AMED

Amed is located on the north east coast of Bali, about 2.5 hours drive from Kuta. But if you stay overnight at Tulamben, it will take approximately 20 Minutes drive to the south of Tulamben. From a landscape point of view, Amed is much prettier than Tulamben. You will see many rice fields along the way, traditional salt-panning and also sandy beaches as apposed to Tulamben’s stony ones.

This reef discovered as a dive site in 1984 is in a quiet bay and the reef was extremely healthy. A site with such a variety of hard corals, magnificent barrel sponges and gorgonian fans, and it could serve as a kind of museum of scleractinian coral diversity.

However in April – May 1998, Amed was badly affected by coral bleaching as a result of El – Nino, harder than anywhere else on the island, and effected the reef within the bay down to a depth 12 meters. The reef is slowly recovering, but we cannot yet tell when and if it would ever return to its original splendour. The deeper section fared better. The gorgonian and coral on the outer reef below 12 meters were never effected and are still healthy and worth the dive to see.

There are two dive sites outside Jumeluk bay, Amed Reef and Amed Wall and both of which can be done as a shore or boat dive. The boat is a traditional fishing boat ( Jukung ) which is a smal1l outrigger with the max capacity of 3 divers.

Jumeluk bay is suitable both for novice and experienced divers. The condition is easy, very rarely any wave action at the surface and the visibility is usually 15 to 30m.

AMED REEF

Located at the left side of the bay and by Jukung ( small outrigger ) it will take approximately 10 minutes with the depth ranging from 12-22 meters. You will find much different kinds of sponges, gorgonian, and marine life including everything from gobies, shrimp, to school of barracuda and blue spotted ray. Many different kinds of reef fish such as parrotfish, angelfish, surgeonfish, and moray eel.

If we go little bit deeper to 30 meters , you will see some sleeping white tip sharks on the sandy bottom.

Should there be any current, which is usually very rare and flows to the south, this will make for a relaxing drift dive.

AMED WALL

This dive site is located on the right side of the bay which takes approximately 5 minutes by Jukung. The depth ranges from 10 – 35 meters and although the wall itself is a relative small part of the dive, here you can usually find white tip reef shark, napoleon wrasse, school of batfish, and some big trevally.

Once you pass the wall you will find a deep slope which is rich in corals and very interesting. If you turn right towards shallower water, you will see big bommies on the sand, and the bommies are richly covered with gorgonians.

LIPAH BAY

Is a quiet, black sandy bay about 3 km south east of Amed and home of a 20 meter steel freighter wreck. The wreck sits at 6 – 12 meters between a reef and the sandy bottom and is encrusted with gorgonians, sponges and black coral bushes.

The slope down away from the wreck is extremely rich and healthy ( unaffected by the coral – bleaching after el- nino 1998 ), fish life here is also huge and this is the kind of place where you will have a good chance to find unusual animals, pipefish, shrimp, seahorse, and dragon fish and can be found in the right condition here.

Although the area is relatively small , lipah bay reef is rich and healthy and would make a wonderful snorkeling site.