Indonesia

Gili Islands(by David Cumber)

I have spent a considerable amount of time in Indonesia, on one of three coral cays, of the Northwest tip of Lombok (The island next door to Bali). The island was called Gili Trawangan. If you've done some backpacking in Southeast Asia, and used the lonely planet you may have read about this set of islands. Gili Trawangan is known as the party island. The other islands are Gili Air and Gili Meno. Both are much quieter the Trawangan, with Meno being the less developed of all. Backpackers are now tending to avoid Trawangan and stay on Air or Meno. Certainly, in the last couple of years, Trawangan has been heavily developed. Two large resorts are now on the island, and while it used to be just backpackers there, people are now arriving with suitcases for short term stays. So Trawangan can offer accommodation for backpackers, from a few dollars a night, to sixty dollar a night resorts which offer real quality. Air, will be developed in the near future I'm sure. For more information on accommodation the lonely planet or any of the travel books are worth checking out (depends on your budget really). Getting to the Gili's from Bali is easy. There's a slow ferry (slow, 5 hour journey, cheap), a fast cat (1 and a bit hours, around US$40) or internal flight's (40 mins, about the same price as cat). So easy to get to and stay.

You can stay on any of the three islands and still see all the dive sites. None are more than a 30-45 min boat ride from any of the islands, while some are only 5 mins away. Being Coral Cays, the islands are just one big dive 'site' with fringing reefs, although some sites are further from shore. You could just wander in from the shore and get a half decent dive, but the currents here are quite strong and it's much nicer to have a boat ready to pick you up. The water temperature is normally 27-29C (80-85F), only dropping as low as 24C (75F). Visibility can drop to 6-8 meters (20-27ft) with heavy rain, due to rainwater run off from the Gili's and Lombok. But you can normally expect 15+ meters up to 30 meters. The diversity of fish life is incredible; sometimes the diving can be amazing. Of course there are quite days, but I will cover some of the fish life you can see. The reef.... well, there has been a problem with dynamite fishing. The bombing does tend to concentrate on just a couple of areas, and a lot of the dive sites are untouched by it. Bleaching has also occurred, and nearly every site was hit in 97-98, but the coral is coming back. I have included a map of the sites available, you can see this by clicking on the photo above. There are quite a few named dive sites:

Coral fan garden, also referred to a 'Halik reef'. A very gently sloping reef, which starts to drop off around 200 meters from shore. The area before the slope is only 6 meters (20 ft) deep, with some sandy areas. This reef was still in pretty good condition, lots of plate coral and stag horn, and the area also LOTS of turtles there, cuttlefish and a few octopus. You can almost guarantee turtle's here. With visibility almost always 10+ meters, its always a busy sight with divers in training and snorkellers. When the slope starts to drop.. so does the coral. Parts of the slope are covered in broken coral, but this leaves areas for the Blue spotted stingray's to feed off the bottom. There are a couple of giant clams at this depth. The slope continues down to 40+M, and another reef system starts in the 20+ region, and this is known as the Ski jumps. Strong currents, due to tidal changes can affect all the dive sites around the Gili's, and it can really fly in this deeper site. You do though have the chance to see some pelagic's. Manta rays are seen here, especially around October-November. Also resident in this area is a large group, up to 40-50, of bump head (Napoleon) parrot fish. The northern shore of Trawangan is probably the best area for diving of all the three islands. The picture above was taken on this dive site. The barrel sponge is about 1.5M (4ft) across.

