A relatively early start to the day, 7:30am
as we head off from Vision Villas towards the North. Traveling up past Padang
Bai and to Candidasa for a quick coffee stop. If you’re looking for what must
be the best presented coffee anywhere on this planet, you’ll find it at no
other than Rendezvous Restaurant overlooking the ocean. And yes the coffee
itself is sensational, and they know how to make them the REAL way too. It
might be a long drive for a coffee, so bring your bathers and hire some
snorkeling gear for some of Bali’s clearest, shallow water snorkeling.
We head inland crossing between Mt Agung
and Mt Seraya over to the Northern beaches and Tulamben where the USS Liberty
shipwreck lies just 30m off the shore straddling the coastline.
With many options of dive and snorkel gear
available you’ll not go without if you’re traveling up here on your own. Best
is to go with a dive company as they pick you up and drop you off, have trained
dive masters and all the facilities to take care of you if anything were to
happen.
This is stone beach so it’s great if you’re
wearing booties to get in and out, however it’s just a little more care to take
if you don’t. We decided that we’d all snorkel as the clarity was pretty good
around 10am and with the changing from low to high tide there’ll be plenty of
sea life to see buzzing around and feeding. We hear that it’s even better
earlier around 8am from a clarity perspective however as you can see from the
photo’s it was pretty sensational, maybe next time we’ll leave at 6:30am and
give the coffee a miss, naa…
The moment we get waist high we drop into
the instantly vibrant and colourful array of fish and sea life, it’s
magnificent just 5 meters off the shore… The sea is really quite calm here and
even though there is a 5-10knot wind on the surface it certainly isn’t messing
with the visibility at all. Cursing out towards the wreck the land drops away
quickly from around 15-20meters out and instantly we can see the wreck filling
out across us. There are an number of parts jutting right up to just below the
surface and we find we can really explore and drop in and out of the vessel.
There are some extraordinary images of fish
life and the wreck is covered in all sorts of corals, sponges, sea urchins and
much more…
We come across a massive tornado of
Jackfish circling around the nose of the wreck and we’re amazed with just how
inviting they were to us swimming in and out between them, I just about had
them swimming through my arms and legs, it was quite incredible to experience
this closeness. There is some much to see and experience out here however I’ll
not give it all away, pack your bags and come and see for yourself. This is
certainly the most accessible wreck I’ve ever had the pleasure to visit and one
of my best water engagements I’ve had period. It’s not the Whitsunday’s / Great
Barrier Reef however it’s a very different experience and right up there with
the worlds best!
A couple of hours on and we’re packed up
and ready to move on. We decide that we’ll drop back into Candidasa for lunch
at a favorite place of ours, Vincent’s Jazz Bar and Restaurant. This could be
one of the best restaurants in Bali, quite easily…
We’re all a little hungry when we arrive
around 1:30pm, too many stops I think on the way back, all good though as the
scenery is picturesque. Feeling a little thirsty? Vincent’s has Bintang on TAP or
if you’re one for the more boutique style beers then it has my absolute
favorite beers in Indonesia, Storm. If
you’ve not come across this beer before, you’ll have to give their entire range
a test… From a soft stout, through to a dark, pale ale and ending in a
refreshing fruity blend, mmm I’ve enjoyed them all.
Oops, I’ve gotten sidetracked…
So we’ve ordered a crab seafood creation, the
duck, fish of the day and vegetarian Thai curry. All I can say is holy crap,
everyone’s dishes are delicious, the one that took, for me, the honors was the
freshly caught snapper and the special sauce the chef cooked it in had our
mouths watering for more, however we couldn’t eat any more, bugga! Thanks
Vincents for a stunning meal and outstanding service, you’ve got our vote for
best restaurant on the Island.
We head home whilst flicking through the
photographs and discussing the events of the day. Another fabulous day in Paradise!
I give it:
Off the richter scale: 7 (Swimming inside that tornado of fish was freaky)
Value for money: 8 (If you snorkel it's not much more than a full-day car/bike hire)
Scenery: 9 (An awesome experience)
Cultural: 4 (Other than stopping on the way back for photo's there's not a lot)
Family: 9 (Even the little ones could do this with mum and dad)
Check out our facebook page to see some of the other cool adventures we are getting up to.
