Batu Abah point situated on south west of Nusa
Penida Island and reachable by the speedboat from Sanur in 45 to 60 minutes
depends on sea condition. Batu Abah is a form of quite big rock if you compare
to other rocks surrounding Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan or Nusa Ceningan. That
is why local people call it "Batu Abah" which means, "Father of
The Rock". Not so many and seldom any dive shop in Bali offer a scuba
diving trip to this location in their Bali diving trip packages. Besides the
distance, which is relatively far, this site, required a diver with high
experienced, let say 50+ dives including some drift diving experience within.
Nevertheless, Batu Abah is one of our highlights of diving Bali.
Surface condition is pretty rough and has a bunch
of big waves that in turn will cause some surge combined with swell along the
shallow part of this point. Huge wave hits the rock is indicating that the
diver must keep a safe distance to the rock wall when they surface. Highly
experienced scuba diving aficionado will love this site for sure, improving
diving skill while pumping adrenalin in your body, this site will give a fun
adventurous experience.
One day, on March 29, 2002, we started our trip by
departing from Sanur beach with a speedboat owned to one of dive center in
Sanur. Our scuba diving guide is an Instructor with a lot of experience diving
Nusa Penida and surroundings. After 53 minute, we arrived at Batu Abah. While
setting up our diving gear, we really enjoy the breathtaking scene there even
though the waves is heavily hit our boat. It was very beautiful pristine rocks!
After all the gear set up and we did our pre-dive safety check, we were about
to do back roll entrance when the boatman suggested us to wait until the boat
move a little bit further from the rocky wall. One more maneuver and the
boatman allowed us to jump into the water. Once we got into the water we must
quickly descend otherwise we will be pulled of by the current and bumped onto
the wall.
After descending to the 5 meter, a group of eight
1.5-meter length barracudas surrounding us. Going down again to 32 meters and
we stopped for a while to adjust our buoyancy and our adaptation to the
surroundings. This site is a combination of wall, white sand, boomies and
slopes. In a moment, we can think about Nusa Penida and Gili Tepekong in the
same place. Abundant rocks covered by both hard coral and soft coral. The
magnificence of blending color of soft and hard coral would leave a memorable
experience for every diver visiting Batu Abah. Fishes we encountered here
mostly have bigger size than those we saw in another diving sites in Bali. We
even saw a very biog grouper (2.5 meter length) with light brown skin and black
lining, we guess it was a giant Potato Cod (Epinephelus tukula). Parrotfish,
surgeonfish, Napoleon wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus) and triggerfish, all in
bigger size. We also find some big lobster hiding behind the rocks. We did not
see any sharks at that time, possibly the temperature of the water (28 degree
centigrade) is the reason. Looking at the big carpet of sands, it is possible
that many sharks will rest here.
The crystal clear visibility around 25 meters
combined with mild current and slightly surge. On the other corner we also
found a small hole we believed it will go to the other side of Batu Abah,
however we cannot penetrate it since it was too small for us.
We hardly attempted to go around the island,
however strong current pushing us back. Down current started to suck us down
made us had to grab on some rock o the bottom. We did the safety stop
immediately while we swam to keep a distance with the wall. After we were
neutrally buoyant we drifted by the current while finishing the safety stop and
surfacing later on. The boatman quickly caught us one by one and heading to
other sites after all diver jumped in into the boat.
The scuba diving experienced in Batu Abah was very
amusing and challenging. One day, we will dive this site again, considering we
have not seen all sites and rocks surrounding Batu Abah.
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