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Shark point. You hear of dive site's and often wonder why it got that name. Well this dive site deserves its name. There are sharks here, white tip reef sharks. The dive site has the shallow area coming from the shore (5-6M), and then slopes in a series of ridges. Deepest ridge at around 28M, after that it is just a steep slope that keeps going down 50+M. This dive site was even better before the bleaching, because the site had a huge area of beautiful stag horn coral around the 5-12M marks. When this bleached, algae covered the coral structure and it doesn't look great, but the turtles like to feed off it. As previously said, at the North shore the big stuff can come in. As well as the Sharks, Turtle's, Bump heads and occasional Manta, there can also be big groupings of Jacks (Trevalleys) and black Snapper, enough to block out the light. As you get deeper, the coral is less damaged. This deeper water seemed to still a bit cooler, and the large table corals are spectacular. As you come from the east towards the Coral fan garden, you have a flat area, covered in sea whips. The sharks are found either here or in the gully's between the ridges. The best dive site of the three islands, but obviously can get very busy, with sometimes 10 dive boats. Be careful when surfacing as the boat captains can sometimes drive very close to divers.

Meno wall, is a 500M long wall on the West side of Gili Meno. Either side of the wall is two sloping dive sites called Meno slope and Alex reef. The slopes are generally in not very good condition. Lot of damage and bleaching. But as said, coral growth is coming back, and Alex reef in particular could be spectacular. It was covered in table coral, coming down in layers, I hope it can return back to this. The wall is usually a very nice gentle drift dive. The current can allow you to visit all three sites in one dive. Although, due to the shape of the island, currents will often change direction, and you can find yourself pushed back over areas you have already covered. The top of the wall is at around 6M and the bottom at 20-21M. So a nice shallow dive with a good amount of bottom time. The wall has plenty of life on it: Parrot fish, Butterfly fish, Wrasse's, Damselfish. Not to say these are not at all the other sites. But this dive site really comes to life at night. The wall at night is covered in Lion & Scorpion fish. Turtle's and large green moray Eels sleep there at night. The Eels can get up to 1.5M in length. Meno slope is quite sandy in places and large stingrays have been seen at night. You will also see slipper Lobsters, Crabs and numerous Shrimps on any night dive there.

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There is another wall dive in this area, Air wall. This dive consists of two wall areas, with a slope in between. Now this dive site can have current.... strong current. These tend to be predictable (i.e. around full moon) , but they can be whipped up in about half an hour. The wall is very nice in parts, with large barrel sponges. The fish life can include white tip reef Sharks, and banded sea Snakes, hunting up and down the wall. As said the current can be very strong, and I have had a couple of dives there where I could have messed up my wetsuit, so chose the right time to dive this site.
Manta point is a very flat dive site that gradually slopes down. A lot of the site is from 6-15M deep, and it can be this shallow a long way from the shoreline. The coral was hit really badly by the bleaching, I would say that 70% of the reef was killed off. The coral crops are appearing, but it will be a while before this returns back to what it was. This site though is where the Mantas cruise through. Well worth a dive if Mantas have been spotted. The word soon gets round the islands if Mantas are seen and there is a good chance they will stay for a few days. Just a case of being in the right place at the right time, and also keeping your ears open.

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Gili Trawangan (by Nick Perry)

My favourite dive site is Shark Point which drifts down to Andy's Reef and then further south lies Sunset Reef. I have met White tips on every dive so far at these locations measuring from half a meter to two meters at Andy's Reef. The white Tips at Sunset are becoming increasingly inquisitive and I was able to sit on the bottom with one beautiful creature of one meter gently swimming around me looking straight into my eyes. I Actually lost count of the number of Turtles that drifted by, some peacefully grazing on the coral. Two rather large and I believe Green Turtles let me quietly sneak up and pass my hands over their shells only looking up casually in between grazing. Other treats I have had include watching Banded Sea Snakes hunting for small fish in amongst the corals.... many Cuttle fish that pulsate all crazy wonderful colours as you approach.... Blue Spotted Rays and thousands of other stuff I'd stuggle to identify. Its the density of wildlife in a small area thats also amazing. My diving is limited to the Red Sea British waters and Thailand and although the marine life and corals are amazing in the Red Sea this little site around Gili Trawangan has something magical and certainly my most enjoyable dives. Do not hesitate to try them out.

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