Nusa Lembongan – Manta Point

Flying along underwater just an inch off the back of the giant Manta Ray I thought, “I can fulfill a fantasy”, so I reached ahead and grabed the firm rubbery upper edge of his wide open mouth. But reality instantly ended my fantasy. Upon feeling my touch the Manta accelerated with such power & quickness that I knew I could never hold on. As he shoot ahead I saw that he was trailing a long string or fishing line from his left wing. A sense of shame came over me for being so rude & selfish with the poor trusting Manta. I apologized thru my snorkel hoping that I did not chase him away from his needed visit to the cleaning station here at Manta Point of Nusa Penida.

This was one of more than 8 Manta Rays that I and many scuba divers observed at very close range. I say more than eight because the low visibility limited my range of vision so I could only count 8 in my vision at one time. But I am sure there were several others just beyond the 9 meter (30 foot) visibility. The low visibility was due to dark clouds, strong surge currents & sand sediment from large ocean swells crashing on the nearby rocky shore.

The Dive Master knew right where the Mantas were. I just followed the diver’s bubbles until we reached the “big rocks” he had told us about. I was beginning to doubt that I could see them in the low visibility, but then told myself “I think it must be pretty hard to miss a big Manta ray even in these conditions.” Then, like on cue, a big dark shape glided in below me. My 1st gaint Manta Ray glided less than 2 meters under me then up around & over a big rock mound near the surface.

I followed the Manta to the top of the rock mound and soon was surrounded by a squadron of silent sea gilders. They ranged in size from some smaller 1.5 meter (4 foot), some medium 2 meter (6-7 foot), and couple really big ones 2.5 – 3 meter (9-12 foot). They glided over the rock one or two at a time. Once over the top of the coral encrusted rock they would flare open their mouth & gills to allow the smaller wrasse fish to come in to pick off parasites or algae or whatever else cleaner fish do. Occasionally a fish would bite too much and the large animal would twitch & flip a wing tip to accelerate leaving the little biter. Their funnel flaps where usually twisty curled but occasionally during cleaning they would be out in feeding position on either side of the wide mouth.

They had individual white markings or in the case of one large dark Manta almost no markings. So they were easy to identify by size and markings.

My line trailing Manta returned to get cleaning and even seemed to offer me another opportunity to swim with him. I was out of breath from a recent dive & having trouble with the strong surge so gladly thanked him without following.

Other fun behavior the Mantas exhibited including rising up at approaching another Manta then turning aside to just barely miss colliding; like two macho guys bumping chests. They swam with very little effort. Small flaps of the wing tips was more than I could do with vigorous kicking of my swim fins. I noticed that sand had settled on most of their backs proably from the sandy water in this small cove. I swept some sand off training edge of one large Manta’s back and felt small stiff hair bristles there.

As the morning progressed, more & more SCUBA divers surrounded the floor of the rock mound. Rather than fleeing to open water it seemed that the Manta’s out smarted the divers by hovering closer to the shallow shore break, right in the foamy water just a couple meters from the shore. Except for the heavy surge making it difficult to manuver, this was great for me as 6 or 8 Mantas would be surrounding me right at the surface.

Once in position alongside or just behind a Manta I could slip over to just behind him and kicking swim up into his draft. Then with arms out stretched ahead I could just glide along like one of the small cleaner fish for as long as my breath would hold.

My cavorting with the Mantas was abruptly ended by a tug on my swim fin. The Dive Master let go of my fin & signaled me to swim back to the boat. There all the divers, out of air, were already waiting for me. Time had stood still. More than an hour had pasted and it seemed like only a few minutes.

Next stop Crystal Cove. There I had good time snorkeling the clear water & good coral, dodging many small jelly fish & large dive boats, exploring the nice beach, and viewing the topless Balanese woman doing laundry in the fresh water river flowing into the sea.

The SCUBA divers on my boat had a very lucky day as they encountered & photographed 2 large Mola-Mola (Oceanic Sunfish) along the deep wall at the edge of Crystal Bay. They showed me the pictures & said the fish was at least 2 meters tall. I had encountered a 3 meter fish myself on my previous trip in 2003, so knew how excited they were.

Still Crystal Bay was anti-climatic for me. Flying with the many large Manta Rays at Manta Point is one of the most outstanding Adventures of my extensive underwater life; and surely one of the great Adventures of my 2007 Contribution Adventure World Tour.


Side Bar – Recommended Dive Operator is Drift Dive, located on Lembongan Island at the beach in the main village. Contact staff members Ketut or Kadek at 036624495. They have a fully equipped dive shop and fast fiberglass boat with capacity to carry eight or more SCUBA tanks. Trip included simple lunch (Nasi Goreng or Mie Goreng) and bottled water. Cost for snorkeler when have 2 or more divers is 150,000 Rp ($18). Divers pay about 700,000 Rp ($80) for two dives. Other area dives are less because it is a long 45 minute trip to Manta Point from Nusa Lembongan compared to 15 minutes to most other Nusa Penida sites. Other dive operators from Bali offer this trip too but will be more expensive or a much larger group as they travel much farther.