Lembongan - Snorkel boat trips

Seems everyone has a side business selling snorkeling trips here on Nusa Lembongan. Buying bottled water at a small shop behind my bungalow the shop owner says he has 4 people already lined-up if I go it will be only 50,000 Rp ($6US). I agree to go, as this is a bargain compared to the normal rate of 75,000 Rp.

Next day at 10am the two couples and I wade thru the shallow lagoon water in front of Agung Bungalows and climb into our wooden outrigger motorboat and off we go. The shop owner, turned Captain, informs us that we can climb up on the roof if we want which I do to enjoy the view & avoid the sea spray.

This is the standard tourist snorkel trip: 1st stop is Nusa Penida for a drift snorkel along part of the wall and onto the reef flat in front of the village of the same name, Toypeka. Nice corals & cooler clear water. Mostly small reef fish but I spot a large triggerfish.

I point out a banded sea snake to the other tourists and one woman, named Asia, gives me her underwater camera for me to free dive down and photograph which I do including a picture of my finger on the snake as its head is safely in a coral crevice.

It was off this wall in 2003 when I free dived down about 50 feet to visit my scuba friends and saw a giant Mola-Mola (Oceanic Sunfish) that was about 3 meters long & high (10 feet). This deep-sea fish was probably 1200 lbs and came up to the wall to be cleaned by cleaner fish and to be petted by the dive master.

We start talking and begin a relationship that lasts for our stay on the island. Asia & Rich are Aussies with great stories of Darwin & Northern Territories. Chris a Canadian working in Australia and Ashley an Englishwoman, are the other couple.

Next stop Mangrove. This is a shelf reef area just outside the channel entrance to the mangrove estuary that covers the NW corner of the Lembongan. Nice easy reef with good coral and less current than Nusa Penida. Some sweet lips and Angelfish but all the fish are skittish here due to spear fishing.
We enjoy the wonderful views of the island and ocean on way back to our starting point. I get some good photos of where I’m staying at Tarci Bungalows and nearby Agung Bungalows.