Cruising out towards Nusa Penida early in the morning and kissing goodbye to the mist shrouded Bali mainland I was starting to feel a little apprehensive at the prospect of my first drift dive.
Cruising out towards Nusa Penida early in the morning and kissing goodbye to the mist shrouded Bali mainland I was starting to feel a little apprehensive at the prospect of my first drift dive. It was back in November that I gained my PADI Openwater wearing board shorts in the temperate and peaceful waters off Gili Trawangan and here I was, kitted out in a 5mm full body wetsuit, with booties, about to tackle my first drift dive in the notoriously frigid waters of Nusa Penida.
Ocean conditions for the trip across from Bali were as perfect as you could hope to ever see them, barely any swell between the two islands expedited our journey time to a mere half an hour leaving hardly any time for those 'pre-dive' nerves to kick in, but they soon did when the dive briefing started up.
"Don't stray more than two metres from the reef during the dive, at any time", warned our dive master for the day Cynthia, a dive master who, disconcertingly, suffers from acute seasickness, "the down currents here can be treacherous, try and hang onto the reef with the gloves if things get hairy and watch out for the fish – if they are swimming furiously and going nowhere then you know you're in for a ride". Considering the fact that the shelf drops off nearly two kilometres into the Lombok Straits this was advice I intended to heed, but mercifully the first dive was as close to lake placid perfection as one could hope for.
We descended to twenty-five metres without a hitch; the light drift carrying us northwards with visibility in the region of fifteen plus metres and the ocean life was out in full force.
Two large and extremely inquisitive Napoleon Wrasse circled us as a school of Barracuda skimmed by - swiftly followed by some tearaway Butterfly fish charging off down the current after an early breakfast. It's all very mellow and is nothing like the dramatic reputation Penida sometimes harbours for massive doom currents. The reef is alive with all sorts of activity, I find myself playing with a Cuttlefish as he mimics my hand puppet movements before a Bearded Scorpion Fish interrupts proceedings, approaching my general vicinity with an evil glint in his eye.
Surfacing some forty-six minutes later we lunch on the boat and rest for an hour before descending back down to the reef for dive two. By the time we're ready to hit the water again the drift current has picked up considerably and we find ourselves catapulted diagonally at an alarming rate of knots into the abyss. It's one hell of a ride in the current as we yo-yo up and down round the huge reef outcrops spying a Mola Mola (Sunfish) indigenous to Nusa Penida. I'm grappling with both hands to snap the fish on the underwater camera but to no avail, the current has other ideas about where camera and its owner are headed…
Bobbing up on the surface forty minutes later the whole team has huge grins on their faces, the boats swings into view and we're extracted back to the safe surrounds of Geko HQ for beers and a debriefing session. A gaggle of big-eyed school children are loitering with intent outside the dive shop, waiting for their daily English class to start up with big-hearted Geko owner Steven, just one of the ancillary projects Geko Dive is involved in to serve the community and strengthen the local economy.
Nusa Penida is a perfect intermediate drift dive location depending on the strength of the prevailing currents; other locations in the immediate vicinity of Padang Bai provide a diversity of marine life given optimum conditions. Geko Dive run daily trips out to Penida providing the crossing conditions are safe to navigate. They can be found on Jalan Silayukti – right on the beach of Padang Bai.
Two dives by boat (including lunch) is US 60.00 - equipment hire for the day is US 15.00.
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