spend a few days unwinding and maybe even fitting in a dive or 2 in the hope of FINALLY seeing that elusive species which is the graceful gentle giant, the Manta Ray. After a small amount of convincing Lucy came around to the idea of leaving the shopping behind for a few days of R&R away from the hustle and bustle of Kuta.
We arranged a pick up from our hotel in Kuta for 9
o’clock and we were picked up by a shuttle bus and taken to the pier in nearby Sanur which is where we caught the ferry to Nusa Lembongan. After 45minutes of bobbing and swaying up and down on the sea, we arrived on the sleepy laid back island of Nusa Lembongan, the main occupation for the local people here are seaweed farmers and at low tide there is a endless amount of people scurrying up and down the sand flats and beaches collecting and processing their seaweed crops.
After finding some nice accommodation at the very reasonable price of £8 a night including breakfast, we settled down to the serious business of relaxing and topping up our tans a bit more. As we decided to only stay 4 days on the island before heading back to Kuta to catch our flight, we thought that we should do the diving towards the start of our stay so we had a few days afterwards to wind down and relax afterwards. Plus, if we hadn’t seen Manta’s then Lucy would need a few days to console me to the fact I am destined never to see anything big in the sea! After booking
ourselves onto the Manta Point day trip we spent the rest of the day just relaxing and watching yet another incredible Indonesian sunset with some popcorn and a cold drink before getting an early night in anticipation of the next days diving.
Manta point day trip
So the fateful morning arrived, we woke up early and headed to breakfast, with me checking over and over again whether or not I had everything set up properly with my camera and trying to eliminate any possibility of something going wrong on the dive, whilst Lucy was trying to assure me that we would get a chance to see Manta’s and secretly praying that I would be able to get a good photo which would make my entire trip to Indonesia worth while. After the 100th check of my camera we headed to the dive shop, sorted out our dive gear and headed out on the boat toward Manta Point. After 45minutes of driving the boat up and over some big swells in quite choppy sea’s we arrived at the dive site to see 3 or 4 other boats collecting their divers from the water. We all geared up on the
boat waiting in eager anticipation, my excitement was growing by the minute as we entered the water and made all our final checks (and yes I checked my camera YET again!) and then we descended underneath the surge.
Once we descended the visibility was only about 10m or so and there was quite a strong surge that was throwing everyone in the group around, like a low powered washing machine on a spin cycle. Ten minutes had passed and nothing had been seen, then suddenly we were surrounded by dive masters and instructors banging their tanks to point out what they had seen. Lucy grabbed my shoulder and span me round and to both our delight (and relief) there it was, only a wing tip, but still it was a Manta! As we moved around the rock pinnacle we saw a second and then a third, gliding gracefully through the water filtering the plankton from the surging water in long slow swoops over and around the rocks.
Half way through the dive and with me snapping away as if I was part of the Japanese paparazzi, I suddenly turned to find a 3.5m wide Manta gracefully gliding towards
me and towards the open ocean, I had to control my excitement and focus on getting the shot I wanted, the sun started to shine for the first time that morning almost as if nature was trying to give me a helping hand in the slightly poor visibility. When it was within about a foot way from my camera lens it started to swoop upwards towards the surface and towards the light, I was snapping away as fast as the camera could go in the hope of getting the shot that I wanted. Once it had flown over me it turned back towards the rock to feed, where its wing tip came with a couple of cm from Lucy’s mask, she sat their floating in the water completely mesmerized by the hypnotic movements of these gentle giants that were all around us, carrying on as if they didn’t even know we were there in their world.
If anyone that is reading this is thinking about going to Bali for a few days we would definitely recommend Lembongan, it is a gorgeous island and there is a wide choice of accommodation to suit all tastes and budgets. We stayed at
Linda’s bungalows, which is run by an Aussie couple but they maintain it to an exceptional standard and the restaurant which is attached to the bungalow’s serves a wide range of food all of which is exceptionally well cooked and tastes fantastic.
The dive centres here all say that they see Manta Rays all year round and there is a 99% chance of seeing them at Manta point. It was an exceptional experience that we cant quite capture in words so we hope that the photo’s tell the story where the words cannot. It is well worth the $80 odd you spend on the trip and you do get another dive which was a nice dive as well but I think both of us were still spell bound from our first experiences diving with one of the oceans most graceful and gentle creatures.
All in all it was the perfect way to spend the last few days of our Indonesian adventure before we fly on Sunday back to Malaysia to carry on our trip.
Hope all is well and that you enjoy the photo’s!
Take care all
Andrew and Lucy.
xxxxxx
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Ali
Ali Watters
Manta's Rule!
Awesome :)