Amed Dive Site
Amed Dive Site of Bali.
Diving Amed, Bali
By Erwin Kodiat
Once well known for its beautiful shallow soft coral combined with stunning great wall diving nearby, Amed, after swept away by El Nino 1998, turns into stacks of dead coral on shallower part and slow recovery in the wall area. That is when we talk about Jemeluk Bay. We always feel sad every time we dive there. However, what made us going back stay here is the fact that we still can find a lot of pelagic like white tip reef sharks and green turtle. Doing the night dive here also rewarding. My friend, Gede Sateb, loves to dive here after the dusk especially because he can easily spot a lot of lobster and mantis shrimp just by looking at their glowing eyes.
My favorite diving spot, precisely skin diving spot, is the shipwreck which is a shame not often dove, some divers prefer to dive Jemeluk instead. This site is situated at Banjar (village) Bunutan, and well known as Lipah Bay. Just follow the road down to south and you will find Eka Purnama hotel opposites of the beach. Going down stair and find the third palm tree. There is lying the wreck. This wreck is known as Japanese shipwreck although in fact I am not really sure since most of the books never mentioned it. She is encrusted with soft coral and a lot of Sergeant Major (Abudefduf vaigiensis) swimming around. One day skin diving there, in my attempt to reach the 7 meter depth bottom of the south side of the wreck, I found a 20 centimeters Scorpion Fish (Scorpaenopsis sp) lying in the middle of hard corals. On the other side of the wreck, I found some garden eels (Heteroconger polyzona). The visibility is roughly around 10-15 meters.
The other good thing is good lodge with beautiful sunrise scene. Heading to Lombok strait, if not so many clouds, you can see Lombok island and Mount Rinjani from here.
You can reach Amed around 2.5 hours by car from southern area. Just follow the main street from Gianyar, Klungkung (Semarapura), Candi Dasa, Amlapura.