Diving & Snorkeling in Nusa Lembongan

The Blue Corner is the wildest dive site around Nusa Lembongan, described as a ride in a washing machine or even a flush in a toilet bowl. Strong currents, yay! For expert divers mainly or advanced divers who will keep their guide at arms' length.

The current is absolutely unpredictable here. It can change from relatively calm waters to 7-12 km/h (4-8 mph) blasts on the same dive. There are upwellings and down, up, sideways currents involving temperature drops from 26 °C to 15 °C (79 °F to 59 °F). Sometimes holding on to your mask or regulator is a major challenge. Battling the rushing water is half the fun but there is also an astonishing diversity of marine life here.

This boat dive starts off at 8 m (25 ft) and leads to tidal flats at 18 m (60 ft). This is the shallow part of Blue Corner where intermediate divers can discover hundreds of tropical fish species and other creatures living around the healthy coral bommies.

Past these flats the real Blue Corner begins with flat terraces leading to a vertical wall from 30 m (100 ft). A large colony of black stringrays live in this area. They are not always buried in the sand. They also like to hover in the wild currents, wolfing down food as it zooms by. You have to take utmost caution when the current pushes you into a school of stringrays as their tails can cause dangerous injuries.

In addition to the stingrays, the mola mola can be observed here, usually in August and September. The huge ocean sunfish is hunting purple jellyfish, its favorite delicacy, and also visits the cleaning stations around the reef where smaller fish will remove parasites from its unwieldy body.

Sharks and other large pelagics may make an appearance, dialing up your adrenaline level on this wild underwater safari.

Nusa Lembongan is around 20 km (13 mi) from Bali's southern coast. The dive operators located in south and east Bali usually organise day trips to Nusa Lembongan, Ceningan and/or Penida. It takes about an hour to get to the first dive site from Bali ports like Sanur, Nusa Dua or Padangbai. Don't eat too much if you know you will climb on a speedboat right after breakfast! These boats offer two dives on the same day, usually in two different spots with lunch taken and surface interval spent on the boat.

The alternative to the Bali dive boats is to stay on Nusa Lembongan and enjoy its amazing natural beauty. There are some backpacker or bungalow type places near Jungut Batu and Mushroom Bay, the two most popular beaches. There are also a couple of upmarket accommodation opportunities with infinity pools or standalone villas, especially close to Dream Beach. No matter your price category, the slow, relaxing lifestyle and the tropical scenery will mesmerise you. For starters, there are no cars here except a few pickup trucks used for the heavy lifting of supplies. Both Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan are small enough for walking around them if you are in good condition.

• Ceningan Channel - For expert divers only. An adrenaline rush due to the unpredictable currents. There is muck diving near the mangroves and seaweed farms where you can see juvenile reef fish, mudskippers and sea stars. Toward the deep larger fish can be observed, groupers, tuna and sharks. Due to the two channels between three islands the currents are completely random or take you north toward the open sea so you will spend most of your energies just fighting the whirlpool.
• Ceningan Wall - For expert divers only. A remarkable coral wall starting from the limestone cliffs situated on the east side of Nusa Ceningan. The healthy coral and fish life are fed by nutrients from the mangrove forests and the ocean currents from the deep. The wall goes down to 180 m (590 ft), though, needless-to-say, recreational divers are not allowed to dive deeper than 40 m (130 ft). This is a difficult dive so stay close to your dive guide and don't stretch your limits here. The current can also pull you toward the open sea so it is essential that a dive boat with an expert captain follows the underwater action.